Hello! First off, my apologies if this isn't the correct area for this posting. I am still new and wasn't too sure, but it sounds like this could fit here... So short story long, this was my second time melting metal, and I wanted to try my hand at making some coins. For my first go around I was just seeing if I could melt copper and not burn anything down. Anyway, for these coins, I have a couple molds inspired by either actual ancient coinage or other artifacts with the runes, symbols, etc. I poured five but one is back in the scrap pile for remelt, as it came out terrible. These are fairly large, weighing in around 4.5 troy ounces each (give or take a bit). There are two viking runic compass (vegvisir) coins and two viking triquetra coins. I guess I'm looking for pointers on how best to pour coins that will be consistent in size and "flatter" for lack of a better term. I wanted to fill the molds all the way, but when the coins dried, you can see how they aren't exactly like a modern round (and perhaps you can't pour one to be that way, come to think of it). Lacking sophisticated tools, I used my dremel kit to try to sand down some of the rougher edges, and hammered the rest, trying to go for the hammered edge look. Anyway, these cleaned up okay but I'm certain with some pointers, and probably a lot more practice, I can make ones that look better. Saving grace is if these are supposed to be like ancient coins they won't be perfect, right? Right...? Thanks in advance for any tips, tricks, etc.
Here's an old post of mine with a link you might find interesting. Viking lost wax bronze casting.. | The Home Foundry There are some links in iy. Don't know if they ever cast any coins, but their method would work. You'd need a coin, or something you made to copy. Fred edit: You'll need a back to your molds to get the results you want. Open face molds are difficult to judge thickness. Sand cast, or lost wax would be a better choice. Lost wax would be your best choice if you can spend a couple hundred bucks. Sand casting will be the least expensive. You'll need some type of mold frame with a top and bottom.
Thank you, was an interesting read! So I just ordered a mold on Amazon, so I can try my hand at sand casting. The lost wax definitely sounds intriguing, but will have to wait a while and recoup a bit financially before getting into that game. I'll still try my hand with the single sided molds as well since I have them, but once I do a sand cast I'll post an update.
So, tried my hand at a simple casting. Never played with the sand before, so was trying to get the feel, for what is enough moisture, etc. I wanted to cast a skull from a bottle I have, but may have been too ambitious, as the sand kept sticking to the bottle, or the mold kept coming apart when I attempted to remove the object, etc. So I went with a more basic pyramid, based on some hollow brass (or at least yellow painted metal) pyramids that nest in one another. And yes, before it's asked, I used baby powder. I think I either had too much or too little moisture in the sand. Been watching some videos since so I get a better idea of what it should look and feel like for the next go-around. The metal pyramids released pretty well, and really only needed to flip my mold over and pull them out from the bottom/top?, and pour over the molds. I placed them close enough that the happy accident of metal overflowing from the top could hold them all together (like I meant to do it). I really need a good belt sander since grinding down by hand sucks. So these don't sit entirely flat, but that's okay for the time being. Also, the bottom cleaned up well enough, but my sides are pretty dark. I don't mind as it looks kind of cool for this application, but wondering how I could clean safely or do things different in future castings. I don't want to take off any more of the fine detail, as there wasn't a lot to begin with... In the photos, I captured both the models I used to cast as well as my end product (should be easy to tell which is which, ha ha...).
