Boiling out Ceramic Shell

Discussion in 'Investment casting Ceramic shell method' started by Jason, Apr 25, 2018.

  1. Zapins

    Zapins Gold

    That turned out well man. So the benefits of boiling are 100% wax recovery, no smoke during burn outs. Drawbacks are takes longer, and water gets into the wax & shell which must be dried. Seems like a good alternative.

    A side note, I'm surprised you're using a steel hammer instead of a bronze/brass hammer. If you slip the steel dings the finished piece!
     
  2. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Well, ya definitely can't toss it into a furnace and crank her up to 1700. After coming out of the water bath, I believe you could go straight to the kiln for a slow ramp up over a few hours. The advantage with that is you don't blow a day patching shells which is so typical. I have learned I am not getting a thick enough coat on my pouring cups and will be working on version 3.0 for those.
     
  3. Zapins

    Zapins Gold

    You get blown shells often?

    I very rarely get a shell that is damaged badly during burnout. Sometimes a crack or two forms but not badly damaged that affects pouring. How many coats do you have on your parts? I usually do 5 or 6.

    Burning out with a weed whacker might also put a lot of stress on your shells since the fire hits from one side only instead of from all sides evenly.

    Either way I'm glad the boiling method works. I may give it a try as well. Less cracking is always a good thing.
     
  4. Jason

    Jason Gold

    I'm not blowing out many shells. I typically do 5 or 6 layers of shell myself. The reason for trying this boil out method was to explore other options that didn't include hot flying wax, and billowing flames looking to burn my ass! I don't want the hassle (at the moment) of building another furnace. I already have one and the kiln. Kilns are not really ideal for dewax. The lid is on top and once opened, you lose a ton of heat very fast. The kiln is also closed off on the bottom, so no real place for the wax to go. A pot of water sitting in the bottom doesnt make any sense to me. A hole maybe, but I'm not going to try it with my kiln at this point.

    R&R does not recommend to ever place a flame directly at the shell and I get that due to uneven heating. Gary at outback has one of the best setups I've seen for dewax with the floor of the chamber that opens to drop the wax down, but it also has some issues as well.

    I'll work on a new design dewax/burnout chamber when I can find some time. For now, I'll probably stick with this method because it works well, recovers 100% of the wax and does it very cleanly and with no drama. It wouldn't work for a big foundry running tons of shells, but as Elizabeth said, you can run a handful of shells before having to stop, let it cool, recover the wax and start over.
     
  5. Roy Carter

    Roy Carter Copper

    Hello Jason, you recently suggested on your web site that I join this wonderful small scale ceramic Shellers’ group and I have! I relayed to you that I am presently setting up a one person (4 kg) casting operation. Greatly enjoy your web site and generous sharing of tricks of the process. Do you use heat or just carve out the hook from the pouring cup prior to using the hot H2O method of wax melt out? Roy
     
  6. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Hey David!!! :p:p:p:p

    Hi Roy! This isn't my website, but don't tell David that! :D AlloyAvenue was the premier home metal caster site before it crapped out this year. Thehomefoundry is rapidly growing here and most of the experiece from AA has funneled over here. So fortunately we didn't lose decades of experience from the old guys that are willing to share their knowledge! Anyways, I'm glad to see you made it here! You'll get good advice from these guys and the occasional chuckle too!

    To remove the hook I use for suspending and holding the wax during shelling, I often use a small butane torch and melt it out of there. I've also employed a soldering iron and picked at it to dig it out. I find I have to be careful not to get the shell too hot or I crack the pouring cup. :( To prevent this, I usually add a few more layers of shell onto the pouring cup and that has helped.

    What kind of casting are you planning on doing? Ceramic shell is an amazing process and allows you create stuff that can't be done with conventional sand casting. And the resolution is almost as good as using solid block investment. I would say learning to work wax was the hardest part for me. I'm still no pro, but I get the job done. Once you learn how to form wax into basic shapes that you can use, you can assemble it like legos. Really cool stuff!
     
  7. Roy Carter

    Roy Carter Copper

     
  8. DavidF

    DavidF Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    I hear ya. but this forum belongs to the users. I just delete spam, get on HT1's nerves, and get an enormous amount of porn in my spam box from it. :rolleyes:
     
    JBC and Jason like this.
  9. rocco

    rocco Silver

    HT1 spams you with porn??? That's just twisted, I never would have guessed he had that in him.:p:p
     
  10. DavidF

    DavidF Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    Lol the action scenes are good, but the acting is terrible. Lol
     
  11. Zapins

    Zapins Gold

    And no doubt full of plot holes!
     
  12. Jason

    Jason Gold

    How did we go from boiling ceramic shell to porn?o_O
     
    crazybillybob likes this.
  13. DavidF

    DavidF Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    "It happens " :oops:
     
  14. Zapins

    Zapins Gold

    Jason is your wax free of water after straining it via the panty hose? Or does it sparkle and spatter when heated up with a pin tool?
     
  15. Jason

    Jason Gold

    I get a little bit of water that makes it past the panty hose. The water eventually cooks out of the wax, but it takes some time and careful monitoring. And yes, I have wax on my ceiling right above my pot. :eek::oops: Try cycling it from hard to hot in the pot a couple of times. After the water settles to the bottom of the pot and the wax is hard, drive a hot screwdriver down the side of the pot to the bottom. Drain said water out that hole. It helps if you jack the pot on an angle so the water will collect in one corner as the hot wax solidifies.... That's where you stick the hot screwdriver.

    Did you try youtube search on this one yet? The only thing I find is wax videos for dabbing or something by the potheads.:rolleyes:
     
  16. rocco

    rocco Silver

    You should know by now, any topic can get to sex, porn or politics in 3 steps or less. Nevertheless, my apologies.
     
    Jason likes this.
  17. Roy Carter

    Roy Carter Copper

    Great going Jason with the boiling H2O method. Just to be sure --- are you getting good results without drilling any so called relief holes with this method? Roy
     
  18. Jason

    Jason Gold

    That is correct Roy. No need to drill vent holes because of nice even heat on the whole shell at ONE TIME! If you run a flame, you better drill the feeders or suffer cracks.
    Boiling really was a game changer for me. I should send that college chick a case of beer as a thank you.
    This is without a doubt the biggest issue with ceramic shell, outside of that, it's a sweetheart process and keeps you outta the sandbox!
     
    Roy Carter likes this.
  19. Roy Carter

    Roy Carter Copper

     
  20. Roy Carter

    Roy Carter Copper

    Super thanks Jason for sharing your experience/knowledge regarding the hot H2O wax boilout with we home ceramic shell casters. Will be stoking up the hot water pot very soon. Roy
     
    Jason likes this.

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