Been wanting to do a non detailed surfer, board, and water for a while. Surfing is kind of a big deal here in NW Washington and most of the crew that built our house were surfers. Had an issue with vacuuming the investment and it shows in the result. Lots of little bronze balls to clean up all over! I will start chasing it tomorrow most likely. I either need to get a deeper vacuum pot for sucking down investment or make shorter parts! After chasing the board will rest on the back end and the bottom of the wave on the right side, so the board will have an angle both up and to the left so it will look like the surfer is fighting a small (what they have here) wave.
In addition to better vacuum degas, use of a surfactant (like dilute Dawn dishwashing soap) on the wax pattern, and brushing and precoating the pattern before investing can help break the surface tension and prevent those BBs. Best, Kelly
The problem was the investment was too high in the container so when it bubbled up it reached the vacuum intake in the lid, sucked investment in it, and plugged it up. This was before it reached enough vacuum long enough to get all the bubbles out. While I have considered using thinned soap on the pattern I have had good results in the past just vacuuming the investment both before pouring and after pouring. I 'normally' use brown micro wax for patterns. I do not know if it sheds bubbles better than the blue and green wax I have?
First I blasted it and dipped it in the ocean and left it outside in salt air. Only parts of it were turning green so I aggressively brushed it with a stiff brush dipped in an acid copper (if I remember correctly) solution and within a few days it started looking more like what I wanted. I do not know if it would take wax. I have had the solution for a lot of years but do not use it often. I have usually just left them naturally coloring bronze or like this when I do use it. I may try waxing the bottom to see but I would guess it would just go back to a tarnished bronze color.
It looks really effective. It seems to look blue in the photos. Does it look blue in real life or more green? Was that acid copper you used, copper nitrate?
Finally got your answer! Copper Sulfate and Ammonium Chloride. It is for sure a blue green. I will try some wax on it and see what it does. It reacts pretty quickly once applied. I did NOT take it back to bare Bronze before I applied the layer of solution. The bottle the solution was in cracked so I stuck it in a container and promptly put it with other 'empty' storage containers because I did not mark the outside. I just ran across it again while looking for a container to use for something else.
