Crux

Discussion in 'Lost wax casting' started by Kurtis Kiesel, Jul 28, 2019.

  1. Kurtis Kiesel

    Kurtis Kiesel Silver

    I have been sitting on this sculpture for a while now. My wife brought home a crucifix where the corpus (body) was broken in half. The original was actually lead! So I sculpted up this replacement.


    20190728_135534.jpg
    20190728_135548.jpg
    20190728_135701.jpg

    I was thinking two part silicon mold... but I am 'stuck' on getting any action done. Someone tell me how to make a negative mold for this thing please.

    How would you turn this into wax?
     
    Jason likes this.
  2. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Two thumbs up! Great artwork, not sure why you hang around us bunch of hacks! lol...

    Here would be my method. Rasper would be better to answer this, but let me take a stab at it. (no pun intended)
    2 options here. If ya don't mind shelling out the dough for the silicon, You can block mold it. Stick him in a jar and completely fill it with silicone then
    slice him out by cutting one side in one slice up the legs, out the arm, over the top and on top of the opposite are. You can pull him from the block of silicon
    and then fill it up with wax and repeat. If you are clever with your "jar" you can minimize silicone waste. Build it like a cross, keep it kinda thick and you
    wont need a mother mold.
    Fritz did a good one on this method.


    The other method as you know is support him on his back with soft clay, and do the wall thing effectively splitting his body in half for a 2 piece silicone mold
    backed with plaster for the mother mold. Kind of like I made that mold of the recent tree.


    Option 3 and this is what I would have done if I was you, but it's little late now.... Sculpt him in wax. You've got the skills and I'm guessing you
    only need one Christ for this piece. Roll the dice in the future man, you've got the process pretty much down now and go for it. Wax, invest, pour bronze.


    He looks small enough, you sure you don't want this thing cast in silver? That's something I can get done for you if the need comes up. I've been talking to Fritz
    about doing this for some of his uber high end clients. Silver is cheap, why not right?
     
  3. Kurtis Kiesel

    Kurtis Kiesel Silver

    Block pouring... someday I will show you my stack of block pours, I waist moldmax30 like it is the end of the world sometimes.

    Fritz has some points. I probably should cut of the hands and mold the corpus without them. There is no way I am going to get the detail I want out of them, I should mold them separate and open, and just adjust them in a super soft wax and attach them. Let me go get my saw....

    For me to sculpt in wax... one offs... I probably should be. My mind is just always says, "Why not make 2?"... I would probably need to spend a month coming up with a proper wax mix, Victoria is to soft and Dragon is to hard.... and I have hardener to find the perfect mix.
     
  4. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Yeah, whacking off the arms is probably the best way to go. You can reattach at the wax stage easily.
    You say victory wax. Got a link for it? That name has been tossed around a lot and can mean many different waxes these days.

    I'm running the 2-ab150 stuff from here http://arizonasculpture.com/j-f-mccaughin/
    When it gets warm, I'll admit it gets a little sticky. I find it easier to work when the garage is 60degrees. I've considered sticking a fridge out there to quickly cool wax work.
    I do the bucket of water thing in the summer, but constantly freezing blocks of water gets old fast. When it's 95, it doesn't last long. I've already got the new equipment here, but this winter I'm
    changing out my AC system on my house and I'm adding a duct right over where I work. For now, a fan placed at an open door helps, but not enough.

    I know you can make wax softer, but we need Richard to tell us what does that. Maybe try the hard stuff and mix in something else?
    Let's see those molds! Hey you know the trick about bulking up silicone right? Never throw out any silicone. Chop that trash up and add it to build up thickness in later layers.
    Should help save you a few duckets.$$$
     
  5. Kurtis Kiesel

    Kurtis Kiesel Silver

  6. Jason

    Jason Gold

    I'm afraid to ask what R&R charges for that wax.:eek:
     
  7. Kurtis Kiesel

    Kurtis Kiesel Silver

    I think it was $150, I got it over a year ago, and I have a life time supply.
     
  8. Jason

    Jason Gold

    hmm.. it "looks" like the stuff I'm using. Does it come in 11lb slabs? I'll look for the specifics on the stuff I have. I recently cleaned up, filtered and organized all my wax. Out of the 30lbs I've bought, I am showing about 11lbs still on hand. All of it has been used several times. Driving water out can be a bit of a pain and kinda dangerous. I strain it a few times and heat it up to around 220 very slowly. Stirring brings the water back up in the pot and I whack it with a propane flame. After a half hour or so, the water is gone. If any is still left, it shows up on the bottom of the hardened wax blocks. If you watch the people that run beeswax, they float it on water and after it's hard, they scrap a half inch off the bottom of the block. That would be pretty wasteful for us. If you have a better method, let me know will ya. That's the only downside to reclaiming is getting the water out.
     
  9. Kurtis Kiesel

    Kurtis Kiesel Silver

    Update:

    1. (look at the spear would in the left hand mold in his chest, epic detail. )
    20191102_141917.jpg
    2. the Dragon wax is interesting this is the first cast. It is very much still liquid in the center.
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    3.
    20191105_091615.jpg

    So I have been having an issue with the mold. I get a lot of bubbles on the underside in side the wax. Makes for a ton of cleanup. Any recommendations from the experts will be appreciated.
     
    Jason and OMM like this.
  10. crazybillybob

    crazybillybob Silver Banner Member

    Brush the first layer of wax into the mold. Then pour wax in slush it around pour it out..... do that a couple of times then fill it up let her cool. It' called slush casting. you can do it with resin silicone, wax pretty much anything non metallic. Gives you good detail pickup with low bubbles.
     
  11. Zapins

    Zapins Gold

    I haven't had good luck brushing the first layer on. The wax tends to sit in the low spots and does not cross high spots. So you get many tiny islands of wax that don't seem to connect well. Then when you close the mold those islands fall out of place or don't join well to the second layer. How do you overcome this issue? Is there a trick to it?
     
  12. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Keep at it. I never have good luck with the first couple of wax pulls. Raise the temp a bit, I bet by the 3rd or 4th pull, you'll get a good one.

    He's going to look great in bronze!
     
  13. Kurtis Kiesel

    Kurtis Kiesel Silver

    Well I just had a cup crack on boilout... from top to bottom one good old ruin a pour crack.

    Patching with slurry on the inside and outside. Photos late tonight.
     
  14. Jason

    Jason Gold

    been there.
     
  15. DavidF

    DavidF Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    Yep, all 4 I have under burnout right now did that... and in other spots as well...:mad::mad:
     
  16. Kurtis Kiesel

    Kurtis Kiesel Silver

    Jason I thought you have not had cracks on boil out. Am I mistaken?
     
  17. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Only on the cups have I had any cracks. I fixed that by adding a few more layers only to the cup. Remember I run hollow main sprues and before boiling, I remove my hook and dig wax until I see the hollow part down below. Problem solved.
     
    Kurtis Kiesel likes this.
  18. Kurtis Kiesel

    Kurtis Kiesel Silver

    I poured this afternoon.

    All went very well, the pins broke in some places. Sorry about pics, just takes to many steps to post them here, I will get to it soon.
     
  19. Jason

    Jason Gold

    huh? Pull up the thread with your smart phone, hit upload a file on your post and if you have a phone from the last decade, you'll get the take a photo prompt. Click that.
    It doesn't get much easier than that!

    Glad to hear it went well. Do you need the pins welded back on?
     
  20. Kurtis Kiesel

    Kurtis Kiesel Silver

    Wtf... I swear I have been emailing and then resizing images all along. I am about to drop the bass on images....
     
    Tobho Mott and Jason like this.

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