Hello! I've been experimenting with sand casting aluminum and bronze for a couple of years now. My current project is to work out a vacuum assisted investment casting process. This is going to take some money (kiln, mostly), so I'm hoping to learn from others and avoid as many false starts or dead ends as possible.
HI! Your in the right place we have several folks around here that do very nice investment casting.....Then there's some guy that seems to cast a bunch of lamp stuff. But he uses investment too They will help you out if you have questions. There's also forum section dedicated to investment casting Shell type http://forums.thehomefoundry.org/index.php?forums/investment-casting-ceramic-shell-method.25/ And Block Type http://forums.thehomefoundry.org/index.php?forums/investment-casting-block-method.12/ Might want to look at both for some examples and processes that work (or not!) as a starting point. Welcome aboard the Crazy molten metal train!
LMAO... "Some guy" CLOWN! Hi Omaha! I run shell. But if you have your heart set on vacuum assisted casting, that means solid block investment. What kind of stuff are you looking to cast? Solid block investment is great for smaller stuff where finer detail is needed. Not to say the resolution from ceramic shell sucks by any means. It is in fact excellent! One nice thing with solid block investment is it comes in powder and you just add water. So the stuff keeps for a very long time. Ceramic shell uses a slurry and is only good for max of 2 years. Here is a source for that stuff. https://www.riogrande.com/product/ransom-and-randolph-ultra-vest-investment-50-lbs/702314 If you peruse my youtube channel found in my signature, I demo running ceramic shell. If that's more to your liking say for part size, we can point you in the direction for that. And yes, no matter which route you take, you will need a kiln. How big and expensive that kiln will be of course depends on what you plan to cast. btw, I paid 25bucks for my cat piss kiln. Watch craigslist for a cheap pottery kiln. If the thing will hit 1700 degrees, that will be all you need. For smaller stuff, a desktop jewelry kiln is a nice tool to have also. If you are really handy, an electric kiln can be built and guys around here do that. You'll find what some of us may lack in funds leads us to get smart and DIY! Welcome aboard!
World Traveler! We meet again! We are mutual youtube subscribers. Here's my youtube channel. As far as what I'm looking to cast, I started a thread in the "Block Casting" section. Hasn't gotten much (any, really) traction, so thought I'd point to it here: https://forums.thehomefoundry.org/index.php?threads/think-this-process-will-work.1297/ Cheers!
