Hiho,1st off season greetings .. Oh happy Easter(now it tells you what came 1st the egg or the chicken I'm sitting on a few tons of Polly modified microcristoline wax(i.e carverble as apossed to victory brown).I'v tryed to sell it to my art supply shop (& got a rude response from the head sales dude),but (harhar) got a job as a storeman there instead, The owner was impressed with my artistic nature,& gave me more work in his 2nd buissnes (Industrial Art)..then wet his pants when I told him about my wax (but not how much I had).. So He bought a 1000kg over a few years.. At the start I offered to slab it up as a piece of art(see my avatar/1st photo)..he had a big sook that "Nooo its got my name on it..." Since then I'v seen a few foundrys,& you can just see the $ signs in their eyes when you show them your mould concept...(& harhar the $ signs in my old art boss's eyes when I got sick of his bragging about importing a ton of victory brown from the USA .. I'v worked in sand cast foundrys,In my younger days so its not a big step up to make my own wooded pattern.. (I used 1940's water proof masonite to get the artdecco back ground look...will dust it off & post pictures off that in the mould section for feed back. Can anyone see alu slush casting problems I might encounter. I'm hoping to have it hollow inturnerly (without mucking about with cores=again) so I can seal the casting end (see thicker end right of the lettering).. that way I'll be able to plumb hot/cold water in/out to preheat the alu mould for a clean wax pour(no cold shut lines)/& chilling of the wax slab for demoulding. The slab weighs in at 12kg(26lb) Am sitting on the fence as to do ceramic shell or block investment (a thow back to my glass casting course ($800 of wasted time & money..hence the reason to make my own kit) My biggest crucible is able to hold a small person in it(will post pictures later) & I can bearly pick the bugger up.. (Funny what you see driving a Kenworth! & The factory workers where using it as a ashtray!- the owner was impressed I knew what it was,& was told he prototyped a alu mould with it himself ie had 1 heat casting...so at probly 3ft high(1mtr-ish) it should hold enough alu to casts 2 or 3 of my wax molds ...13kg/26lb wax mould will take 40kg/80lb alu,hence slush casting to make the most of one (long) melt & that allso will bring up de-waxing problems of molds in it self I was scooping out how to make vacuum formed cerramic fibers tubes,so again any heads up would be appreciated (you guys in the USA are spoiled for choice,here in Australia,your barking up trees trying to find them in tube form. (unless I deal with chaina,but that will only help pay for their next aircraft carrier (harhar their 1st one sank)-but shouldn't (rant)go off topic.. As my big crucible is so heavy am trying to keep the weight down for a tilting furnace... (My son is a newly minted aerospace engineer, (two months later coivid 19 kicked off..so he's worked all through it as a boiler makers T.A so that will help(big time) in fabrication part of the project!) So sorry if all this is a bit long winded,but it covers what am trying to archive,.on a budget as such..as most of us ceramic fiber tubes & I have seen (books)the pottery crew types use them as kilns. Not a good snap shot but shows the 900ltr(237gal) S.S tank thats the base shell for tilt furnce & a block of the poly wax to be melted,filtered & blended with straight microcristoline wax, so I'll use the ss tank to do wax melts 1st, then chop job the ss tank into a tilt furnace is my thinking. (Ps the ss tank has a nice domed top that will be back filled insulated,mounted for a lid. So again 1) vacuum formed cerramic fibers tubes info on how to dyi 2)mold casting problems with curant prototype of wax mold anyone can see. 3) slush casting on a 40kg/80lb Alu pour,or go with a core 4)ceramic shell or investment casting on this scale pro's & cons 5)anything I have thought of that will help.. P.s am not going to jump in the deep end with tbe tilt furnace.. I do plan on doing a beer keg size furnace 1st (as I have 2 smaller crucibles to play with. & heres a pair of crucible tongs , I'v just scored from a old gold mine,love the eye ring rivit,looks like it doubles as a poring shank too..just hook it to a suspended chain above the mold...
