The not so lost wax casting.

I WAS going to put this in the other sub section, then I remembered it's not really lost wax. One of the families I fly for here in Texas are big cattle guys. We've worked for them now for 7 years and they have become family to us. It happens when you spend hours and hours inside an airplane dealing with all the assorted stuff that happens on any road trip. Well, I want to surprise them with a little token of our appreciation. I researched the county records and found their cattle brand. I'm not sure how they say it, but I'm guessing "hanging O" but I might be wrong. I had started working this piece in wax and I really wanted to give it a rope texture. That's when it hit me. Just invest the rope and burn it out. I've used some mary jane rope and whipped the ends and added some more whipping for decoration purposes. How did I get it to hold the shape you ask? Lots of 1dollar harbor freight super glue. On the back of the 2 pieces, I melted in some wax to give it some bite to the rope. From there I attached the sprues and a couple of vents for good measure. Everything you see here I built tonight in the span of about 4hrs. I'll get rolling on shell tomorrow. I haven't filmed any of this yet and if it works, I'll make a second one for the son of the family and will film that. How will I remove the rope you ask? In the kiln after a very short flash fire dewax. No water boil for this one. I can't really see why this wouldn't work.

Hey Zap... This red wax is some SERIOUSLY sticky shit! It's a little on the soft side in a 90 degree garage, but I think I like it for now. I know, I know.... it could be cheaper...

 

Woke up today thinking I should spray some clear coat on this rope before dipping.. Whatcha guys think?

 

I talked to Barry in Baton Rouge, he said clear coating was a good idea. I used a lighter and torched the tiny hairs off the rope and hosed it down with clear.
First coat in the bag. Shell went on nice and easy. I'm planning 7 layers on this one. I'm not expecting expansion to be an issue. (no wax) lol

 

Man that's looking great! I think it will burn out perfectly you'll just need to cook it for a few hours and then shake the living crap out of it to get the dust out. A foundry guy told me he burns out wood the same way. Then he pulled out a bronze in the shape of a cat. Said he found it under a house where it died and dried out so he invested the mummified cat and it uh, burned out cleanly enough to cast...

The red wax looks easy to work with. Easier than the brown brittle casting wax I make sprues out of. I'll be coating my birds and lilies tomorrow and this week. I'm starting to get super nervous that the birds won't cast without major defects. I might be psyching myself out though. Just so much time and effort and so many places for things to go wrong...

Anyone in the Connecticut area want to come watch/help/hang out this weekend during the casting?

 

Thanks Zap. Barry has even burned out a real babies shoe! I guess you can burn out just about anything if ya want to.

After I go through burnout in the kiln and it cools back down, I'll flush it with water. This should remove any ash left over. Once it dries out, back in the fire it goes.

If I was closer, I'd give you a hand. Run a YT live feed so we can watch the pour!

 

Hmmmm I'll have to look into the YouTube thing. Never done it before but it shouldn't be too hard to set it up in my phone.

When you boil out the shell you just throw in the dry shell into boiling water spout up and it's fine? No special treatment?

 

That's it. Have a roaring boil going on and send them straight to the bottom, pour cup up. After a minute or 2, start swishing them around and you'll see the pour cup float up and vanish. Another minute or two and you should be done. Pull it out, let dry. The next day, you'll be able to pull the wax off the surface of the water. You can dewax a few shells before the water gets too saturated with wax. Do them all at once.

 

I need to find out Barry's secret for these. Doesn't look too bad until I tell you they are HOLLOW! They have some left over shell inside which made up the core.

 

6 layers and I said enough. I torched out the wax and stuck them in the kiln. OMFG did that rope stink and burned my eyes!!! I forgot to leave the lid cracked to get rid of the smoke. Oh well. Looks like a good burnout, shells are in good shape. Will pour them tomorrow.







Odd pin hole in this one. Not to worry, some patch and it's gone.

 

Looking good man. I'm happy they burned out clean. Post pics or vids of the pour.

I'm starting the coating process tomorrow for my birds. Stoll worried they may not dewax well or may not cast correctly. I need to weld up a boilout box to dewax the shells. But I need steel to make one so I'll be going to the steel guy to buy some. They are too big for my burnout kiln unfortunately.

 

Thanks man. Just make sure they are DEEP enough so when filled the pour cup is a couple of inches under water. I ALMOST screwed the pooch if ya noticed it in my boil out video.

 

This is gonna have to be a large container. 3 feet by 3 feet tall by I'm guessing 3 feet wide? That's going to be a few hundred gallons of water. Hmm.

 

That is gonna take awhile to boil thats for sure. Is your piece really that big? You dont need to boil everything at once. I wouldnt.

 

3x3x3ft of water is 200gallons.

 

It's going to be about 20 to 24 inches long and about the same tall. Maybe 8 wide. But building a small container for just the bird won't help me in the future with other large items.

I do have some ceramic blanket I could cool around it and throw a burner or two inside of I want going to boil it out.

I'll figure something out. I don't want to take over your kick ass thread. Pics and video of your pour soon?

 

Steel is cheap, build another when ya need it. If you run the numbers, you will crap yourself when you see how much propane you are going to blow through to BOIL 200 gallons of water. That's a good job for the oil burner if you can back it down so it doesn't blow through the steel floor.

Here's your chart. Get out your calculator. http://plumbingperspective.com/key-water-heating-charts

 

Might not be viable to boil it. I calculated it all out 30" diameter 30" tall tank is 92 gallons that needs 48000 btu to boil and my fryer puts out 12000 btu so that would be 4 hrs to get it to boiling temp.

Might just be better to use the ceramic blanket I have and wrap it around the shell and shove a burner or two inside. Or drive 6 hrs to lancaster foundry and buy more blanket and weld up a big proper burnout chamber. Or maybe grainger supply has blanket locally. Either way I'll need a large chamber eventually.

 

David if that tank is 6ft tall, zap will come and get it, he can ride on the roof and drive like this.