Investment casting flask

It also has a guage to measure vacuum and a pet cock to release the vacuum. Participated in the Formlabs Contest View Contest. CootiePatootie 5 years ago on Step Examples have been found across the world, such as in the Harappan Civilisation — BC idols, Egypt ‘s tombs of Tutankhamun — BC , Mesopotamia , Aztec and Mayan Mexico , and the Benin civilization in Africa where the process produced detailed artwork of copper, bronze and gold. These temperatures result in good casting for most people. We attached the sprues of the parts to the trunk using an Xacto blade heated with the torch touched to both pieces of wax to get them to melt together.

Step 1: Step 1: Prepping Waxes

GitHub is home to over 40 million developers working together to host and review code, manage projects, and build software. If nothing happens, download GitHub Desktop and try. If nothing happens, download Xcode and try. If nothing castin, download the GitHub extension for Visual Studio and try. Three years ago I set out to build a foundry for producing high-detail aluminum casts using the investment casting process.

Step 2: ​Step 2: Begin Measurements

This is my follow up of my silicone mold making Instructible. I injected waxes using the mold I made in that Instructible and used one those waxes to make an investment casting in silver. I have skipped over the wax injection process for now because I forgot to take pictures , but will come back to it next week when I run some more waxes. I will pick up the investment casting process with waxes or whatever other organic material you would like to make a casting of. This entire process, from preparing or designing and making a master to making molds to injecting waxes to making investment to pouring the metal is tedious, but strangely fun and rewarding.

Casting Flask In Jewelry Casting Tools

This is my follow up of flaso silicone investtment making Instructible. I injected waxes using the mold I made in that Instructible and used one those waxes to make an investment casting in silver. I invesyment skipped over the wax injection process for now because I forgot to take picturesbut will come back to it next week when I run some more waxes.

I will rlask up the investment casting process with waxes or whatever other organic material you would like to make a casting of. This entire process, from preparing or designing and making a master to making molds to injecting waxes to making investment investtment pouring the metal is tedious, but strangely fun and rewarding. There are a lot of places for things to go wrong, which makes it even more satisfying and exciting when it goes right.

As you can see, this is unfortunately not a project that you can wake up one morning and decide to tackle. It takes a bit of preparation to get everything lined up ahead of time as well as some workshop space. One glask at a time, it can totally be done! Did you use this instructable in your classroom? Add a Teacher Note to share how you incorporated it into your lesson.

The lost wax method did an absolutely amazing job of copying ALL the. In anticipation of this, I tried to get my waxes as perfect as investment casting flask. Disclosing wax is very fine and can be used sparingly and should all but disappear when applied properly. I picked it off with my finger, but even a small wax burr left behind would create a sharp silver burr that will need to be dealt with fasting.

Wax is much easier. I made sure my sprues are relatively neat and clean for a couple of reasons. I have read that invsetment can cause turbulent flow which can cause problems in the finished silver castings. I used a chisel and sandpaper to clean them up castibg the roughness caused by the box. Silver casting is a little bit more like Chemistry class than art class. Since this stage of making my pendants is much more science than art I heeded the advice my Chemistry professor said over and over in lab; write everything down in a notebook.

Investtment less distance that the molten silver flak to travel, the better, so shorten the sprues to be as short as possible while still allowing the necessary space between waxes. If the top is too thin, the molten metal can bust through during pouring. We attached the sprues of the parts to the trunk using an Xacto castign heated with the torch touched to both pieces of wax to get them invvestment melt. I recommend practicing this to get the feel of it on junk pieces of wax before tackling the real thing for newbies.

It takes a few times to get the feel. Make sure the attachment points are solid, smooth, and there are no gaps in the wax. Any gaps would be filled by investment and either break off into your mold during the pour or interfere with the metal flowing into the flsak.

Use melted wax to fill in if necessary. Note when spruing: make sure your sprues are big enough to feed your pieces. The sprue needs to attach to the thickest part of the wax and needs to be thicker than the thickest part of the wax as. This is due castingg the way the molten metal will crystallize from the walls inward. The smallest pieces should be toward the top of the tree as you build it and the larger pieces toward the bottom and you should work from the top.

If there are multiple major sections in a single wax part, sprue each major section to ensure proper. My pendants onvestment small and even enough that I didn’t need to take this extra step. You should try to maintain a 45 degree angle of castimg sprues to the tree. This allows the metal to flow more naturally and smoothly down the tree when you have it upside down for the pour.

Our tree was small enough that this wasn’t crucial. Carefully put the flask on the rubber base and put a piece of masking tape around the top of the flask. This will prevent overflow when de-gassing. This is a kind of stressful step! You have to finish in a window of 7. If you casing too soon, the investment will separate and if you finish too late, it fask start to set up.

Pour the water amount you previously wrote down into the rubber mixing bowl. Investmnt water is recommended by the manufacturer. Deionized or distilled is recommended because it is more stable and the plaster slurry is more likely to have predictable properties when mixed. Extra ions or substances in the water can adjust the set up times.

Add the investment to the water and mix out the lumps. I used my hand so that I could feel lumps and crush. It is the consistency of thin pancake batter. Then turn off vacuum and pull the pre-de-gassed mixture out of the chamber. Get ready to pour. Pour the investment down the side of the flask, being careful to not pour crazy and add any air in the process.

The weight of the investment may break the parts or trap air. Using the volume method I described earlier should give you just about the right amount of slurry to fill your flask with little invest,ent none invwstment.

Now put the investment filled flask back in the vacuum chamber and let it boil for seconds. It spits and seems like it should not be doing. Once the time is up, let it set up for about half an hour and then remove the sprue base. At this point, let it air dry anywhere from an hour to overnight.

There is some wiggle room with this step. I placed the flask with wax side down on a couple of steel rods to allow the wax a place to melt.

Since I don’t have a controller for the kiln, I had to maintain temperatures manually. Follow the schedule that invesgment with your investment! You need to start slow or else the wax will expand early on. The temp rises to cure the investment once the wax is melted. The last hour is a heat soak because we wanted the flask to be about degrees when we poured the silver. Use a torch and keep it on the melt to keep the oxygen out and therefore the oxidation.

Get it mostly melted before removing flask from heat soak in kiln. Depending on how much silver you have and what power or torch you have, it may take a while for the silver to melt. Add a little borax to the melt. I will get more pictures my casring melt, but my hands were full and I forgot to take sufficient flassk of the melt and pour. I torched the silver, keeping the torch on the silver but moving around in investmenh to keep the heat even on the surface of the silver.

When it first melts, the surface tension keeps the silver in a ball. I poured when the surface tension just barely broke since the pour temperature is almost degrees Celsius higher than the melting temperature.

Use tongs to pull the flask out and place it hole up on the vacuum table gasket. Keep torching the molten silver until it loses it’s surface tension then pour into the hole, keeping the flame over the metal the entire time. You want the flame to a reducing flame low investmeng oxygen to keep oxidation from occurring. Pour fast and pour confidently. The longer it takes you, the more risk there is of the metal crystallizing up and blocking flow before you are. Just git ‘er.

After a few minutes, using tongs, dip entire flask under water to break the investment. Fish out the silver from the bottom of the water bucket after the bubbles stop. It came out with some oxidation that was easily removed with scotch brite and a warm pickle. Noooo, not that kind of pickle. Pickle is an acid solution that removes the firescale and other crap on the surface. Flasl order to keep me from having to put my hands in battery acid, I affixed a thin silver wire to each pendant and placed them into a glass jar.

Cleans up nicely. I hope this helps, and as I mentioned, I will be adding more pictures with my next pour. Please feel free to contact me or comment if you have questions or comments. I love Instructables, both learning from others and sharing what I have learned and I hope to have helped!! One suggestion — you pour the molten metal — have you thought of using a centrifuge — heat the metal in a cradle — place the mold in a sling release and the metal is shot into the mold.

Hi — Great instructable — I used to do this in a dental lab making copings for false teeth — of course we also made vampire teeth and rings. We used a plaster stone type investment material for the mold flaks did not have the vacuum tank to remove bubbles and blows had to vibrate it.

With that material it was a one shot deal you had to casging the mold to remove your piece. This is an amazing and informative instructable. I have always wondered what «lost wax» jewelry flaxk and now I know.

I have a question. When you form a pendant or other piece this rlask, is the «shell» lost? What I mean is, can you only form one piece tlask metal jewelry from each «hole»?

Investing 3 flasks for lost wax casting

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O With a Design that fine, did you have any problems with pitting? Texmo Precision Castings. Any gaps would be filled by investment and either break off into your mold during the pour or interfere with the metal flowing into the. The link to the site is. Shrinkage pitting investment casting flask occur if the sprue is too small and solidifies before the. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. When it first melts, the surface tension keeps the silver in a ball. This entire process, from preparing or designing and making a master to making molds to injecting waxes to making investment to pouring the metal is tedious, but strangely fun and rewarding. Retrieved 3 February Keep torching the molten silver until it loses it’s surface tension then pour into the hole, keeping the flame over the metal the entire time.