[Jewelry making - Article 00133] - [Orchid] About Bronze Casting

[Ann K]

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Hello,

    I recently took a class where we learned to do basic charcoal
    casting with sterling silver. It was a lot of fun, and I ordered a
    little fused-silica hand casting crucible & some more charcoal
    blocks. I also bought sterling casting grain and bronze casting grain
    (From Rio, the "ancient bronze" with no zinc, melt temp 1850F, cast
    temp 1905F). 

    I played all yesterday afternoon with my new toys, and was sort of
    surprised by some of my results, so I am hoping to learn more about
    what I experienced. 

    I use a Smith propane/air torch setup, which has worked OK for me in
    the things I have been doing so far. I started off by painting the
    inside of the crucible with Handy Flux and burning it to the glassy
    state with my torch - the instructor of my class had said to do
    that. I switched to a bigger tip for melting than I use for
    soldering. The silver behaved pretty much like it did in the class
    setting. But in the crucible, the bronze would only melt enough to
    fuse together, and would not flow to a liquid state so I could pour
    it. Out of frustration, I took the fused chunk of bronze out of the
    crucible, and put it directly on the charcoal mold & turned the torch
    on it - lo and behold in just a minute or two it melted up into a
    beautiful liquid state and I was able to squish it down into the
    mold. 

    I was able to repeat this over & over - the bronze would not melt in
    the crucible but did fine directly on the block. Which is really OK,
    I guess, except it burns up the block pretty quickly and limits
    re-use of the mold more than pouring on the melted metal does. 

    Why won't the bronze melt in the crucible? Am I making mistakes that
    prevent it? Any insight and advice are more than welcome. 

Thanks,
Ann

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