[Jewelry making - Article 00149] - Re: [Orchid] Intimidated by casting

[Lee Epperson]

========[ Invite a Friend - http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm  ]========

    There is no need to be intimidated by casting. 

    The best way to learn casting is to take a course. Junior colleges
    and the city parks and Recreations sometimes have casting classes.
    The casting process is somewhat of a mechanical process with a lot of
    magic added. 

    If you are interested, I would be happy to send you a 32 page copy
    of an illustrated paper I wrote on vacuum casting. 

    Casting your own work will take time from you ability to create.
    Especially if you do not have an controlled oven and a controlled
    melt furnace. A non controlled burnout oven requires you to monitor
    and adjust the rheostat frequently in order to maintain the correct
    warm up cycle and flask casting temperature. 

    Doing your own casting has an advantage in that you will have a
    faster turn around time from creation of wax to the finish the item. 

    The purchase of casting equipment will take a hunk out of your bank
    account especially if you buy a controlled burnout oven and furnace. 

    One advantage of vacuum casting is that the weight of metal is not
    as critical as when you centrifugal cast you just need to insure you
    melt enough metal. Melting too much is not a problem. Most scales
    will work for vacuum casting as long as they can weight enough metal. 

    It is recommended that at least 50 % new metal be used in each
    casting mix. It is very important to completely clean you scrap
    metal before melting it. Any investment left on the scrap can cause
    porosity. 

    The garage will be a good place to set up your casting equipment.
    Make sure all flammable materials are removed. Heating and cooling
    the garage might be a problem depending upon the weather conditions
    where you live. 

    I vacuum cast all my waxes. I also create my own rubber molds
    although I admit if I had more intricate designs I am not sure if I
    would do that. I do not cast until I have an oven full of flasks. 

    If I take a special order the delivery time will depend on when I
    have enough to fill the burnout oven. 

    I have a controlled burnout oven and a controlled Electro-melt
    furnace. Even with the automatic equipment I find that I will not do
    any creating work for a about three days when I cast. There is
    plenty of free time between all the casting steps when using
    automatic equipment but I find it is difficult to get creative when
    my mind is on casting. 

    It takes a good bit of a day to sprue all the waxes required to fill
    my oven. 

    The second day I invest the flasks. I start that around 11:00 AM.
    Investing that many flasks takes up to two hours. I place the flasks
    in the burnout oven around 3:00 PM. I never feel like creating while
    this is going on. 

    My oven gets up to the burnout temperature around midnight. I soak
    the flasks at that temperature for about 8 hours because of the
    amount of wax I have in the burnout oven.. The burnout oven is set to
    the casting temperature around 8:00 AM the second day. I start
    pouring metal around 11:00 and may continue until late in the
    afternoon, 

    Casting one or two items at a time can be done in a day. If you push
    it the casting can be done in hours.
____________________________________________________________________
T h e   O r c h i d   L i s t
Open Electronic Forum for Jewelry Manufacturing Methods and Procedures
____________________________________________________________________
Orchid FAQ:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/faq.htm
Orchid Archives:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/archive
Orchid Galleries:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/gallery.htm
Invite a Friend:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm
____________________________________________________________________
Tips From The Jeweler's Bench - Article Archive
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/tip_sear.htm
The Jeweler's Selected Bibliography List
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/jewelry-books
Buy Orchid Jewelry:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/shop
____________________________________________________________________
-Unsubscribe:
-Email: orchid-request AT ganoksin.com Body=unsubscribe subject=blank
____________________________________________________________________