[Jewelry making - Article 01130] - Re: [Orchid] Steam de-waxer

[AC]

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Alma,

    Steam dewaxing is far superior to dry dewaxing no matter what you
    apparatus you ultimately come up with to create the steam. 

    Here are some of the very distinct disadvantages to dry dewaxing--
    takes at least 2 times longer is messy to deal with wax residue is
    smokey smoke and wax splatter eat away heating elements if using
    electrical means of heating evrything seems to get coated in a nice
    crappy char 

    Steam dewaxing will not rust out your burnout oven/kiln any sooner..
    I've been steaming for 10 years in a home made steamer and using the
    same commercial gas fired oven. The rust that's taking place is from
    the water of hydration escaping the burnout temps. We used to do
    100% dry burnouts "back in the old days" in a burnout oven and it
    was a super duper mess compared with steaming....burners got
    clogged, vent pipes coated with black and brown char, smokey ugly
    environment during the melt out phase, and dripped wax all over the
    place. 

    If you use/make a cabinet/chamber style steamer the overall
    enclosure needs to be a snug but not air tight fit...don't want to
    build unmanagable pressures. We built our homemade steamer (the Mark
    I) from a normal steel split 55 gal. drum with legs welded on and a
    larger gas hot water heater as the burner. It's been functioning
    daily for at least 8 years but is seeing some rust on the
    un-waxcoated surfaces. Will be getting replaced this summer with the
    Mark II. We made a larger steamer 'cause we can steam out up to 15 -
    6X6" flasks at a time (takes about 3.5 hours up here at 5500'
    elevation where water boils at around 200 degs F. This boiling
    temperature means normal carving wax won't melt readily and because
    of the small amount concerned, we just put it in unsteamed in the
    regular burnout cycle. 

    As to using a pressure cooker....don't see why it won't work....
    large autoclaves (giant pressure cookers) are used all the time for
    larger industrial/sculpture lost wax casting. Greater pressure means
    higher temps and shorter times. BUT greter pressures means greater
    risk of a mishap. Can't give you any specific help here but you
    might want to search the archives at
    http://www.artmetal.com/front_page 

>From Albuquerque at the southern end of the Rocky Mountains....
Frank
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