[Jewelry making - Article 00371] - Re: [Orchid] CAD/CAM grown model woes

[James Binnion]

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    What I have experienced so far is that none of the photopolymer
    resins burn out in a trouble free fashion. They are hydroscopic and
    absorb water from the investment causing surface problems and
    swelling of the model and some have a fair amount of ash residue.
    There are certainly people that are claiming good results from the
    photopolymers but I think it is still too much an art and not enough
    a science involved to just hand a photopolymer model to a caster that
    is not experienced with them and say "just follow the instructions"
    and all will be fine. I think despite the hype from the vendors that
    the photopolymer patterns are still best used as a pattern to be
    molded then injected in standard wax. I find the wax jet type
    patterns grown on the Sanders or Solidscape machines still are the
    best for direct burnout but they still have too much pixelation of
    the surface for me to be happy with them. My CAD/CAM preference is
    definitely to use milled patterns unless there is no way to mill the
    model. Milled patterns have far less cleanup required than even the
    best of the grown patterns. 

James Binnion
jbin AT mokume-gane.com
James Binnion Metal Arts
http://www.mokume-gane.com
360-756-6550
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