Learning Lost Wax Casting

[Luke March]

I'm interested in getting started in casting, and I intend to do primarily investment / lost wax casting, for things like blade fittings/pommels, scabbard fittings, buckles, and really anything else I feel like casting.

Online sources are good, but what I'm looking for are recommendations on books for learning what I need to know to get started in lost wax casting. I intend to build a waste oil furnace like this one: http://www.artfulbodgermetalcasting.com/2.html for melting the metal.

Dan Manders recommended a book for lost wax, but it seems to be a little hard to find. I also found this one on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Casting-Reference-Revised-Edition/dp/096159845X/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_1

Does anyone know if it's any good?


I also realize I need a kiln if I'm going to do lost wax, so I did a search on the local craigslist, and here is what I found: http://grandrapids.craigslist.org/art/2915998885.html
Is this a good deal for this type of kiln?
I figure if I do get it, I should be able to use it for heat treating as well.

[Ian]

Hi, I've got the same book myself and I'd say if you are literally just starting then you could do a lot worse than this one. That said read as many books as you can and if you get a chance to talk to someone who casts for a living then do so. Jewellers are a good place to start for small and delicate stuff, foundrymen for the (much) bigger stuff. There are a few websites dedicated to backyard casting as well, as I'm sure google will inform you. Good luck and play safe.

[Frosty]

Get yourself hooked up with GOM (Guild Of Metalsmiths) in your general neck of the woods, there are plenty of metal casters in the gang, some good friends of mine. I don't know about the book you're referencing I'm not that into casting and have a good friend locally who is a master caster who teaches if I want to be.

If you're up this way near the end of June stop by the Museum of Industry and Transportation in Wasilla for the Art On Fire event, the iron pour is always fun Fun FUN. Heck, I'll be in Elk River for the last couple weeks of June for a little annual gathering of metalhead friends, I'm sure there'll be flowing glowy metal from time to time, there usually is. I'll be checking my E-mail on a friends computer if Deb won't let me take the laptop, give me a shout, maybe we can hook up and get you introduced to some casters.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Bentiron1946]

That book is OK but like Ian suggest read several of them. I would suggest that unless you are going for a lot of intense detail on your knife fitting to just do Delft clay casting or old fashioned sand casting, it is just a whole bunch simpler than lost wax casting. First off you don't need to get a burn out oven to eliminate the wax and that can be a big expensive even if you build you own oven. Not only that you save on the amount of fuel needed to burn off the wax. You can also make your own investment but it is not always as good as store bought and store bought can be expensive, it is heavy and shipping cost are very high. So for small parts that don't require a lot of detail the Delft system http://www.riogrande.com/Product/Delft-Clay-Casting-System/705136?pos=1

[iron woodrow]

for the basics look up 'viking bronze casting'. I Have successfully cast bronze and brass in a hole in the ground using stoneware clay and craft clay and beeswax. It is very easy and cheap and achieves the exact results.

[Bentiron1946]

I had a link in my bookmarks for "viking bronze casting" but it came back as dead. That was a good one for a simple effective way of making you own crucibles, molds and melting furnace. I'll have to take some time and see if he changed his server. That site should give Luke a way of doing some stunning work.

That is a good price for a ceramic kiln, however I have found that the wax fumes will collect on the exposed electrical coils and will shorten their life of them quite a bit. And that is a really big kiln, you will need to fill that one up with a lot of small flasks to make it economical to run. Those big kilns suck up electricity like an elephant sucks up water. I guess to limit the exposure of the coils to wax fumes you can make a muffle kiln inside. This is a steel box with a vent to the outside so the wax fumes don't come in contact with the inside of the kiln. As a side note the wax fumes are combustible so make sure you vent to the outside. When I first started doing casting of small bronzes I had an electrical kiln and did the burn out in the garage. All there smokey wax fumes had collected at the ceiling and stupid as it was I opened the door of the kiln to see how things were going, when the air hit the inside of the kiln, the red hot coils ignited the escaping fumes and ignited all of the fumes at the ceiling. The resulting explosion blew the spring loaded garage open and singe my long flowing beard. Also got rid of all the spider webs in the garage. Lucky the house didn't catch fire. Now all burn outs happen out of doors. A friend of mine for his jewelry flasks uses a rice steamer to melt most of the wax out, then he has and old gas range that he uses to burn or at least carbonize the wax and then uses a small electric kiln to do the final high temp burn out inside under an exhaust hood. Remember wax is the fuel for a burning candle, it is a controlled burn but burnout fumes can collect in all kinds of places if not removed from the inside. BE SAFE!

[Luke March]

Thanks for the tips so far, I appreciate it. With my limited funds (being more limited than I realized a few days ago :rolleyes: ) I may start with seeing what I can get from the library (now I have to give them that 0.75 they want from me).

Frosty, that really sounds like fun, I would love to come for a visit. Too bad Alaska is so far away - do you think we could get it to trade places with Ontario? :P

I did a quick search of viking bronze casting - looks pretty interesting. That might be just the thing, on my limited budget. It looks like people have gotten some good results with it. If you ever find that link, Bentiron, let me know; a detailed how-to would be helpful, especially regarding materials and how to find them.

Sounds like you had quite an experience with your wax! I'll keep that in mind if do end up getting that kiln.

[Frosty]

Alaska trade with Ontario? Why not, what do they have to trade? Aren't I a nice guy, I'm not going to pick that straight line up, no siree, not me.

So Luke; UPer or Troll? I married a UPer and it took her several years to get over MatSu valley winters, she used to get more in one snowfall than we get all winter. Like I said, I'll be north of Minneapolis late June, maybe we can hook up and get you introduced to some multi talented metalheads.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Luke March]

Frosty - I'm a troll! Though I have been over the bridge a few times - there's a nice blacksmith shop up on Mackinac Island.

I'm actually from the Grand Rapids area, currently going to engineering school in Flint (Kettering University, formerly known as GMI), and I'm on a schedule where I move every three months between Grand Rapids and Flint.

How late in June is it? I'm working full time until June 22, then I'm spending a week volunteering at a summer camp, then I have a couple days off, after which I'm moving back over to Flint for the summer school term. A trip out to Minnesota would be dependent both on timing, and on whether I've earned enough by then to pay for school, rent, and gas with enough left over for a trip (the joys of being a college student :rolleyes: ).
The bright side at school is while my shop is on the other side of the state, there is the welding club, where I got decent at MIG last school term, and the school does have a foundry, which can do lost foam and green sand casting (mostly aluminum I think).

[Randy C]

Check with the school's art department. Most sculpture programs include lost wax casting as part of the curriculum.

[HWooldridge]

I taught myself to make a few things - lots of scrap but produced some acceptable pieces in bronze. I bought a conventional kiln for burnout and bake on the molds (kilns are pretty cheap in the local area). The book I read first was "Creative Casting" by Sharr Choate, which is a pretty good resource for basic technique.

[Luke March]

Randy,

We actually don't have an art department; it's a small university centered around STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). I think the only non-STEM program we have is business (well, and pre-law, but that's really small, and so is business).

I did take a look through the course catalog for casting, and here's what I found:


IME-405 Casting Processes 204(4)
Prerequisites: IME-301
Corequisites: None
Minimum Class Standing: None
Green sand casting, lost foam casting, permanent mold casting and die casting are discussed. The interrelationships between part design,
solidification mode, casting process parameters and the resulting microstructure and properties are examined. Terms Offered: Winter, Spring, of
even numbered years.

Unfortunately, it appears that I have missed the boat on this one; if I graduate on time (which I am planning on doing), I will not be there for the Winter or Spring term of an even numbered year. (2014)



Bentiron,

Was this the site that you were thinking of? http://web.comhem.se/vikingbronze/

[Bentiron1946]

"Creative Casting" by Sharr Choate is a pretty good book but read more books to get all the information you can get on the subject. Like I said before if you fittings are simple the Delft Clay is about as simple as it gets as dose sand casting and sand casting is cheap too.
Yeah, that's the Viking site.

[Luke March]

HWoolridge,

Thanks for the tip! I will check that book out.

Edit:

Bentiron,

Looks like you posted right at the same time I did. I'm hoping to get some good books on the subject from the library, since that's free. I really like the look of the viking bronze, if I can figure out exactly what materials to use for things like molds and crucibles - it looks to be almost "dirt cheap." I suppose the reason I was not terribly keen on sand casting (which we did in an introductory class at school) is the surface finish. Whatever I end up doing, it will probably not be something that I have to spend money on, at least for now.

[iron woodrow]

the clay was cheap clay mixed with horse manure and sawdust, and the wax model was covered in a clay and creek silt slurry, then coated with the manure/sawdust/clay mixture, then fired over a small fire. the wax kept the fire going as it melted out, and gave the fire more fuel.. that site is the guy i learned from.

[Bentiron1946]

I was trying to find another site but somehow or another all of my bookmarks are really messed up, this one from Africa and showed how they did this very fine brass casting using charcoal dust, clay and manure to form the crucible, mold and all in one go. Really interesting to see how they covered the bees wax model with this black stuff and then put all of this scrap brass in the top and then covered it over with the same mixture. I'm guessing that it keeps the brass from gassing while it melts. I'll try to find it again. The Egyptian, Incas, almost every ancient culture used lost wax casting in some form or another and all without fancy kilns, pyrometers, graphite crucibles or other modern conveniences and did absolutely stunning work. My first castings were done using these primitive forms of metal work. This type of learning can be somewhat hazardous so wear some form of protective gear, burns take a long time to heal.

OK, here is an Ashanti brass artists web page that pretty much shows how it is done in Africa, http://iweb.tntech.e...tWaxCasting.htm
Also found this http://books.google.com/books?id=e_09Enaf4tIC&pg=PA118&lpg=PA118&dq=ashanti+lost+wax+casting&source=bl&ots=YqbVoBhQ4K&sig=YQW98cpjTTxwXfA9xmgdDNGDW74&hl=en&sa=X&ei=NUK4T7DUGqqRiQLG7pSeBw&ved=0CIsBEOgBMAM#v=onepage&q=ashanti%20lost%20wax%20casting&f=false

[Bentiron1946]

Today I found this book online and it's free! http://www.scribd.com/doc/50386354/Centrifugal-or-Lost-Wax-Jewelry-Casting-for-Schools-Tradesmen-Craftsmen
Looked pretty good and it's from when I was much younger.