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Silver award update (Patreon)

Published:
2016-05-07 08:47:24
Imported:
2021-10

Content

It seems that pure silver just refuses to cast properly but I think I finally have something that I can work with.

Files

Comments

Anonymous

Might I suggest

Anonymous

Might I suggest

Anonymous

Might I suggest

Anonymous

Whoops! Sorry about that. Might I suggest that you speak to a jeweler?

x9x9x9x9x9

I cant wait for this video! When will finally get it?

Paul Grodt

Cody, I just saw the video. And I loved it. I love it when creators document their mistakes; that's the sort of thing that makes me overjoyed to support you. But, why'd you have to go and reinvent the wheel so many times man? In the future, please come talk to us at /r/metalfoundry! Look, I've done tons of crazy projects like this, and I've had similar situations of failure after failure. I know that feeling super-well. ...I started this paragraph thinking of other failures, but not that I think about it more, my first attempt at pewter-casting years ago involved me making a lot of the same mistakes (and pewter is WAY easier than silver). You've got a fanbase as a major resource. We can help you avoid this stuff! The standard ways of metalcasting (lost wax, investment, and sand-casting) are the standards because they are almost the only thing that works. Plaster hardens when water chemically bonds with quick-lime. When you heat it up, the water molecule is ripped off, and the stuff becomes extremely brittle. Add to that the fact that it thermally expands with heat beyond the pressure it can withstand. To make plaster work, you must mix it with something like silica sand. You can't do pure plaster. And you want to preheat it very very slowly. Another possibility with silver would be to use steel shards to reinforce the plaster. Foundry supply places sell a specialty product that does this, but you could just as easily use tacks, or cheap sewing needles, or tiny nails. Pouring silver into non-preheated plaster doesn't work either because you now have uneven thermal expansion which is just begging for a crack. The clay solution was a better move, but you can't just place silver into a mold and let it melt. The bubbles and voids come from a combination of you using an open-faced mold, allowing the air to get to it, and the ceramic was likely still outgassing. The ceramic should've been glowing just about as hot as the coils of your kiln. I understand why you went with what you had to be close to your 250k mark, but I think it is very much worth the effort to give this another shot. But this time, use the traditional lost-wax process. You've already got the wax! Take your clay and mix it with enough water that it turns into clay-slip. Add a wax pour-sprue onto the side of the mold and skewer it with a metal skewer. dip it in the clay slip, sprinkle it with silica sand, dip it again, sand again, do this 4 or 5 times. Set the thing aside to air-dry for a week or so depending on humidity. Take your kiln outside and slowly heat the thing up. Most of the wax will melt out, the rest will pyrolize into CO2. Slowly ramp up the heat until it is bright orange. Put your silver in a crucible and melt it separately. If by chance, you have the ability, throw the molten silver in a vacuum chamber and degas it. Take the ceramic mold and hold it upright in a bucket. Fill quickly the bucket with dry play-sand or better yet, perlite from the gardening-department. pour the silver and then don't touch it until it cools. Premature demolding results in oxidation. When cool, hammer apart the mold, saw of the sprue, and file that part nice. Also, I think this piece would look much nicer if you took more time to polish it. You can either bodge together a buffing wheel, buy a cheap one from Harbor Freight, or just buy a HF attachment that chucks into your drill. You were using 1500 compound when you should've still been on 800. And after you finish with 1500, change over to jeweler's rouge to give it a mirror finish. Again, my first attempts at pewter casting, I cracked my plaster mother-mold preheating it in the oven, I overcooked my metal resulting in both bubbles, and a horribly craggy crystal-structure, shoot, I even poured my excess into an ingot mold that had a drop of water on it, resulting in tiny blobs of metal all over my face. I know you are a very busy and industrious person, but I feel like it is worth the time to do a little consulting with your hardcore fanbase, namely your Patreon subscribers, and the people in your subreddit. (I hate that "enter" means "submit" on the patreon board. I added a bit more in an edit. dunno if you get an alert, but I hope you see it)