QuestionI'm a miniature furniture maker and want to cast my own silver mounts. I don't
want to spend to much money to start with on expensive equipment and
complicated sprue arrangements so want to try pressing my wax into some delft
clay, melting it out and pouring my melted silver directly into it. Assuming I can
melt the silver what are my chances of success???
AnswerHello Chris,
100% is your potential success rate!
Clean(smooth) the wax well, coat with alcohol as a debubblizer, prepare the cope and drag ( do a trial run with some white casting metal first- Contenti Supply has some in the USA, Cookson's in the UK -among many other vendors,,,its cheaper than silver but has the same working properties)remember to make some venting marks and registration can be done with pieces of cork, or sticks or dowel cut to size, then position the wax, remove the master, then pour...while that's a far oversimplified process, read Tim McCreight's titles, by his Bryn Mawr Press: "The Complete Mealsmith" and "Practical Casting"- It's quite easy to do if the clay is the right texture, the room air is not too humid, nor dry and you practice first...or just use some cuttlefish bone ( carve,or press a hard model between two pieces that you have prepared by rubbing together until they are perfectly level and no gaps of light are seen along any margin)pieces of bone, make your registrations, carve a pouring well as wide as the piece, with a pencil make a few gas vents,tape it together with masking tape, set it in a bucket of sand to hold it stable, melt the silver or gold, and pour.Then if you need to , depending on how you prepared the mould, clean the piece, and you're done..fast, but each mould can only be used once, however it will not fail like clay can at the last second..so it's more reliable, as is tuffa stone, but that leaves a rough texture that can be polished out as well as in the case of the cuttlebone).
Good Luck, and remember it's easier than it sounds!
Best Regards,Ari
