Recent Projects

 From:  Colin
490.12 In reply to 490.11 
Hi Michael & Jesse,

Michael, once the wax has been milled it's then "lost wax cast".
In basic terms the wax is has a sprue added, put into a flask to be covered in plaster, then heated in a kiln.
The wax runs out via the sprue hole leaving a cavity the exact shape of the wax design.
With the flask at the right temperature, it's loaded into a centrifugal or vacuum casting machine.
The molten metal is then either centrifugally forced in or pulled in via vacuum to fill that cavity.
Once the flask has cooled a bit, the flask is quenched, breaking the plaster & releasing the metal ring.
After cleaning up the ring you can then use the ring as a Master Pattern for moulding for production use.
Or set stones in it, engrave, etc; to be the finished piece for the customer.

Jesse, for these kind of designs I size my waxes prior to milling them, using a Matt Reamer.
The rotary jig that I'm mainly using has a central shaft with tapered cone clamps to hold each side of the wax.
That's the reason for the outer rings, the tapered cones grip them, the bridges then support the model allowing the ring edges to be milled.
This also allows the wax tube to be centred to the rotary via the finger size ID & produces mostly good results.
Of course all of this milling setup will depend on the type & style of design.
For the more complex designs, I'll then use the 3 sided milling approach.

regards Colin