Metal Casting

I 've been looking recently for a technique to transfer my Shapeways 3D prints in metal without printing directly in stainless steel, but instead, using metal casting. Printing directly in stainless steel goes very expensive and it is very difficult to take advantage of the final product.

So, I followed this forum post regarding new Shapeways materials. Wax was my suggestion in order to give the printed wax model to a foundry for metal process.

I also saw another forum post by Zorink, who used the White Strong and Flexible material instead of wax.

Similar to Zorink, I have a Dutch sculptor friend, Barbara Perquin, who uses a special metal casting technique to produce her sculptures. Here is what she does: She usually takes a real branch of a tree and gives it to a foundry. The foundry behaves to that branch as it would be wax and melts metal on it. As a result, the branch burns and is replaced by the metal.

I think this is a technique that worths a further exploration. What I mean is, that we can explore any special requirements for this kind of metal casting, like wall thickness etc.

I'm interested...for jewelry I could live with 8cm

sculpture is another story

let's start with jewelry...

Thanx Peter

At the moment, I will give a WSF or White detail model and keep you updated with my result when ready.

Wax of course, would be better for a metal cast. It is the native material for metal casting.

Normally, wax should be cheaper than the WSF for 3D print. I am not sure however. All I can say is that the dimensions should be similar to the White detail (49x39x20cm) or Cream Robust (35x40x40cm), according to Shapeways Material Options

I am interested.

Forgive my ignorance on the subject, but couldn't you make a mold of your WSF piece in order to make a Wax master?

Obviously it would only work for shapes that don't have undercuts etc, but there's no reason you couldn't mold these pieces separately and join them together before the actual casting.

This would ensure your burn out happens perfectly for the casting stage.

Again, I have little knowledge in the area, any feedback would be appreciated - I've long wanted to try this.

I use a rubber for molds and vulcanize temperature is about 300 deg F. The only material that can take this temperature right now is stainless.

A silicone mold could be made with any of the plastics and I have considered this as an option.

You can get away with small undercuts as the mold is flexable.

Wax gives the designer the option of hollow cast objects, which is not so simple with rubber molds.

The brand behind WSF, EOS, has a PolyStyrene material for this. I found some slides explaining how it works look for PrimeCast, page 16 and next. This material could work for "toys" too (I think some miniatures/toys are just that, PS), and then just require a similar finishing like in the PDF, but with glue or putty instead of wax, to get a smooth surface. Probably the wax trick could also be useful with WSF, by the way.

i'm interested in wax for investment casting, I wouldn't need anything much larger than 100Lx80Wx80H mm for what I do, but i can see the model engineer/live steam guys being very interested in this, and they require parts a bit bigger, maybe 200x200x150mm.

Dan, whilst the companies generally don't recommend it, I have had ABS FDM parts used as masters for vulcanised spin cast moulds successfully.
In the photo below, you can see the yellow RPd master and some whitemetal castings of the same. (The master was made using a Dimension FDM machine at my uni, not at Shapeways)


BTW Dan I look forward to seeing some Shay parts
-Mark

Mark, it is nice to see other model train stuff. I saw your Shay stack and a refference to the Mapleton Shay. I just got my first wheel center for the 7/8" scale Mapleton Shay project I am working on and a bunch more stuff will get to me tomorrow.

I checked on silicone rubber vulcanizing temperature and they make a low temperature silicone for printed patterns see: https://www.castaldo.com/english/usinprod/objet_vlt_article/o bjet_vlt_article.html

Wax will still be very handy as I am a small scale live steamer and steam engine cylinders need internal passages and a smooth bore. As Shapeways will make every wax pattern for metal casters that want hollow objects or fine detail, I hope that it makes sense. It will give model engineers a real chance to make very accurate scale versions of the real thing.
Dan

I'm very interested in this as it'd open up a LOT of possibilities for me.

Like everyone else (I think) I could live with 100mm x 80mm x 80mm very well.

I've got lots of things I'd like cast from waxes....

At least 160 mm long, minimum wall, less than 1mm.

But please not a Solidscape machine. They produce very good waxes but are slow and therefore expensive.

I believe there are LOTS of people interested in wax printing.
Do not decide by this forum post and only...

If you make a poll on the front page, or somewhere else on the site, more visible to visitors, you will get better results on this I think...

I am definitely interested.

For most of my items dimensions could be under 3cm x 3cm x 3cm and I would be thrilled.

Bigger is better for me, but I would LOVE to be able to buy wax prints!

wax please!

I'd love wax to be available as a material for jewellery. Size-wise up to 5 or 6 cm would probably suffice.

SO VERY INTERESTED! I would love to see some of my designs cast in Gold, As well as Pewter, Bronze and other things that i have access to.... Wax prints would ROCK Also, my 3d modeling skills are not as good as my hand sculpture skills... So some modifications can be done quickly and easily to wax before they are cast.. This would be an awesome thing.

Ray

Also super interested in wax for jewellery!! Any word on this???