I am looking forward to taking any upcoming 3-D Design and Printing Classes.
Are our 3-D printers capable of generating wax or suitable patterns for lost wax (investment) casting.
To comply with COVID safety, are SKYPE classes being offered?
Do we have Skype classes for the 3-D modeling software and can this be used remotely. If so, then how?
I do know that for various reasons, investment casting within the Jewelry Lab is limited to Noble metals. With that being said, do any of our members perform brass/bronze investment casting at home. If so, are they willing to take on small (paid) projects?
Our FormLabs printer is capable of printing to castable wax. However, the FormLabs printer is down, or not repairable, or not going to be repaired, or too hard to support … or some such situation which makes it currently unusable. According to @maxk68,
As for casting - unless things have changed, at DMS we have the ability to cast in bronze (but NOT in brass). @JBluJkt can confirm this.
@Liz_Becker has a brass casting studio and might be willing to take a commission job.
Zinc is the main culprit, same in Metal Shop for welding Not sure about Lead as it has a much higher boiling point at which it will gasify (melting/boiling point of Zn = 788F/1665F Lead 621F/3180F). I know I’ve had a class that casts pewter, but not sure what the alloy was. There are Lead free pewter alloys.
We’ve got the full premium version of Solidworks on the jump server if you need its fancy features or if you need to use the software for commercial purposes.
Dental laboratories do investment castings every day, so maybe hit up one of your local dental lab technicians if you’re offering paid work? They should be able to cast in silver, gold, and various alloys of those.
Re: 3D printing your blank. FWIW, @JohnK made a 3D print, made a (probably silicon) mold from it, and poured a wax to use in the investment class we took together. @Terrence taught that class.
Thank you for the mention, John. I would be happy to assist anyone needing production casting with some caveats. Time frame, job size, difficulty, etc. I am available to offer
a consult. Miss everyone a lot. Loss of vehicle coinciding with a back injury last year cost me my mobility for a bit, or you would have seen a lot more of me. Don’t write me off just yet. I still plan
Our FormLabs printer is capable of printing to castable wax. However, the FormLabs printer is down, or not repairable, or not going to be repaired, or too hard to support … or some such situation which makes it currently unusable. According to @maxk68,
Status of SLA printing?
Form labs are down getting the new resin printer setup will be a priority
As for casting - unless things have changed, at DMS we have the ability to cast in bronze (but NOT in brass). @JBluJkt can confirm this.
@Liz_Becker has a brass casting studio and might be willing to take a commission job.
You may also be able to use a wax PLA in the PolyPrinters. Some quick googling shows a few different options, and I know Max has mentioned it in the past, but I’m not proficient enough to know how well it would work.
I succussfully did this with the Formlabs and with help in Jewelery, made silver rings. Blue Jacket may want do it for you, but his Talk name escapes me atm…
I would be happy to assist anyone needing production casting with some caveats. Time frame, job size, difficulty, etc. I am available to offer
