Can anyone tell me how easy it is to carve fine detail into casting wax? (as well as what training is needed to use the equipment) My idea is to make D&D figurines on the 3d printer, which can’t get super fine detail, make silicone molds of them, cast that in wax, carve the fine details in and smooth them out, then cast the statues in bronze\brass\aluminium\pewter\whatever metal I can safely get my hands on and use. Thoughts?
1 Like
I think you’re underestimating what you can print on the Elegoo Mars Pro resin printer that we have. You could either print in resin or castable wax resin.
Layer height
0.01mm to 0.2mm
Default 0.05mm
Native xy pixel size: 0.047mm (slightly less than 0.002")
With a little online searching you can buy models that are ready to print, or parts that are already printed in resin. Here’s an example from a company called RPG prints:
These were printed on a resin printer but I don’t know which brand.
However, having said that, your process above seems reasonable. You will want to use:
- Castaldo LiquaFast Ice for your molding process
- The vacuum table in Jewelry to make the mold.
- The mold frames that we have are 3/4" thick so you may need to make or buy a thicker frame depending on the size of your part.
- The wax injector in Jewelry
This combination will make a mold that will withstand the hot wax.
You are going to lose a little detail in each step so you have correctly noted that you may want to add detail back by carving. The injectable wax seems a bit harder than true castable carving wax, but I think you will be able to carve it. (In contrast, the printable wax resin that will go directly into the casting process is glassy and although it can be sanded, it can’t really be carved).
We can cast only the following metals here:
- BronZE
- Silver
- Gold
(and possibly platinum)
Right now we temporarily have no casting ability. The centrifugal caster can cast items up to about 1 ounce but it’s finicky. Success depends on watching for subtle visual clues as to when the metal is hot enough (but not too hot) to cast. A 1 ounce bronze part is surprisingly small; about 3 cubic cm.
We have a (new to us) J2R Resistance Caster with digital control that will do larger parts but we haven’t been able to successfully cast with it yet. Johnny and Joseph have been working diligently on this but since we don’t know why the process isn’t working we don’t know how long it will take to discover why the process isn’t working. Patience is the key here.
EDIT: Looking at some of the figures above, figuring out how to get them out of a two-part mold may be tough in some cases. If you print directly to castable wax, you bypass the molding process. The plaster investment gets removed by dunking it hot into a breakout tank (fancy name for a bucket full of water) so you can make parts that would require a complex mold.
4 Likes
I suggest you call a dental technician for advice. They cast in gold and other metals when making crowns and bridges that have extraordinary detail.
They may even make special consumables/facilities/equipment available to you, at a cost probably.
Fine detail not very easy imo. Some ppl have a knack for it tho. If everyone wowed at your playdo sculptures as a kid then go for it. 
No training required. We have modeling, machining and carving wax available for donation. The jewelers bench on the right has carving tools, various wax, and a wax pen. I can show you around if you’d like just lmk via DM. I’d go Marlows 3d route after I didn’t listen and tried to carve anyways. 
3 Likes
I have recently discovered if you plan to mold a resin print:
It turns out photopolymer resin is fundamentally incompatible with platinum silicone curing, and while this can be mitigated to some degree by the finishing process (especially heat treatment), a boundary layer of uncured silicone is still present where the mold comes into contact with the master.
Here’s the source, including his suggestions for remediation.
2 Likes