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Chemistry / What would make the best permanent mould material for silver or copper casting?
« on: 04/12/2014 21:19:08 »
Hola all! I would like to produce cast jewelry from silver and copper but I'm stuck on one issue: the mold material.
I would like to find a permanent (or at least semi-permanent) mold material that I can form in two matching hemispheres around an object that I carved or found (i.e. a small acorn, sea shell, etc). In my mind, I'm thinking of either a cement I can pour around each half of the item or an unfired ceramic clay I can mold around each half of the object, then fire to achieve hardness. Once clamped together, these halves would create the die space needed to cast my jewelry with molten copper or silver. This technique would allow me to replicate virtually anything in the world around me that would typically not be workable with lost-wax or green sand casting techniques, and would allow many reproductions from the same mold.
I'm sure someone has done something like this before, but I'm not finding relevant information from my research on the interwebs. I suspect the cement or ceramic approach can work, but I don't know what exact mold materials would work best to withstand repeated exposures to the high temperature of molten silver and copper (+-1800 - 2000 F) and can hold a reasonable level of detail from the original carving or object. I also want to make sure there is no water content in the mold to explode on me.
Can you help me out? I would appreciate any resources or advise you could give, and I'm sure others would love to try this technique as well, if it can work.
Thanks kindly!
-Jake
I would like to find a permanent (or at least semi-permanent) mold material that I can form in two matching hemispheres around an object that I carved or found (i.e. a small acorn, sea shell, etc). In my mind, I'm thinking of either a cement I can pour around each half of the item or an unfired ceramic clay I can mold around each half of the object, then fire to achieve hardness. Once clamped together, these halves would create the die space needed to cast my jewelry with molten copper or silver. This technique would allow me to replicate virtually anything in the world around me that would typically not be workable with lost-wax or green sand casting techniques, and would allow many reproductions from the same mold.
I'm sure someone has done something like this before, but I'm not finding relevant information from my research on the interwebs. I suspect the cement or ceramic approach can work, but I don't know what exact mold materials would work best to withstand repeated exposures to the high temperature of molten silver and copper (+-1800 - 2000 F) and can hold a reasonable level of detail from the original carving or object. I also want to make sure there is no water content in the mold to explode on me.
Can you help me out? I would appreciate any resources or advise you could give, and I'm sure others would love to try this technique as well, if it can work.
Thanks kindly!
-Jake