block casting.

ssjwizard · Jun 12, 2002

i have an idea for some block casting. what im thinking ill do is take my maze 2 and stick it in a can full of wet plaster to get the correct outer dimensions. once thats dried im going to melt wax into the plaster mold. now once i have a nice rectangular wax block im going to put that on a drill press and mil out my WB design. now that i have a wax wb im going to put that into another canaster of plaster to make a mold of the final block. them im going to melt a block of copper somehow havnt figured this out yet and pour it into the mold.

what do you guys think?

JFettig · Jun 12, 2002

if you could figure out how to do this, that would be great, you could just cut the wax, it would be easier... the dden block is like 2x3 or maby a little bigger... and that would be the size you want....

ssjwizard · Jun 12, 2002

yea i could even get it with the mounting holes if i could find a way to fill them with somthing so that it will release from the plaster when i want to get it back out. but i think im just going to strech a piece of plastic wrap or something over it so that when i go to take it out it will just slide out of the mold.

anyone have any ideas on a way to melt copper?

ed8150 · Jun 12, 2002

well there was that home made torch running on just a can of some kind of fuel. it didnt seem to hard to make on of those. do you have a foundry at school or nearby?

ssjwizard · Jun 12, 2002

there isnt a foundary around here that i know of. the cheepest way to melt this stuff is what im looking for. i soupose i could get a propane bottle(full size one) and just take it to the bottom of a steel can with the coper block inside until its melted then grab it and pour it into my mold. while wearing protective gloves of course.

JFettig · Jun 12, 2002

haha youll need more than just gloves!

more like a 10ft handle on that thing....(maby 3foot with 2 pares of gloves on it do it really really quick

ssjwizard · Jun 13, 2002

yea i kinda figured that but i dont realy want to get any big tongs. anyone know how i would go about finding a foundry. and if so what would i need to do ask them if they could melt X amount of pure coper into my mold???? maybe ill do it from aluminm as its melting point is alot lower.

gone_fishin · Jun 13, 2002

Here's a link for you on cheap foundries

Melting points of metals

Do a search here in the forums. Someone recently was going to try this.

Moriquendi · Jun 13, 2002

I dont think plaster of paris will work,

When i wanted to do some casting for an art project in school i asked if making a plaster of paris mold would work and the teacher said it wouldent because the plaster would explode. And i know that if you have plaster in the clay when you fire a pot or something it explodes.

you could use clay insted of the plaster , its a ceramic and can easily handle the tempretures.

the other thing you would have to watch out for is that as soon as the hot metal comes into contact with the cold mold it will spit everywhere, i know because i have tried it with lead.

CreePinG_DeatH · Jun 13, 2002

it depends as far as the plaster goes. When the molten metal cools in the plaster, it will contract and crush the mold. You could try it, but most likely the casting will be forked. THe other thing is that you have to gradually heat the plaster before using it. The main reason is because if there is ANY wetness in the mold, I mean ANY, it will cause a steam explosion flinging molten gobs everywhere. That's not fun.

If you want, you can look up making your own little foundry from backyardmetalcasting.com like Gone_fishin said. That is where i started to get my info and I am building my own furnace to sand cast my waterblock.

ssjwizard · Jun 13, 2002

yea im thinking about doing it. im might use ceramic or clay instead if plaster is that dangerous.

hawkdude · Jun 13, 2002

i think, that boiling and pouring the copper would dangerously increase the amount of impurities, which would make your block less effective,

but the raw structure on top of all your surfaces would definetly be good for the heat dissapation.

morphling1 · Jun 13, 2002

Plus normal casting would trap air bubles, and that will lower block performnce, the only way of casting something like water blocks would be preasure casting in steel molds, that's what is used for higher end products from Aluminium,Copper,Magnesium ...
But that is very expensive method.

ssjwizard · Jun 13, 2002

yea i might not do it. btw morphling when are you going to get that awesome wb of yours milled man i want to buy one.

CreePinG_DeatH · Jun 13, 2002

I am not sure about clay or ceramics... you could ask on the forum at backyardmetalcasting. As far as the work having bubbles in it, you can use degasser tablets which take the gas out of the molten material. And for impurities... normal copper is already like 8% of another material, might be zinc or something. But again, any impurities that are in the copper will float to the top and you can skim them off with a dross skimmer.

block casting.

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