Hand poured Silver- it's all in the details

[dixiesilvergirl]

 

 

 

Hand pouring silver  it’s all in the the details

 

Many of us love to watch the videos of people pouring silver, what you don't see is that sometimes they have to pour the same piece over and over to get the detail they are looking for. if you are using graphite molds it can frustrating but if you are pouring into sand that means having to start by making the mold again, and again and again.This can be a very timely process.

There are so many factors involved to get a full pour that it is a high chance each time you pour it will not come out. Temperature of the mold,\ the metal and the room can all be a part as can many other factors. And sometimes you get more detail than planned:

 

You have to be careful what you are using in the mold , as you can see this really cool octopus says “CHINA” on it. LOL

Here is the finished product without China on it:

 

We have really enjoyed all the creative things we have seen in the silver community, there are so many talented people.Not to mention, all of the other artists(musicians, photographers, wood carvers, etc) we have found on social media. Remember every time you see a piece of handmade art that the person that made it put a lot of time, energy and passion into making it. If you see art you like, you should let them know, it is nice to hear. If You can support them by purchasing their art, at the least share it with others, via social media or in person. Art if very important and we should encourage our children and do our part to support the craftsman and artists of this world, this rock we call home is a much nicer place because of them.

Thanks for reading, Happy Stacking!

 

[Lowlow]

That's really cool dixie.

I have not done sand casting, but I have done steam casting.  I did steam casting with a tuna can and some wet paper towels, a small piece of dowel, a small propane stove, a clay flower pot, and a tomato paste can (one of the small ones) to make silver pendants.  I started with wax from candles, heated it up so that it could be molded, then made the designs as it hardened and used eating utensils to form it into the shapes I wanted.  After that I put a small piece of wax on it (is it called a sprue or something ?  I forget the word, but it's the channel the metal goes through when pouring), anyway, I put that on it and molded a piece of silly putty into a kind of dome and put the wax piece above it.  Then I put the tomato paste can around it with the piece kind of suspended upwards in the middle of the can and poured investment around it and let it solidify and dry.  After that I removed the silly putt which left an indentation in the investment, put the can over the propane heater outside and put the clay flower pot over it and let the pot act as an oven containing the heat so that it cooked the wax out.  Then once that was done I used tongs to move the can and I got an acetylene torch and melted a silver eagle and sprinkled a little borax from the dollar store on it until it was shiny and glowing silver - silver is so beautiful when it is melted to a high temperature!  Safety goggles, of course.  Then I lifted my crucible up (I don't remember what I used as a crucible, actually) and poured the silver into the indentation and kept the torch on it.  The silver won't flow into the channel, it just beads up in the indentation.  Next I used the tuna can with the dowel on it as a handle and wet paper towels inside, I simply put the upside down tuna can on top of the tomato paste can with the melted silver in it and the sudden burst of steam created when the wet paper towels hit the rim of the tomato paste can is enough to force the silver through the channel and cast the void in the investment where the wax was, happens pretty much instantaneously.  After that I waited until the piece cooled a little bit then tossed the tomato paste can into a bucket of water and rinsed until the investment washed away, leaving the cast piece.  Then it's just a little clean up and it's done.  Assuming you have a blow torch and a propane heater the whole setup costs about 20$us in materials, plus the silver eagle, and you can cast anything up to about 1/2oz in size including earrings, rings, etc.  Since the wax is destroyed in the process, every piece is unique.  This process would work with gold or lead, but I only ever did it with silver.

Edit, I just remembered why I can't remember what I used for a crucible - the answer is nothing, I didn't use one, that's why I don't remember what I used.  The indentation in the crucible was large enough that I could simply melt the silver dollar directly in the indentation using the blow torch, that's why the investment and its tomato paste can stays so hot while I was melting the silver and made so much steam when I put the tuna can with wet paper towels on it, that's part of why it works.

Edit #2 - here I found a link with instructions for how to do this steam casting technique that has some pictures.  I don't know if this is where I learned to do this, but it might be because looking at the pictures they look familiar, and that is exactly how I had the dowel connected to my tuna can as a handle and that seems pretty original.  This page was also (c)1999 and I did this about 20 years ago so that's about right.

http://users.frii.com/dnorris/steamcast6.html

Edit #3 - found a better link that has the pictures already linked in.

http://www.myheap.com/casting-molding/my-heap-mold-book/chapter-10-steam-casting/steam-casting-lessons.html?showall=1

[dixiesilvergirl]

Very cool process, and lots of great info! Thanks for sharing! We have not tried this method yet, with the great how to you shared, we may have to give,it,a try sou,ds like fun!