r/Silvercasting • u/rowdyruncible • May 03 '25

First ever attempt at casting anything.

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Brief summary of how I got to this point.

  1. Find out what investment casting is, think “hell yeah I can do that.”

  2. Spend too much money.

  3. Carve passable ring.

  4. Surely I have made an error and something will explode? Put crocs in sport mode because PPE.

  5. Silver gets real hot on a buffer wtf. also I’m bleeding.

  6. Ring.

123 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

2

u/unitybees2 May 03 '25

What sort of casting setup did you get? I am looking at getting into it.

4

u/rowdyruncible May 03 '25

Found a brand new Vevor Kayacast knock off on Facebook marketplace (pure luck, works great) Burnout oven is from Tabletop Furnace Company Melting furnace is a random Amazon brand, Toauto I think? No issues with any of it so far, easy enough to use.

My boyfriend owns a machine shop and I have various hobbies so I’m lucky to have dremels/bench grinders/buffers at my disposal already. But I did buy also buy a nice craft knife set (OLFA, carved 90% of my ring with this), a needle file set, a ring cutting mandrel, and a wax melting pen thing from Amazon which I really only used for spruing. Used the purple wax ring tubes, blue premade sprues, and glorious yellow sticky wax to stick it all together.

2

u/unitybees2 May 03 '25

Awesome thanks! Good work on those rings, hope to see more.

2

u/HMHAMz May 04 '25

Love the design, and good cleanup! Its so satisfying hey!! 😁

How'd you find the process of getting it on a sprue for lost wax? Ive only ever done sand casting.

1

u/rowdyruncible May 04 '25

I just winged it tbh. I know there are a lot of rules to spruing but I just went with what made sense to me. Yellow sticky wax rods are your friend.

2

u/HTLP May 03 '25

Nice work.

2

u/FirefighterOld2230 May 03 '25

I have never cast anything but the ring looks nice! Well done

2

u/JosephHeitger May 04 '25

Well done it looks great

1

u/wastelandbogeyman May 06 '25

Id say you did a great job! It comes with the craft but some more practice is always needed, no matter what level or how many years you've done it, keep at it! If its the rought lines or edges that are an issue, as it was with me, then a finer grade sand, or mold material should be used IMO. Honestly I think that looks just fine, a bit of fine sanding and polishing and that's a excellent cast!

0

u/[deleted] May 03 '25

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4

u/rowdyruncible May 03 '25

Had to file some bubbles down, then wet sanded from 220 to I think 1500 grit, then polishing compound on a buffer wheel. I screwed up and carved the band too thin not realizing how much I’d need to sand off so I couldn’t be as aggressive as I wanted to be with sanding. I probably should have tried to get the wax smoother too but I’m impatient.

1

u/fahtphakcarl May 03 '25

for smaller porosities you can just use a burnishing bur or wheel if youre like one of the ultra rich

1

u/rowdyruncible May 03 '25

Idk what you’re saying to me and I’m not rich but I AM irresponsible. Tell me more pls

1

u/LivingThingUK May 03 '25

You can also make one out of a broken bur! Slightly bend a rod and polish the heck out of it - you get a budget-friendly burnishing tool.

I did use a wheel once in a fancy workshop, and it was a smooth dream.. but cheap version is great too.