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red3183 — Bronze Samus Process
Published: 2009-05-15 05:29:54 +0000 UTC; Views: 2550; Favourites: 22; Downloads: 52
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Description
Here is the process for making the Bronze Samus.1. Wax Samus is casted/sculpted. Then she is gated (pour spout and air vents) up.
2. Same for the Base
3. A thin mix of plaster and sand is sprayed on to the piece to ensure maximum detail.
4. (Not shown) Sprayed pieces are then placed into cylinder mold (investment) made of chicken wire and tar paper. Thicker mix of plaster and sand is then poured/filled into the mold .
5. (Not shown) Investments are placed into the kiln for wax burn out.
6. Investments are placed in the sand pit and bronze is poured in.
7. Investments are broken apart to reveal your Pride and Joy
8. (Not shown) Extra air vents and pour spouts are cut off... and this is what you get [link]
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Comments: 66
Do it! It's awesome to know that your piece will outlive you... lol
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very cool, is their armature in the sculpture? and if so what happens to it?
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It's solid bronze. No armature inside. There is a threaded rod in the foot, being held onto the base by a 1/4" nut.
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can you use armatures in wax sculptures that are gonna be cast like this?
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It has to be able to burn out. I did use bamboo skewers to hold some of the pieces together.
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That's not "my" workshop, that's a class at my community college. But yeah, it is pretty nice.
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Frickin awesome bro 
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O_____O It must cost quite a bit to do this .__.
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It's not too bad, it's just lots and lots of work. You can see some of the process in the WIP for this.
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That's only half of the work. I got to spend about 20 hours more grinding and polishing her.
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So awesome, I too am glad you posted this. Very cool to see how she came to be after you initial sculpting.
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I absolutely love seeing this process in action. I've only read about it before, and it's fascinating. Thanks for the glance into your world!
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I love watching the lost wax process. It's cool how many things are still made this way, including things like car engine parts.
Great work!
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I saw a documentary about Ferrari and how they made their engines this way.
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*grins* lost wax casting is fun...unless you mess up, which I probably would...*grimaces* I made a pewter luna moth when I was in highschool, and it came out pretty good except for a couple of holes in his oh-so-thin wings, and he was missing an eye, 2 1/2 legs, and 1/2 an antenna...
don't even ask how the sword attempt turned out...
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Hey how did the sword...? j/k
I would like to try casting pewter someday. Supposedly you can cast pewter in the silicone molds that I use.
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Really? Why the hell did they make us do lost wax casting then...*frowns* then I could have tried to make it more than once...
...if that works, it genius...I know pewter has a low melting point...
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lol. It's cause schools want to teach the fundamentals... basics. Plus its a lot cheaper that way. I'll double check to see if the silicone can cast pewter.
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Well... the silicone I use doesn't, but they do sell another product that does. Here you go:
[link]
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That is really cool seeing the step by step thanks for sharing!
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You're welcome. Thanks for looking.
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Heheh I remember doing stuff like this a couple years ago. I used to work in a bronze casting facility where I made the molds, poured and detailed the wax castings a poured the bronze into the molds. Very interesting yet toxic process. Nice to see your progress pics. Knowing the value of bronze and the time that goes into it this must have a hell of a lot of $.
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Well where I worked it was toxic. LOL.
We had huge tubs of molten wax and the fumes werent healthy to breathe without proper ventalation. The same with mold making and the detailing room cause you were right over a hot detailing iron and the smoke from melting wax always wafted in your direction. The room where the wax positives were dipped into the white substance *forgot what its called* was highly toxic silica and I am glad I didn't work in that room. If people didnt wear good respirators they would have health problems over time.
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Oh ok. Yeah that mold stuff, I think its usually ceramic, could be toxic.
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Incredible, that's some serious skill and commitment you have there. Looks very dangerous with the molten Bronze....
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I guess it could be dangerous... but you get pretty cautious when something that hot is near you.
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Dude! It looks like some sort of crazy mad science! I had a vague idea of the process before, but seeing actual imagery of it makes it look a lot more painstaking and involved. I'm so impressed that it comes out so clean and polished at the end when it starts out in a forest of wax.
A question: in the first stage there, when you've got the red wax around the sculpture (for the air vents, yah?) do you sculpt the subject out of clay and then pour that wax over and around it? How do you end up with an end product that doesn't have metal cast into where the wax pillars were too?
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Grinding off the extra vents and flaws is no picnic either. Takes forever since you are technically trying to sculpt in metal. It's loud, you get really dirty, and tiny bits of hot bronze is flying all over... usually onto you.
You sculpt the figure first out of what ever materials you want. Then you make a mold of the figure, usually rubber/silicone. You then take the mold and pour a wax copy. Take the wax copy out and clean up the figure as best you can. Then it's onto gating.
Oh metal does cast into the air vents. You have to cut all of that off. You can see in the last photo, Samus is in that mess of investment and vents. I got too excited and cut them all off before I could take a better picture.
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Wow~ That's really interesting. Thanks so much for explaning it to me. I had this silly idea that you just pour into a mould and it comes out all prefect and all you have to do is polish it. *laughs*
Great work, as usual~ Can't wait to see her finished!
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Dang, looks like a lot of work, but I still wanna try it.
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Yeah! Do It! It's worth the effort.
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I would, but do not have the materials.
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holy. looks a lot of work and expensive too. thx for sharing this, rare to see around here.
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You're welcome. I like sharing
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So awesome, man. You hardly ever get to see the behind-the-scenes stuff when it comes to metalworks; makes one appreciate the final product much much more. Thanks for sharing.
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You're welcome. It's fun to see what it takes to make something like this. Lots of people have requested photos of the process. But man... if they could experience the real thing. The heat... glowing molten bronze... it's awesome!
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I bet; I wish I could do something like that. How'd you get into metalworking anyway?
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