I have a wax figure i would like to cast into metal bColloidald to coat it with some sort of ceramic material except clay to fire melt the wax out leaving a perfect mold for a metal pour. Is this Colloidal silica liquid and I add sand to it or is it the other way around. Or do I need to use something completely different.
The spyne is pressed into shape while in the manufacturing process. Carving out your own spyne on a wooden blade will just weaken in.
I think I mentioned this before. What are your options for the burnout? How are you going to to get rid of the wax? This will determine to some extend your options for investment. If you can run a burnout kiln for 3 days I would strongly recommend using plaster/sand investment instead of ceramic shell. If you can use the facilities of an art foundry they will only do ceramic shell and you will need to do ceramic shell. You need to follow their instructions. 1) what way are you using to get rid of wax? 2) how many pieces are you making and how large, are you going to join with a group of other people contributing their pieces? 3) what is your facility for casting 4) what metal are you using The answer to these questions will to some extent determine useful type of investment. Ceramic shell is for example not useful for jewelry sized objects. It's too hard to remove easily and the removal process will break delicate structures. Also slurry will set rock hard if you don't maintain it and that investment process takes usually a day or two. Plaster/sand is fast to invest but needs much longer burnout. I would very strongly recommend to take a class or at least read a book. As far as I remember the book from clay to bronze has a pretty detailed descriptions of lost wax casting.
