First castable castings

These are my first ever brass parts designed and printed by me. They are burnout, and a first for that too. It was 2 out of 3 ain’t bad situation. For some unknown reason the cylinder heads did not do that well but that is a NYC part anyway! (:->)

The sideframes are just KILLER! The shrink over the length of the sideframe was .004, very negligible.!!! I have a large quantity of burnout trees in route to my caster now. I am hoping for similar success.

I need to know the shrink when calculating the oversize for making master patterns. I had it down to near perfection when I was buying my prints. Now I can go right to burnout to become brass parts as final use even in a 1 or 2 items needed situation, or to become durable master patterns for lost wax casting.

This is just about as much fun as when I first started making my parts in Solidworks, but I get to hold them in my hands a few hours later. It just does not get any better than that!

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Nice! Who is your caster? What all do you have to provide them with? Just the printed model, Or actual molds?

John,

I have been using Valley Brass and Bronze for over 20 years. He is mostly a brass caster (no silver or gold for sure) and mostly makes model railroad parts. He is the last man standing to my knowledge doing this full time in the US.

Previously my prints were used as master patterns for lost wax casting, but as mentioned this time was using the castable material to go right to brass.

Bill

Bill,

Are you happy with that casting? I’m not sure if it’s from the photo, but I see some surface roughness usually associated with not post curing the parts enough before casting them.

2 out of 3 are really good. I will see what happens once I get the big batch back in a week+.

Looks like you are using the Formlabs grey resin. Have you tried the blue “castable” resin yet? If so, how didi they compare?

I don’t think he used the grey resin to cast.

Ralph

I used the blue castable material for the first 3 cast brass samples. My big batch ships on Monday,

Bill

Hi Guys,
I own a casting and finished products factory in Rhode Island that does a lot of casting for designers in many different materials… all the golds, Deox sterling Silver, Pure silver. Brass, Bronze, White Bronze , a form of stainless and a whole lot of other processes.

We grow models in the Form 1 blue material for casting purposes not just for Jewelry… we have also been doing all kinds of parts like drawer pulls, Hinges, Trophy Handles, Badges for Military and police.
The advantage we have is if a casting goes wrong, you can send your STL file or 3dm file and we can grow it and cast it for you.
Our website Is being revised after 15 years so it may be up or down during various days for service . you can contact me from there.
www.racecarjewelry.com
Daniel G.

Guess i was confused ~ you show grey prints in your photos above. I thought that is what you were casting.

are you guys following the same burn out schedule given by formlabs or something different . my caster says company has given a 12 hrs timing which is way too long