Colloidal silver is not the right material. You need to look for "Colloidal Silica". It typically come already suppened in the water base liquid. To my knowledge it is not something you can make out of common materials.
Thoughts using an anti foam in your slurries? Have you ever encountered bacteria developing in your mixing tanks? What about gelling? Im new to the investment casting industry (specifically on the slurry side) and just found your series. I’ve been binge watching for some time now!
Anti-foam is defiantly helpful and you can add to basic colloidals. Most of the advanced colloidal like Remet's Adbond ll which I use, has it already in it. As for bacteria, it can kill a slurry. Washing your hands before dipping or better yet use rubber gloves (wash gloves between dips) make a huge difference. If bacteria does form,( you will smell it before you see it). YOu can add a few drops of bleach. but be careful too much and it can swing the PH the other way which is also bad. Gelling is usually caused by too much evaporating from the tank. So do viscosity checks regularly and add distilled water as needed. I like to use a #5 zuahn cup to test thickness.
Hey! If storing ceramic shell molds for an extended period of time, do they grow mold? Is there a good way of preventing mold of growing in and/or on the shell?
Thinking about removing air bubbles, would putting the dipped piece in a vacuum chamber help, or even work? I would cause the air to expand, popping the bubbles, but might dry out the slip much too quickly.
Other that the limited size of most vacuum chambers, I think you are right in that the slurry would dry too quickly to be effective. Nice thought though.
Have you tried using JustDip from Remet? How do you calculate the Polycast 3D print material expansion during the burn out process using a gas fired furnace. How do you prevent expansion of the print material and the cracking of shell during burn out.
I have used "JustDip", works great. For the the polycast currently I wrap stainless wire around my shells between the 3rd and 4th course dip. I still get occasional cracks but the are fix-a-ble
If air bubbles end up remaining after the metal is poured, and it creates some bubbles of metal, does it mean that your entire casting is ruined or is it just like an inconvenience that you're just able to clean up later? Do you dispose of the brush after using per dip, since it could get crusty if you kept reusing it? If you use a bad or old brush could it harm the detail or any part of your shell?
bubbles or air pockets in the metal in your casing can be problematic. If they are on the surface you can weld and add metal that then can be chase. If the bubble are within the metal and you cant see them you might not have to worry about them. Bubble in general are more of a problem if you are doing mechanical parts of structure work. With art casting we have some flexibility. As for the brushes, as long as you wash after each tip they can last quite awhile.
@@LunarburnStudio hola buen día,no hablo inglés y me cuesta entender que productos usas para hacer la lechada,es sílice coloidal y que otros productos???
Another artist I met years ago gave me a skull from his mold and I made my own mold. My understanding is that he got it this way as well from yet another artist. The story is that is did come from an actual human skull and an anthropologist friend thinks that is correct.
New to all of this but casting a fairly gnarly sculpture. This is like casting university. Followed everything so far and your wisdom and experience it's been invaluable. Silicone mould made. Wax is currently setting. Looking forward to the shell making now I've watched this. Great work! I did have one question. The burnout is making me nervous as I don't have an open-bottom furnace. Been researching boiling the shell. Have you had any experience / done any videos on this / have any opinion?
@@LunarburnStudio Roughly 0.5kg / 1.1lb. I’ve just removed the wax and there are loads of tiny air bubbles, so will have another go with some non-silicone release agent. But definitely getting there. 👌
Your wax temp might be a little chilly. raise it to 115 for the first coat then down to 110C for the next coat and so on. When you hit 90C stay at that temp. The release might make a difference depending on the type of rubber used for your mold.
Hi Eric. I am having issues with removing excess primary stucco off my patterns. I can only get 120F FS stucco (apparently what the local casters use for fine detail) which clumps really badly and the only way I can remove it is with low pressure air - which makes a real mess. Any thoughts? I'm not using Zircon (only aluminium casting), I'm guessing this doesn't have the same issue as it is more dense so falls off the pattern easily. Wondering if I should go 3x Zircon 200# instead of 3x FS for the fine detail and then go to the 30/50 backups. Any help would be appreciated!
If the stucco grains are clumping it sounds like a moisture problem. If you sift the sand with a colander or riddle between dips that will help. Also what is the humidity level of the room? Typically when I have some clumping I just rub off what I can of the loose stuff with my hands.
@@LunarburnStudio Good point, I never considered humidity. My shell room sits around 50-60% so I guess the stucco tubs could accumulate moisture over time. I will compare with a fresh bag. I'm considering building a sealed box to air dust them off in to keep it somewhat tidy. I'm thinking the 120F is likely much more finicky than 50/100. What grade of Zircon stucco are you using for the first coat?
It partly depends on the thickness of your slurry and yes you can make your shell thinner, but thinner shells are prone to issues that could make them fail. Will they work sure, but what fail percentage are you comfortable with? I have found that an extra dip here and there does not drastically effect my bottomline and provides me with a near perfect casting rate.
Q. Can you use any kind of sand or dos the sand need to have a silica content? Or is it just based on the grain size so you could use any type of sand as long as it’s fine ect Love the video and thanks for all the info.
Unfortunately not all sand is the same as sand is more a reference to particle size and less about composition. There are three types of silica that are suitable for ceramic shell. I feel that fused silica (fired quartz) is the best (but pricey), you can also use alumina (typically used in a ceramic studio) and Mullite.
Hello thank you for an interesting series of videos. I am a potter and was wondering what counter measures you have in place for airborne silica. To my understanding the sub 10-micron silica is the nasty stuff that eventually gives you silicosis. The problem with sub 10-micron is that is can stay airborne for something like 48 hours before settling. After that any slight draft will make it airborne again. Wearing a respirator only while applying the stucco wouldn't help much, unless of course you have a big fan or something in place to evacuate the room air in a continuous fashion. Don't mean to be too alarmist about this, just curious what your take on the subject is. In our pottery studio we try to avoid any dusty activities such as glaze mixing or emptying bags of materials, either by doing it outside or in a spray booth with negative pressure / ventilation.
You are right, silica is super nasty in both the shell room and the pottery. I do my best to wear my respirator when I am in both of those environments in general and more so in my shop as my ventilation is minimal. I agree that people working with silica need to know the risks upfront. Unfortunately most people outside of institutions and industrial setting will need to rely solely of personal safety gear. To increase my personal protection I have upgraded to a Portable Electric PAPR Respirator System.
@@LunarburnStudio OK cool, yeah I have been looking at those respirators. Right now we are pretty alright in that we don't do a whole lot of dry work. Clays and glazes are kept wet and the cleaning protocol is rigorous. I installed a central vacuum cleaner that vent outside so that we can vacuum the studio for those little dry chunks of clay that end up everywhere. Again, I don't want to sound too alarming about this, it gets tiring after a while. I was mostly interested in if you had some additional solution to the problem that I might have missed. Best wishes and thanks for an interesting tutorial. As a side note I found it rather interesting that you could get any kind of sintering on the shells in such relative low temperatures. To my understanding the shells are pretty much silica and zirconium and I wouldn't expect those to sinter at all without some kind of flux. I guess it is the addition of colloidal silica that allows for that?
@Björn Lindberg Ya no new tricks for silica dust other then keeping up with the cleaning so its less likely to permeate every where. As for the sintering/bisque firing of the shells, even thought its a ceramic at least in name it behaves quite different. The silica particle bind just enough to form a hard shell but still fairly porous to allow gases to vent on a microscopic level.
Skip the music! It's all over RUclips from before, so no need for it! Especially, the trash music You've found. Your videos will be ten times more valuable and fun to watch without all that noise!
@@LunarburnStudio the trash music is great actually, thanks for all the fantastic information by the way, nothing like this on RUclips. I will use this information for some of my coming research papers on Rapid Casting.
Thanks for the videos. I've been using shell for many years and this is a really good comprehensive guide. I will share with my students in the future.
Thanks. Also let me know if there are other topics you might want me to touch on. I am currently working my way through all the foundry step including finishes. And eventually 3d scanning, 3d printing, modeling.
Damn, this is great! Keep up the good work!
Hi the caloidal is it caloidal silver mixed with distilled water , please clarify .
Regards and thank you for great info much appreciated 👍
Colloidal silver is not the right material. You need to look for "Colloidal Silica". It typically come already suppened in the water base liquid. To my knowledge it is not something you can make out of common materials.
Thoughts using an anti foam in your slurries? Have you ever encountered bacteria developing in your mixing tanks? What about gelling?
Im new to the investment casting industry (specifically on the slurry side) and just found your series. I’ve been binge watching for some time now!
Anti-foam is defiantly helpful and you can add to basic colloidals. Most of the advanced colloidal like Remet's Adbond ll which I use, has it already in it.
As for bacteria, it can kill a slurry. Washing your hands before dipping or better yet use rubber gloves (wash gloves between dips) make a huge difference. If bacteria does form,( you will smell it before you see it). YOu can add a few drops of bleach. but be careful too much and it can swing the PH the other way which is also bad.
Gelling is usually caused by too much evaporating from the tank. So do viscosity checks regularly and add distilled water as needed. I like to use a #5 zuahn cup to test thickness.
Will you show the pour also?
Yes, but right now the videos im working on are a comparison of "Just-dip" and "Suspendaslurry", one on PLA casting and Burnout.
Hey! If storing ceramic shell molds for an extended period of time, do they grow mold? Is there a good way of preventing mold of growing in and/or on the shell?
if they are burned out before storing then mold is not a problem. before burnout store in a cool dry place.
Thinking about removing air bubbles, would putting the dipped piece in a vacuum chamber help, or even work? I would cause the air to expand, popping the bubbles, but might dry out the slip much too quickly.
Other that the limited size of most vacuum chambers, I think you are right in that the slurry would dry too quickly to be effective. Nice thought though.
hey Eric this I sure is a complete noob question but for the pre wet what do you mean when you refer to colloidal?
oh I think it's just the slurry am I correct ? lol
Colloidal refers to liquid silica binder. The slurry is a mixture of colloidal and silica flour
Thanks for another great video.
Thanks for watching!
Have you tried using JustDip from Remet? How do you calculate the Polycast 3D print material expansion during the burn out process using a gas fired furnace. How do you prevent expansion of the print material and the cracking of shell during burn out.
I have used "JustDip", works great. For the the polycast currently I wrap stainless wire around my shells between the 3rd and 4th course dip. I still get occasional cracks but the are fix-a-ble
Thank you.
You're welcome!
If air bubbles end up remaining after the metal is poured, and it creates some bubbles of metal, does it mean that your entire casting is ruined or is it just like an inconvenience that you're just able to clean up later? Do you dispose of the brush after using per dip, since it could get crusty if you kept reusing it? If you use a bad or old brush could it harm the detail or any part of your shell?
bubbles or air pockets in the metal in your casing can be problematic. If they are on the surface you can weld and add metal that then can be chase. If the bubble are within the metal and you cant see them you might not have to worry about them. Bubble in general are more of a problem if you are doing mechanical parts of structure work. With art casting we have some flexibility.
As for the brushes, as long as you wash after each tip they can last quite awhile.
I have a cuestion.
What is the pre wet?
The first wet ??
Prewet is a mixture or distilled water and colloidal 50/50
@@LunarburnStudio hola buen día,no hablo inglés y me cuesta entender que productos usas para hacer la lechada,es sílice coloidal y que otros productos???
Great video! Where did you get the skull mold you pour wax into for your casting.
Another artist I met years ago gave me a skull from his mold and I made my own mold. My understanding is that he got it this way as well from yet another artist. The story is that is did come from an actual human skull and an anthropologist friend thinks that is correct.
I m not able to access dip chart how can I get it
Not sure why its not working for you. email me at lunarburns(@)gmail.com and i can email to you.
New to all of this but casting a fairly gnarly sculpture. This is like casting university. Followed everything so far and your wisdom and experience it's been invaluable. Silicone mould made. Wax is currently setting. Looking forward to the shell making now I've watched this. Great work!
I did have one question. The burnout is making me nervous as I don't have an open-bottom furnace. Been researching boiling the shell. Have you had any experience / done any videos on this / have any opinion?
I have done boil out, it can work but has its own issues. What size is your wax?
@@LunarburnStudio Roughly 0.5kg / 1.1lb. I’ve just removed the wax and there are loads of tiny air bubbles, so will have another go with some non-silicone release agent. But definitely getting there. 👌
Tiny air bubbles in what?
@@LunarburnStudio Tiny air bubbles in the wax, like
Your wax temp might be a little chilly. raise it to 115 for the first coat then down to 110C for the next coat and so on. When you hit 90C stay at that temp.
The release might make a difference depending on the type of rubber used for your mold.
Hello. Can you do this process on fine jewellery ie a ring with a setting or can you only get broad detail?
it can handle the fine detail but at that scale you need to be able to sand blast the shell off. When casitng softer metals blast with glass bead.
Hi Eric. I am having issues with removing excess primary stucco off my patterns. I can only get 120F FS stucco (apparently what the local casters use for fine detail) which clumps really badly and the only way I can remove it is with low pressure air - which makes a real mess. Any thoughts? I'm not using Zircon (only aluminium casting), I'm guessing this doesn't have the same issue as it is more dense so falls off the pattern easily. Wondering if I should go 3x Zircon 200# instead of 3x FS for the fine detail and then go to the 30/50 backups. Any help would be appreciated!
If the stucco grains are clumping it sounds like a moisture problem. If you sift the sand with a colander or riddle between dips that will help. Also what is the humidity level of the room? Typically when I have some clumping I just rub off what I can of the loose stuff with my hands.
@@LunarburnStudio Good point, I never considered humidity. My shell room sits around 50-60% so I guess the stucco tubs could accumulate moisture over time. I will compare with a fresh bag. I'm considering building a sealed box to air dust them off in to keep it somewhat tidy. I'm thinking the 120F is likely much more finicky than 50/100. What grade of Zircon stucco are you using for the first coat?
Can you tell me how to make a pre wet shell before you dip into the ceramic slurry??
My prewet is 50% colloidal liquid and 50% distilled water
Surely you can get away with four-five coats, if you're careful?
It partly depends on the thickness of your slurry and yes you can make your shell thinner, but thinner shells are prone to issues that could make them fail. Will they work sure, but what fail percentage are you comfortable with? I have found that an extra dip here and there does not drastically effect my bottomline and provides me with a near perfect casting rate.
Q. Can you use any kind of sand or dos the sand need to have a silica content? Or is it just based on the grain size so you could use any type of sand as long as it’s fine ect
Love the video and thanks for all the info.
Unfortunately not all sand is the same as sand is more a reference to particle size and less about composition. There are three types of silica that are suitable for ceramic shell. I feel that fused silica (fired quartz) is the best (but pricey), you can also use alumina (typically used in a ceramic studio) and Mullite.
@@LunarburnStudio thanks for the info it’s much appreciated, I look forward to your next video.
Hello thank you for an interesting series of videos. I am a potter and was wondering what counter measures you have in place for airborne silica. To my understanding the sub 10-micron silica is the nasty stuff that eventually gives you silicosis. The problem with sub 10-micron is that is can stay airborne for something like 48 hours before settling. After that any slight draft will make it airborne again. Wearing a respirator only while applying the stucco wouldn't help much, unless of course you have a big fan or something in place to evacuate the room air in a continuous fashion. Don't mean to be too alarmist about this, just curious what your take on the subject is. In our pottery studio we try to avoid any dusty activities such as glaze mixing or emptying bags of materials, either by doing it outside or in a spray booth with negative pressure / ventilation.
You are right, silica is super nasty in both the shell room and the pottery. I do my best to wear my respirator when I am in both of those environments in general and more so in my shop as my ventilation is minimal. I agree that people working with silica need to know the risks upfront. Unfortunately most people outside of institutions and industrial setting will need to rely solely of personal safety gear. To increase my personal protection I have upgraded to a Portable Electric PAPR Respirator System.
@@LunarburnStudio OK cool, yeah I have been looking at those respirators. Right now we are pretty alright in that we don't do a whole lot of dry work. Clays and glazes are kept wet and the cleaning protocol is rigorous. I installed a central vacuum cleaner that vent outside so that we can vacuum the studio for those little dry chunks of clay that end up everywhere. Again, I don't want to sound too alarming about this, it gets tiring after a while. I was mostly interested in if you had some additional solution to the problem that I might have missed. Best wishes and thanks for an interesting tutorial.
As a side note I found it rather interesting that you could get any kind of sintering on the shells in such relative low temperatures. To my understanding the shells are pretty much silica and zirconium and I wouldn't expect those to sinter at all without some kind of flux. I guess it is the addition of colloidal silica that allows for that?
@Björn Lindberg Ya no new tricks for silica dust other then keeping up with the cleaning so its less likely to permeate every where. As for the sintering/bisque firing of the shells, even thought its a ceramic at least in name it behaves quite different. The silica particle bind just enough to form a hard shell but still fairly porous to allow gases to vent on a microscopic level.
Colloidal = sodium silicate?
Sodium Silicate is a component of Colloidal.
Where do you purchase your zircon sand?
I get mine for Remet.com You will need to call them to place an order, but they have offices and distribution points around the world.
@@LunarburnStudio thank you love the channel!!!
Skip the music! It's all over RUclips from before, so no need for it! Especially, the trash music You've found. Your videos will be ten times more valuable and fun to watch without all that noise!
Thanks for the tip, Yes am new to this and I am still experimenting and learning to limit the use music.
I liked the music a lot actually.
@@LunarburnStudio the trash music is great actually, thanks for all the fantastic information by the way, nothing like this on RUclips. I will use this information for some of my coming research papers on Rapid Casting.
Thanks for the videos. I've been using shell for many years and this is a really good comprehensive guide. I will share with my students in the future.
Thanks. Also let me know if there are other topics you might want me to touch on. I am currently working my way through all the foundry step including finishes. And eventually 3d scanning, 3d printing, modeling.
Pro trick : you can watch movies on kaldroStream. Been using it for watching lots of of movies lately.
@Kase Mekhi yup, I have been using Kaldrostream for years myself =)