Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
Kickstart the Wedge
Leah and I have been working on the process of designing and promoting the WEDGE iPad stand on Kickstarter!
Help Spread the word!
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Pewter Casting! First Edition
Well folks, it's been a slow and steady progression toward creating pewter castings of the Busted Safari series and now we have (sort of) success! Below we have the exciting results of Avington the Alligator cast in lead-free pewter.
I first attempted this last week without such a favorable outcome. Initially I tried using an oxy-acetylene torch to heat a graphite crucible to melt the pewter. This process just wasn't that efficient (especially if the goal is to pour numerous castings at a time). It wasn't possible to maintain a consistent melt temperature because I was using a cutting torch tip, so I had to keep the torch in my hand and secure the mold and test the temperature. Plus I felt like was wasting a lot of fuel and I'm sure that someone was bound to need the torch because it was a shared resource. Sorry that I didn't throw up any images of that endeavor, but I had my hands full of fire. Also, the castings didn't come out. Mrph.
As you'll see below, I transitioned to using a good 'ol pot and hot plate. You'll have one of these if you live in one of those make-shift-hip apartments here in bklyn cause you just don't have a kitchen. At any rate, the set-up I have is the melting pot, 2-part mold clamped together sitting in a tub of sand. This proved to be a lot more effective, but the castings just didn't turn out the way I intended. The first one didn't fill out entirely (he has no eyes) and they both have heavy sinking where the sprue filled. Also, the surface finish is off due to the mold and the temperature of the metal I think. It's still a work-in-progress, but I'm really excited to have gotten this far with casting the pewter models. Now it's on to more troubleshooting.
I first attempted this last week without such a favorable outcome. Initially I tried using an oxy-acetylene torch to heat a graphite crucible to melt the pewter. This process just wasn't that efficient (especially if the goal is to pour numerous castings at a time). It wasn't possible to maintain a consistent melt temperature because I was using a cutting torch tip, so I had to keep the torch in my hand and secure the mold and test the temperature. Plus I felt like was wasting a lot of fuel and I'm sure that someone was bound to need the torch because it was a shared resource. Sorry that I didn't throw up any images of that endeavor, but I had my hands full of fire. Also, the castings didn't come out. Mrph.
As you'll see below, I transitioned to using a good 'ol pot and hot plate. You'll have one of these if you live in one of those make-shift-hip apartments here in bklyn cause you just don't have a kitchen. At any rate, the set-up I have is the melting pot, 2-part mold clamped together sitting in a tub of sand. This proved to be a lot more effective, but the castings just didn't turn out the way I intended. The first one didn't fill out entirely (he has no eyes) and they both have heavy sinking where the sprue filled. Also, the surface finish is off due to the mold and the temperature of the metal I think. It's still a work-in-progress, but I'm really excited to have gotten this far with casting the pewter models. Now it's on to more troubleshooting.
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