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Printing with wax for metal casting?

Posted by anode505

anode505

Printing with wax for metal casting?
January 21, 2011 11:45AM

Registered: 13 years ago
Posts: 99

Has anyone done printing in wax for metal casting?

Or on the back end, making molds. Though the surface finish would need to be dealt with on the molds (but could also just hit the wax part with a pencil torch) Any ideas for smoothing a ABS/PLA printed mold? Heated clay sculpting tools?

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jgilmore

Re: Printing with wax for metal casting?
January 21, 2011 12:39PM

Registered: 16 years ago
Posts: 438

I haven't heard of anybody successfully printing with wax, but I have heard of somebody who did "lost plastic casting" instead of "lost wax casting" and it worked.

--
I'm building it with Baling Wire

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morrist

Re: Printing with wax for metal casting?
January 21, 2011 12:45PM

Registered: 13 years ago
Posts: 167

i believe there is a claystruder. so you could do an investment mold with ceramics
here it is in thingiverse
[www.thingiverse.com]

Morrist

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Buback

Re: Printing with wax for metal casting?
January 21, 2011 01:51PM

Registered: 13 years ago
Posts: 601

I was looking into letter sealing wax a while back. I never got any to play with, but it comes in sticks for use in hot glue guns.

here's a store that sells it

from what i've seen before, sealing wax is much harder than candle wax. Assuming that the sticks for glue guns have similar viscosity to hot glue, i think that it might be easier to work with than regular candle wax.

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Have Blue

Re: Printing with wax for metal casting?
January 24, 2011 11:48AM

Registered: 14 years ago
Posts: 172

Stratasys has information here: [www.fortus.com]

A fellow in my foundry class this past semester used the same process (though using a LEGO figurine, which is also ABS) at home with a plaster mold and ceramic kiln to make his own mold. The cast aluminum part came out surprisingly well!

[haveblue.org]

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rkoeppl

Re: Printing with wax for metal casting?
January 26, 2011 03:16PM

Registered: 13 years ago
Posts: 443

PLA instead of wax would be fine as lost mold from what i know.

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Tramagust

Re: Printing with wax for metal casting?
January 26, 2011 03:28PM

Registered: 13 years ago
Posts: 65

Some people have used ABS as lost foam casting. It sort of works (some black gunk accumulates)

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Greg Frost

Re: Printing with wax for metal casting?
January 27, 2011 05:02AM

Registered: 13 years ago
Posts: 486

to quote from Vik Olliver's site that sells PLA:

"Clear PLA is suitable as the core for investment castings, as the plastic vapourises leaving no char."

Perhaps Clear PLA wont have the black gunk problem.