/diy/ - Do It Yourself

As in title.

>Be me, autist pepe living in Asia
>International shipping is "HOLY SHIT" expensive
>Want to cast really cool shit in metal (maybe Britannia Pewter or possibly Bi58Sn42 or hell maybe even just rose's metal or some lead-toxic gay shit like that)
>Have a resin 3d printer, want to pour high-heat silicon molds around my print, or maybe high-end plaster?
>Then want to vacuum cast metal into it using DIY vacuum table

But like... a burnout furnace costs $800 minimum??? And they're TINY! Like 6" tiny. Wtf am I supposed to cast in something that's supposed to be smaller than a mold that's supposed to be smaller than a perforated steel flask that's supposed to be smaller than 6 inches?

Nigger nickel balls!

A vacuum cast setup starts at $1200 (lol. LMAO even. Built my own for $120, including the vacuum pump)

An electric furnace costs $200 but I just stomach that, whatever. I don't want to ghetto-rig a microwave kiln in my yuppie apartment.

My main issue here as you can probably tell is this burnout kiln shit. It makes no sense to me how a furnace that can heat to 2000F costs 200 but a burnout kiln (wtf even is the difference? Don't they both just heat shit?) costs four times that and needs to run for TWELVE HOURS? I might get a visit from the police if I consume that much electricity kek

So anons, TL:DR, do I need this burnout furnace for investment casting? Can I get away with just molding silicon around my resin 3d print? Is silicon even porous enough to work with vacuum casting or does it HAVE to be plaster (and if so, does that plaster HAVE to be in a burnout kiln?)

The internet is giving me mixed signals about this. Some say I can get into this hobby with $100, a vacuum cleaner and a used microwave. Others are like nO yOu mUsT sPeNd $10,000 oN a mEtAl fLaSk aNd $30,000 oN a pAiR oF sAfEtY gOgGlEs.

Tell me what to do, anons. I'm ready to burn down my building (will be doing this on a ventilated balcony). Kek