DIY Metal Casting? How the nigger nickle balls do I do this for under $2000 USD?

[Anonymous No.2778735]

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

[Anonymous No.2778741]

>>2778735
tin melts at like 238c

[Anonymous No.2778750]

My issue isn't with the tin. You can melt that on a stovetop. It's with curing the plaster mold and vaporizing the cast resin positive. That shit needs to be like 780 CELSIUS for it to burn away and leave only the plaster mold

[Anonymous No.2778754]

what about the old lost wax method?

[robowaifutechnician No.2778755]

do the graphite rod method
I'd show the YouTube video but my internet speed is balls rn

[Anonymous No.2778756]

>>2778754
Aren't they the same thing? I'm talking about a lost resin investment casting method. The resin positive would have to burn away / vaporize leaving only plaster mold negative behind. Either way, would still require a burnout furnace which is the main expense I'm trying to avoid (not just upfront but in electricity and visibility; my neighbors would freak the fuck out if they knew I was casting metal lmao)

[Anonymous No.2778757]

>>2778755
Graphite rod method? Do tell sir :o

[Anonymous No.2778758]

Btw, to make clear what sort of process I had in mind to imitate, I was looking at these two youtube videos:

[Anonymous No.2778759]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFmXrgZOjD0&t=3s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCI_FPDQA-U&t=1995s

Sorry for spamming. Enter key was set to submit. :/

[Anonymous No.2778761]

>>2778756
well the advantage of wax is its low melt temperature means you'd only need a normal oven
probably the cheapest way to test out the hobby before you start getting invested in more advanced levels where you need extractor fans to vent the fumes.

[Anonymous No.2778790]

>>2778735
>Britannia Pewter or possibly Bi58Sn42 or hell maybe even just rose's metal or some lead-toxic gay shit like that
Don't bother with those shit-tier metals. Aluminium is the answer you seek. It's much stronger, easy to get scraps, and won't give you lead poisoning.
I figured this out totally by accident a while back:

>Get some sort of steel pot to use as a melting crucible
>Find some old bricks and build yourself a smelter like pic related (doesn't have to be as tall)
>Make a metal pipe attached to a fan - I duct taped the fan from an old hairdryer to a section of exhaust pipe
>Build a good fire and rev up that blower
>Put your aluminum scrap into the steel pot and put that in the fire
>WA LA, molten aluminium

You can also build an electric smelter/kiln with a steel propane tank, firebrick, and the heating element from an old stovetop.

>>2778757
>Graphite rod method?
Make a crucible with a big firebrick, have another firebrick as a lid with a hole on each side.
Use an arc welder with a graphite rod in each clamp to strike an incredibly hot arc inside the firebrick cruicble. This gets so hot it can literally melt steel.

[Anonymous No.2778793]

>>2778790
>WA LA
*voila

[Anonymous No.2778796]

>>2778790
Issue is, I need something that feels weighty -- I might as well stick with electroplated resin if I were to go the aluminium route. This wont be a "functional component" per se. It needs to be ductile enough to be able to drop on concrete and not shatter into a gazillion pieces and hard enough to resist scratching (though I plan to electroplate to copper and nickel later anyway), but since these are to be jewelry and like, cups and wearables and stuff, I want them to FEEL nice and solid (regardless of whether they actually are) instead of 3d printed garbo.

I've heard Bi58Sn42 is VERY brittle so maybe that's out of the question but pewter is often used for this kind of stuff, right? And it has the added benefit of melting relatively low... so when I inevitably fuck up, I'll only ruin something small instead of burning down the entire building and getting deported kek

Sorry, I should've made the use case clearer up front.

[Anonymous No.2778797]

>>2778796
just make it out of plastic and then paint it with some fancy metallic paint

[Anonymous No.2778818]

>>2778793
go back

[Anonymous No.2778823]

>>2778797
But I'm an autist

[Anonymous No.2778829]

>>2778735
Why do you want to use burnout methods in the first place? unless you want to make some really intricate pieces, lost form with some clay and wax works just fine. You can even put the filled mold back into the furnace to make sure the tin gets everywhere.

[Anonymous No.2778841]

>>2778796
3d print and electroplate. add a slug or sand for weight.

[Anonymous No.2778850]

>>2778818
Look into cold casting resin with metal powders. It won't be as dense as regular metal casting but it will be a lot more dense and more metallic than regular resin.

[Anonymous No.2778860]

>>2778735
I have this book. It's good.

[Anonymous No.2779164]

>>2778735
you want to make your own metal parts, your own furnace, your own ingots and refractory bricks...

[Anonymous No.2779347]

>>2778735
Some retarded replies in here. That's good, that's how it should be.
What are you wanting to cast, anon? You're talking about resin-prints and doing work in your apartment, but then you note how small this shit is. A 6" investment flask isn't tiny, it's huge, a "small" investment flask is more like 2"x3", and there are jewelry makers who will scoff and call that massive. Vacuum investment casting is great for teeny tiny highly detailed things. The bigger you go, the less efficacious, especially in a home shop/diy setting. As you go bigger and work with larger volumes, you get greater hydrostatic pressure from the metal you're casting, and you don't have to go that big before this vastly exceeds the pressure difference a vacuum cast experiences. I really don't recommend trying investment casting without having a burnout oven, you need the burnout oven. You can't half-ass it, if you don't burn out and fire your investment correctly you may as well be throwing it in the trash. If you're trying to save money, you can build your own burnout oven, but depending on the tools you have access to it may not actually save you much. >>2778901

To go the cheaper route, combine your shit. Buy or Build a decent burnout oven, use it to melt your metal, no separate furnace. All you need to melt in one of those little Chinese burnout ovens is a crucible, tongs, and a small plinth to protect the floor. This comes with two distinct downsides: wasted time, and size limitations. You can't do shit simultaneously, if there's a mold burning out then that's it, you're done until it's done. When the mold is ready for use, you pull it out and melt your metal. Now when it's time to pour, your mold needs to be hot, so it's gotta go back in the furnace along with the crucible to warm back up to pouring temp, so your crucible AND mold have to fit in your oven together. You can do a lot with JUST the "burnout oven," but it's a big trade off.

[Anonymous No.2779358]

>>2779347
I'm still assuming you want highly detailed or complex models just because you note your resin printer, which is why I recommend investment casting, vacuum or otherwise. If you're looking to make functional stuff, sand casting is cheaper and easier to get started with, cheaper in the long run because you're not consuming investment plaster, uses less fuel/electricity because there's no burnout or investment firing, and generally it's just a lot of fun.

If you really want to cheap out and have a good time, low temp metals. You can still cast detailed models in weighty and pleasing alloys. Pewter takes details well, melts at a low temp, and is generally very forgiving. You can melt it in a little pouring pot like this for only $30-$80 depending on the size: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CRZ9QGFC/
Only gets hot enough for low-temp shit, uses a lot less power than the proper kilns/furnaces, and you just pour straight from there into the mold. Super convenient, bullet casters love these fuckers. Best part though, if you cast in pot metals, you can cast straight into silicone. Making silicone molds is easier than dealing with plaster investment in my opinion, and they're reusable! Not infinitely, depending on the metals, temperature, silicone, you may only get a few shots or you may get dozens. Still, it's fun and it's inexpensive to get started.

Regardless of whether you're making investment plaster molds or silicone molds, you're still going to want a vacuum for purging the material of air bubbles when you're making them. You can get started with a basic vacuum chamber and pump for around $120-$150 on Amazon. You can also be really cheap and not go with a pump, buy the chamber and $15 worth of brake-bleeding hand pump. For small stuff, it gets the job done just fine. I've even seen someone use a mason jar with a Chinese mason-jar sealer like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BDK2T9GL Don't know how well it worked out but I thought it was fun.

[Anonymous No.2779689]

>>2778750
>That shit needs to be like 780 CELSIUS for it to burn away and leave only the plaster mold
So make a silicone mold of your resin positive to cast a wax double that would be easier and cleaner to melt.

[Anonymous No.2779706]

We can't help you because you hadn't told us what you're actually trying to make

[Anonymous No.2779858]

>>2778735
You can buy High temperature silicone made for casting pewter ( https://www.amazon.com/s?k=mold+max+60&adgrpid=55625628883&hvadid=657250283491&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=9005337&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=16057982551964776781&hvtargid=kwd-300201151091&hydadcr=14707_13521225&tag=hydsma-20&ref=pd_sl_4gsrhg896g_e ) which is very useful, however it's expensive and the molds do eventually degrade, but I've managed to make over 100 casts without any significant degradation.

If you plan on casting brass or silver then you will need to either build or buy a burnout oven because if you don't cure your flasks you'll either get steam explosions or terrible porosity

Pic related, some chickens I cast in a mold I made from Mold Max 60

[Anonymous No.2780675]

>>2779706
very detailed miniature dragon dldo

[Anonymous No.2781226]

>>2778750
what are you even trying to cast? oil sand is piss easy with 3d printed split pattern

[Anonymous No.2781741]

>>2778735
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCI_FPDQA-U
You're welcome, anon

[Anonymous No.2781742]

>>2781741
>>2778759

[Anonymous No.2782162]

>>2778755
>I'd show the YouTube video but my internet speed is balls rn
use Invidious

[Anonymous No.2783890]

There isn't a metal casting general, or even a metallurgy general, and I don't think it's worth starting one so I'm hijacking this thread for my blog post. I finally fired up my waste oil furnace and melted some cans. I've been planning this for way too long but it keeps getting put off. I built the oil burner over a year ago, so it's about fucking time. Lights up easy with a few charcoal briquettes, then a slow transition to the oil. Just under 15 minutes from dead cold to having melted a 5 gallon bucket full of crushed cans. Skimmed the dross with a dollar store serving spoon. No molds yet, don't care, just poured it into a an empty soup can. 9.24oz of shitty soda can aluminum, I'm thrilled. Honestly my biggest let down is not needing more oil. I'm burning used motor oil and I have close to 100 gallons laying around, but this whole burn used less than a quart. I'm going to have to melt a lot of shit just to keep up with my oil changes, blowing through the oil stockpile won't be easy.

[Anonymous No.2783891]

>>2783890
Here it is all cleaned up with a wire wheel.

[Anonymous No.2783898]

>>2783891
Here you can see my half-assed DIY pouring shank and crucible tongs, made from hardware store flat bar and hardware I had laying around. I didn't feel like pulling out the mig when the antique drill press is just sitting there with a fresh belt. You can also see the dollar-store slotted serving spoon and dross can. The slender red can filled with water is the one I had poured into, I filled it with water before I stepped away to grab my phone/camera. Made for some pleasant hissing and spitting.

[Anonymous No.2783900]

>>2783898
I like to build things in such a way that observers may confuse it for a pile of trash left by a transient hobo. Bilge blower I had from something else, don't recall what, it's been on the shelf for a couple years. Black pipe (galvanized tip for a little zinc flavor), steel brake-line running through it for the oil. Amazon $5 peristaltic pump and PWM speed controller so I can adjust the oil flow, I have another PWM controller I was considering adding to the blower motor, but I don't think I'll be needing it, if anything the bilge blower isn't powerful enough. Once the thing is up to temperature I'm only getting the oil feed up to about 75%, so I think the blower is my bottleneck, need more air. Not that it matters, it's making more than enough heat already.

[Anonymous No.2783903]

>>2783900
Here's a look inside before firing it up. Firebrick plinth in the middle, handful of charcoal in front of the burner outlet. The floor is 2" of fireclay and perlite, topped with a 3/8" layer of ceramic-fiber and Plistix 900F slurry. The walls are lined with 2" of ceramic fiber insulation, and capped with a 1/8" layer of Plistix 900F. The lid was half-assed, no denying it. I bent a decagon from hardware store steel flat bar, drilled some holes for $5 worth of u-bolts, and that's it. There's 2" of ceramic fiber insulation cut into 2" wide strips, rolled up tightly into little wheels of insulation, then shoved into place so the tension of the packed in insulation is holding it all together into the frame. When it was good enough to not fall apart with aggressive shaking, I lined it top and bottom with about 1/8" of the same Plistix refractory. I focused most of my effort on what I decided would be the hot side of the lid, and I regret that now, the outer face is shitty and weak when I could've made it good enough to use BOTH sides as desired. Oh well.

The whole thing is in an aluminum steamer pot from the Walmart clearance shelf, because fuck you. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

[Anonymous No.2784300]

>>2778735

Get this book
make molds with 3d printer
do sandcasting

should not be more than $500

[Anonymous No.2784410]

>>2778735
>How the nigger nickle balls do I do this for under $2000 USD
steal everything.

[Anonymous No.2784460]

>>2783890
Burned a full gallon of used oil today. I'm officially 1/6th of the way through my stash of soda cans. I'm so fucking happy bros.

[Anonymous No.2786461]

>>2778735

It sounds like you're keen on getting into metal casting without breaking the bank, which is definitely doable with some DIY ingenuity. Here are some thoughts and steps you might consider:

Mold Material: Using silicone for your molds is a good choice because it's heat-resistant and can be vacuum casted into. You can also consider other materials like high-temperature plaster (investment), but that might require more specific handling.

Vacuum Casting: You're on the right track with making your own vacuum casting setup. This can be achieved relatively affordably using a vacuum pump and a chamber. This will help remove air bubbles from your molten metal, resulting in cleaner casts.

Burnout Kiln vs. Electric Furnace: The burnout kiln is typically used for preparing investment molds by burning out the wax or resin. However, if you're using silicone molds, you can skip this step. An electric furnace will be essential for melting your metal, though.

Metal Melting: Your electric furnace will be key here. Make sure it can reach temperatures suitable for the metal you intend to use. You can start with lower melting point metals like tin-based alloys if you're concerned about power consumption.

Safety: While cost-cutting is good, safety should not be compromised. Ensure you have proper ventilation for fumes and adequate safety gear (gloves, eye protection) when working with molten metal.

Start Small: Begin with smaller projects to refine your techniques before tackling larger pieces. This will help you learn and minimize potential mishaps.

Resourcefulness: Look for local resources and alternative materials. Sometimes industrial or surplus stores can yield affordable finds for equipment and supplies.

Community and Forums: Join online forums or communities dedicated to metal casting. You can learn a lot from experienced hobbyists who have found creative solutions to similar challenges.

[Anonymous No.2786524]

>>2783890
mmm dross

[>>455392974 No.2786622]

>>2786461

why poat ChatGPT answers here? what's the value