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• I am cutting this piece to cast in aluminum using a hot wire cutter of obviously home-tek construction. This works better than the three factory ones I broke first.

After tracing and cutting, the mold will be sprued (channeled for hot metal pouring), vented (to allow gases of vaporizing foam to escape), and coated to improve texture. Then it will be encased in a shell that resists its collapsing when it is buried in sand and filled with molten aluminum.

posted on May 11th 2012 by Metalcraft By Alex Féthière

• Pattern coated in drywall, vented & sprued
• The piece covered in sifted sand. The straws are capped to prevent their being plugged with sand. After this a titanium tube encases the sprue and is supported by rods (see casting video), more sand added.
• Pouring ~10 lbs of molten aluminum into a pattern carved out of foam, vented with straws, encased in drywall and buried in sand. Wrecked clothing and safety gear recommended.
• I don't recommend this for structural pieces, but for aesthetic pieces it's fine: hosing off an aluminum casting just lifted from the sand. The shock of temperature change cracks off most of the drywall shell, and it produces a lot of steam--more than this, usually, I'd let it cool too long.

PHOTOS: The finished foam pattern has been glued up with a sprue (for pouring molten aluminum into), coated in drywall and studded with drink straws--all that foam will turn into gas that must escape for the casting to be solid.

VIDEOS: The furnace is heated to about 1600 deg. F and then the metal is lifted and poured. Once hard enough to move without warping, it can be force-cooled if maintaining temper is not an issue.

posted on May 20th 2012 by Metalcraft By Alex Féthière

• Coarse grinder finish.
• Smoother wirewheel finish.

The finished casting is dressed with a grinder and steel wirewheel. A grinder finish is rough and leaves coarse patterns; a wirewheel finish smoothes and polishes that out. From here it can be wax-polished or left as-is for a more organic, textured feel.

posted on May 20th 2012 by Metalcraft By Alex Féthière

Weighing in at 11 pounds and smoothed off on exterior surfaces with a twisted steel wire wheel, the piece is ready for shipment.

posted on May 22nd 2012 by Metalcraft By Alex Féthière