WHAT DOES LOST WAX CASTING MEAN

2. Sprues (wax "wires") are attached to the pattern. These will burn away to form channels through which the wax leaves the mold and also through which the molten metal enters it.

3. Ceramic Mold (investment)

( Cut-Away View )

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3. A ceramic slurry ("investment") is poured around the wax pattern and allowed to harden around it like plaster. This surrounds the pattern completely, the picture shows a cut-away view so you can see what is happening on the inside of the mold.

4. Ceramic Mold After Wax Evacuation

( Cut-Away View )

(click on pictures to enlarge them)

4. The wax is "burned out" in a kiln at 1250° F (orange hot), so that it goes up in smoke and leaves its impression in the ceramic. This creates the mold. Hence the term "Lost Wax" because the wax is gone.

5. Metal is melted and to be forced into the cavity left by the wax.

(click on pictures to enlarge them)

The first picture shows the torch melting the bronze rod into a ceramic crucible.

The second picture is taken with a flash so that you can see the cylinder that used to contain the wax pattern, before it was burned away. Now it is the mold into which the metal is forced.

The third is taken just after the flux has been added to the molten metal to help remove impurities and to make it flow more easily into the mold. The flux makes a little smoke.

When the metal is thoroughly molten, the centrifuge is spun (in this case) to force the metal into the mold so that it will assume the same shape that the wax formerly had.

Molten metal can enter the mold by many different methods of casting. I use centrifugal, but could use vacuum pressure, steam pressure, air pressure, or even gravity (for larger pieces).

6. Unfinished Bronze Figure (With Sprues)

Just out of the mold

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6. The hot mold is plunged into cold water to disintegrate the investment so that the bronze figure(s) can be removed.

Finished Piece

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7. The metal figure goes through several finishing and polishing steps to complete it.

To place an order, check our information or you can email us at sculptor@castofcharacters.com or call us toll free at 1-888-495-1090

MAKING REPLICAS OF THE ORIGINAL

8. To make replicas of an original, a rubber mold is made around the finished wax pattern.

9. The rubber mold is cut with a scalpel along critical "parting" lines to separate it into two parts.

10. The wax original is removed from the rubber mold leaving a "negative" impression in the flexible, reusable mold.

11. Molten wax is forced into the rubber mold, hardening into a "positive" copy of the original pattern.

12. This duplicate wax pattern is cleaned and re-detailed so it is virtually as good as the original wax pattern.

13. The duplicate wax goes through exactly the same casting and finishing process as the original pattern (steps 2-7).

IN ESSENCE, THE WAX FIGURE IS TURNED INTO SOLID METAL. A NEW WAX PATTERN MUST BE MADE OF EACH FIGURE (either from scratch or from a rubber mold) EVERY TIME IT IS CAST.

YES, EVERY TIME.

To place an order, check our information or you can email us at sculptor@castofcharacters.com or call us toll free at 1-888-495-1090