NIce work! That is a tempting rabbit hole. So many neat opportunities,
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Acrylic has a pretty large coefficient of thermal expansion (meaning it grows a fair amount when it heats up), I wonder if it would noticeably affect larger pours. I think staying thin and small like a coin got you out of a lot of these problems.
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I cast pewter and would like to offer a suggestion. It looks like you have your mold on a plate while pouring the metal. After my first mold failure (decades ago), I now put my mold in a meatloaf / bread pan (metal, not glass) if it will fit, or something larger with high sides if necessary.
I only had a failure with my mold, my friend lost quite a few layers of flesh to metal escaping the mold.
This is such a great idea and I would never have thought of it since acrylic melts before pewter, but silicone…
ah, the rabbit holes I find here …
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THAT is the voice of experience
Yikes
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Great job. Thanks for sharing and inspiring.
I haven’t cast metal before, but I have cast many other things (ie, chocolate and resin). If the back of your pour is flat, what is the benefit of pouring from the top in a channel rather than just leaving the back open and pouring it flat?
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We tried that as well - it works ok, but the open side winds up with of a “pillowed” appearance instead of being flat. It’s a different effect, and looks fine if that’s what you are going for, but we were trying for something flatter.
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Very cool! Exploration knows no bounds!
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In my limited experience in casting with an open cavity, you can’t get a really smooth, flat backing. It may come out pitted and if you slightly over-fill, it will be domed. (Or outright overflow the mold.) It’s easy to sand the back and fix it, but it’s obviously more time-consuming.
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Hey there… I was at burning man and a camp did this as a craft and it was really cool. They gave me a couple of forms so I could learn from it… these sources a details are excellent, thanks
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Seems like a Make did a version of this recently, nice write up.
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That’s a great article, thanks!
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Ooh - now I want to try the coin trick but cutting that center piece using @TurboAddiction’s reeding so you get a molded coin that feels milled on the edge!
I think you’d have to use their advice for the Beskar piece of having flex lines added so the coin doesn’t stick…hmmmmmmmm
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