KautzCraft

Starting to do some silver casting again. I use the “Investment” or A.K.A. “Lost Wax Process”. There exist several other ways to cast silver. The lost wax process is thousands of years old. The basic process is well established. I’ll say, “traditional.”

Materials other than wax can be used, I have never tried anything else except 3D casting resin designed for the casting burnout process. I have had some good success and some very bad. My process and production is still favoring real wax. But that is not a finial decision. 3D printing masters do work. I went back into my old posts in another blog, Dimensional Art Studio, where I show a lot of 3D resin success.

I know that almost any material that will totally burn out can be used for the master model. Various plant material and even dead bugs have worked. I have not experimented in that direction.

The biggest issue might be that the original model (in my case hand carved in wax) is totally destroyed. It’s called “lost wax” because the wax is totally melted out of the investment material and original model is “lost”. .

I do have a way to make multiples of the same model. It’s called wax injection molding. The original model is cast and lost as normal. But the metal casting (which doesn’t need to be silver) is used to make a rubber mold.

The rubber in the form of a solid block is cut into two halves and the metal casting removed. Melted hot wax is then injected into the remaining cavity.

The wax hardens and is used for the next lost wax casting. Many copies can be produced from one rubber mold.

I have posted the wax injection process in other blogs.

But… a much easier process is using the resin 3D print. A dozen masters can be 3D printed in the same time as one. A good way to do multiples. But hand carved models have to use the injection rubber mold process.

Silver Price

Looking back at old posts I can see how much silver prices have increased. There are several types of casting silver from pure, Sterling, to Argentium at various prices. Today the market price is about 75% higher than in 2015 when I started silver work. It is what it is…

This ring is 16.2 grams. $18.63 actual silver value cost today. Of course the actual sell value would be much more with all other costs considered.

Sorry?  Well… maybe Not Sorry! <grin>

As I scan my previous posts here and on KautzCraft Studio, I realized many of them are about re-starting my lost wax casting (LWC) efforts. 

I am a bit sorry I keep posting the same promise to myself. But I am never sorry to go back. 

I throughly enjoy the complexity of LWC. As I have said now many times, it is the process that I enjoy. The finished item is just the reward. 

I have let the lure of 3D (plastic) printing take my available time. I love the CAD process of design. But the “making” is all automatic. Set 50 variables, upload the drawing file, and let the machine do all the tangible work. 

I do the same thing when I use CAD and CNC machine tools to carve a wax master. But that automatic machine carving is only one small segment of the entire LWC process. There is a lot of “hand-crafting” required to get the finished cast metal piece. 

3D printing can directly replace just the CAD/CNC operation within the LWC process. I have tried that many times. Results have been mixed, with some good results. That use of 3D printing is why I got involved with it.

My only remorse is that I enjoyed the 3D print process so much, I let it replace the time needed for doing LWC.  I made some plastic parts that could have been cast in metal. But also a LOT of nice plastic JUNQUE that could never be cast.

One person just doesn’t have the time to do everything at once. I am like a kid in a candy store that is free to sample everything. Hard to settle on one flavor. 

Not Sorry, because I do enjoy the variety. Just sorry that I can’t be 100% in every one of my many enjoyments. 

OH! I think I now see the light. It’s not starting and stopping at all! Just one continuous flow. I own the candy store. I just love tasting all the different flavors. I can sample what I want, when I want. Never being sorry I can’t eat them all at one time. What a stomach ache that would be!!!  <grin>

Here we are again. KautzCraft Org has been turned back on. Actually, KautzCraft Studio, or more accurately myself, Dan Kautz, has been turned back on. I have traversed through a number of creative art and craft disciplines in the last several decades. KautzCraft.org was the Store URL (web address). I no longer operate a retail business. (Fully retired.) I re-directed this URL to KautzCraft Studio once I closed the store.

But I haven’t stopped my craft work I love to do.

My longest-lived craft skills include woodworking, involving furniture and built in cabinets  and shelving, to ornate machine carved bread and jewelry boxes. It was my maternal grandfather that ignited that woodworking spark before I was a teenager

Since then, I have always been a hands-on creative and detailed craftsperson with hobbies of radio controlled model airplanes and highly detailed model trains. Not just their operation, but the actual kit and scratch building of the models from raw materials. It’s why Ready-to-fly drones never became a real passion.

Later in life I dedicated a lot of my efforts in machine shop metal working with milling machines and metal lathes. Evolving into CNC computer control. I have a fairly complete machine shop at home.

My adult daughter led me (and herself) into lost wax silver casting and jewelry making. That’s when the concept of KautzCraft Studio was really born.

Of course, I then took a deep dive into the world of wax carving and silver casting, outfitting with all the tools of the trade.

Most recently I have been heavily involved with 3D printing, originally intending to combine it into the model creation for silver casting.  But the 3D creative “plastic” printing bug big bit hard and captured most of my creative efforts for the last half decade or so. I call it high quality plastic Junque making. 

Mixed in at this same time was interest with LASER engraving and cutting.

I have created other web blogs for all these activities, so will not go into more detail here. Links are provided elsewhere in this website.

A Rewind

I have decided it’s time to move back to real hand-craft work. I am going back to the intensely satisfying work of lost wax casting. 

Not abandoning 3D plastic printing. Just eliminating the plethora of meaningless Junque I have been designing cranking out to the exclusion of all other craft work.

The process of casting metal is a real art craft, with tangible, real solid metal items I feel have far more intrinsic value than colored plastic.

I also love the personal hand-work involvement with carving the wax master and the casting process. More enjoyment than turning on the 3D printer and let it do all the work.

Real wax has always worked the best results for me in burn-outs before casting. But I never close my mind to the alternatives. The fun for me is the work in creation of the art. Not possessing the final result. 

I just know that wax has always produced the expected results. But I will continue to explore alternative materials for the master model. 

The same goes for the metal used for casting. I won’t limit my use of metals to nothing other than silver. The cost of gold, however, is a bit daunting limiting factor. 

I have cast with pewter and brass. I would like to try bronze as well. So there will be room for different kinds of metal products. 

Lost wax means the original model is totally destroyed in the process. But I already have the tools and skills to produce wax duplicates if there is a need. 

Another skill I developed was the firing of real glass enamel on certain cast metal surfaces, usually pure silver. It’s another creative avenue I wish to pursue again. 

So many creative paths, I have to wonder how I let the lure of the 3D printer pull me away for so long. But that is just a thought. I let my life take alternate routes and enjoy the ride. No real remorse.

It’s just time to make a course correction.

This website, KautzCraft.org will be the new home address for a while. I opened this site on a new hosting service. The old host became a bit unstable. As I have already stated, the world is full of options.

KautzCraft.studio (URL) will remain active. I like the format. Most new casting projects will continue to be posted there.

All 3D prints shown in this blog are my original designs. Currently using Autodesk Fusion360 CAD. But I do use several others including Rhinoceros (Rhino 8), and Onshape.

This hex shaped container was printed using color change PETG filament and my Creality K1C printer.

I think I went a little crazy with the new Amolen filament. They have a hundred varieties. This one is PLA with four colors side by side and slowly twisted along the filament length. Very dazzling 4 color effect.

Prints very well at a medium speed 100-150 mms on my Creality K1C.

Trying to decide how to best use this website. I have no earth shattering plan other than it will be another activity diary of what I do and make under the KautzCraft banner. 

I am retired from profitable activity of a real occupation. I am now a break-even hobbyist. Trying not to spend too much on all my avocations.

Three dimensional printing with thermo and light sensitive plastics is my current activity.  Generally called, “3D printing.” 

I have many other websites that cover all my hobbies. At some point I will have links to those. 

I am thinking there will new sections within this website where I can keep my various interests separate. 

Creating websites is also one of my avocation playgrounds. That’s why I already have too many. I don’t make them for fame or fortune. Although I have run a few web-store sites. One when I was making wax cast silver jewelry.

The best web-store was when I was a dealer for Taig Tools, maker of miniature metal working machine tools such as milling machines and lathes. I also sold Proxon tools. It was a good hobby business and I made some profit. I ran it for over five years, but it became more effort than I desired. So I shut down the store.

When everyone is selling a standard made product, Internet sales becomes just a price war.  What moves product is low price. Low price, unless one has a very large volume or sales, is not a good business plan.

It was like working for far below minimum wage. Just for the fun of it.  Soon (five years) the fun gets very thin. Such is life.

Come back again and see how things change.  Maybe a real sign-up!

-RD