3D Print to Solid Metal, BETTER Than Lost PLA Casting 

I definitely tried to screw that skull up but sometimes things just work lol

I am indeed yes

I thought the question was a joke, but … cool! (A Gingery type thing or something more modern?)

@@DEtchells modified gingery lathe

The only problem with Zamak, aside of relatively low melting point, that its kind of brittle material. In comparison, nylon is much stronger and actually sometimes even PLA is a better choice over Zamak.

Many parts will work well done in Za12.

Yes they are galvanized. Fortunately everything is already well ventilated for the plastic that's burning out and the propane 👍

@@PaulsGarage Bad answer, heavy metal poisoning wont make you sick or dizzy it will permanently ruin your life

@@PaulsGarage Good video nonetheless

That’s all I could think about when I saw that part. Zinc oxide is potent fatal. I did like the video otherwise 😊

You're focused on the micron-thin layer of zinc on the ducts, which never gets especially hot in the first place, rather than the hundreds of grams of molten ZAMAK, which is 96% zinc.

I'm a couple pieces of equipment away from that but it's coming eventually👍

Thanks! Glad to ramble non stop, extra glad it's useful!

Thanks!

Polycast is great, the tip about prepainting with plaster is genius, especially for people without a vacuum chamber, so yah I concur, good advice here. I would suggest making sure you only use that vent tube outside only cuz it will poison you otherwise, and if you want higher resolution resin printing with burnout resin works the same as pla printing with burnout PLA but at a much higher rez. Couldn't have given better advice myself.

Yeah they do that lol it happens to us all

My preferred method. It also gives you the option to tidy up and smooth those print lines on the wax model before the final cast. If I'm making multiples then I'll silicon mould from the improved wax model. Personally, this is the necessarily long route through the woods I have to take because I'm not a sculptor and rely on the printer to do the hard work. Not sure I'll rush to use Zanak... I think the fumes issue outweighs the convenience for me.

That's great! You can join the discord and share it with us if you want. Another good channel to look at is @vogman

When I was like 14 I met a retired dentist in my neighborhood who had a whole jewelry casting workshop in his backyard. He taught me how to do lost wax casting and nickel and gold plating. One of the best memories of my childhood, I stopped playing videogames and football for a few months I went to his house almost every afternoon

That sounds like an amazing opportunity. I wish more people would get that opportunity!

For jewelers who want to cast small parts with fine details, a resin printer may be a better option. There is a resin equivalent of polycast that has (casting) properties very similar to wax, and a lot of jewelers have started to use this.

The algorithm has been very kind to me lately

So about that lathe bed... I have the pattern, I made those big flasks and then (dramatic pause) I realized I didn't have enough casting sand lol. I ordered more and the box just came in yesterday 👍

One day I hope to live up to the example set by red green 🤣

Good point, I think as little junk in there to leave ash the better

Sounds good! Zamak is a bearing alloy too I think, it should work better than aluminum

Thank for watching!

I'll give you a sneak peak, every part except the burnout material and metal alloy is different 😉

Just remember I'm not legally liable if you end up divorced 🤣 my advice *might not* be great

That sounds awesome! That's why I got into metal casting, i wanted to make car parts. I got a bit distracted with 3d printing and fell way down the metal casting rabbit hole while my car project just sits there haha! This video isn't the ideal way to do it, actually. For plaster investment casting, I would use jewelry wax for sprues, and a vacuum casting machine. Any big car parts should probably be sand cast, but things like metal radio knobs, door handles, hood ornaments could be resin printed for better quality. I've always wanted to make a custom set of cylinder heads or intake manifolds or something, but that's a "one day when I get to it" kind of project, you know? 3d printers and 3d modeling is a great way to get patterns for casting. I would add 3d scanning to that, too. It's not the scale you're talking about, but I scanned a power wheels toy mustang and printed a full new body for it to look like greased lightning (video sometime in the future), so you're in good company here! I will say though with sand casting, it's vital you get the gating right to avoid porosity and sand and junk in your metal castings. Good luck and let me know what you're making!

@@PaulsGarage I currently have a small part for a vintage racing kart that I'm trying to recreate. It is a small carburetor intake reed valve body that was originally probably die cast aluminum. The part has a rather complex shape as it holds either 4 of 6 metal or fiberglass reeds and stands about 2 inches tall by about 2 inches round at the base. Material wise there is maybe 4-5 oz of aluminum. Originally this part cost $6-$10 in 1966 when it was developed. If you can even find one today that is good usable part, expect to pay north of $100. I know of at least 20 other restorer's actively looking for multiple parts for current projects. Even if I made them in batches of 20 or more at a time, I bet they would sell out quick. I would like to utilize the 3d print to cast method for short runs of parts like this before I dump thousands into a cnc made billet steel die and a pressure casting rig for a $40 part.

Thanks and good luck!

@@PaulsGarage thanks, I’ll definitely need it!

Good to know about the larger prints, thanks!

what infill do you print Polycast for burn out? 80% 20%?

I usually go as low as possible, 10-20% for most prints and I made no adjustments for polycast

@@PaulsGarage thanx, you are really cool, I didn't even know this stuff existed

@@privateprivate3767 @paulsGarage The amount of infill for me depends on the size of the print. smaller prints are closer to 20% larger print (over 12" high) ill drop to 10%. The other variable is whether the print /object is a solid vs a thin walled hollow. Less for a sold, more for hollow. Ideally the less material you need to burn out the better.

Go for it!

How is polysmooth to print with?

@@NM-wd7kx If its dry, it prints a lot like PLA but doesnt bridge as well. If its wet? Youre in for a bad time.

It was really good. It's the only time I saw something on Broadway.

That plating stuff is really awesome. It looks great in my opinion, but the end result is different. I'd rather have a piece that's solid metal, with all the weight, but not everybody is like me.

I recently saw a video of testing different methods of getting a chrome finish on a part and the winner was this chrome nail polish stuff

still: 1st plate with copper, then with nickel. Nickel-plating directly isn´t easy...

Aluminum bronze is pretty awesome for sure, but this is super easy

Air compressor is the only way I've heard of people successfully cleaning a PLA burnout, but I'm worried some molds might not get clean enough with that. No idea though, never tried. And good call about the thicker steel. These pipes don't look too good after use but the temps weren't as high as if I was doing bronze. Eventually I want to do vacuum casting so beefier flasks are totally a must

No idea what 3D2A even is but if PLA can do it, zamak probably can too

@@PaulsGarage printing firearms and firearms accessories

Ah ok that's pretty cool. I'm more of an archery guy personally 🏹

some HiPoints are made from Zamac except the barrel.@@iphoneawesome123

Thanks!

My pleasure!

Hey that's a pretty good idea for a video right there

Yes definitely. People use this to make bronze stuff too, that can handle far higher temperatures. Maybe special plaster could handle iron too? But definitely not plaster of Paris

It flows better and melts colder than all aluminum alloys, but the closest comparison is probably a great sand casting alloy like A356. This still needs about 400 degrees less heat, and still flows better than a356, while being stronger too. It's not light like aluminum though, it's really heavy.

Great suggestion! I've never heard of that filament. Ive used esun black pla and its great for the price.

@@PaulsGarage I love Esun Products, and to say Mainly I use the PLA + for tools I hope to have a go at casting using Esun Emate low temp as much cheaper than Polycast

The burnout and casting process is exactly the same. Whatever you can print with polycast filament (or castable resin), you can cast in metal. Layer lines come through though, so beware of that. Polycast smooths with alcohol (IPA) which helps. I have some more recent videos with lost resin casting, all using plaster, but FDM prints might be better with ceramic shell casting, since that works better for larger prints. Not saying you can't use plaster, but the plaster can get expensive in large quantities

Glad I could help!

Hi Gregory! I did indeed pick up the package yesterday! I think I'll open it on a Livestream. I use a pouring basin and tapered sprue for sand casting, and I know VOGman does for investment prints, it's a good idea for sure.

Cool. Let me know when the livestream happens.

Good idea! That's quite an undertaking, id have to separate it up into sand casting, investment casting, etc... Most people don't do all of it. I've never done ceramic shell casting or vacuum casting for example. But it's a good idea to get it all in one place. That would be a super long video though haha

@@PaulsGarage that's super fair. I am currently figuring out the melting of metal. I have no idea what a crucible is or where to get/make it. Kiln vs. forge vs. oven etc. I will research it once I have a solid project to execute, but this is so niche... The basics are often over looked and everyone kinda starts at step two, and assumes we know step 0 and 1. Like can I build a ceramic kiln that can melt steel... It seems like it should be possible... But does anyone actually do it? Why not?

Probably yes. Lots of those kinds of parts are cast, though they tend to be die cast for production purposes. You would probably want aluminum though to save weight and that doesn't flow as nicely into details, but you can get around that in a couple ways

Not sure I'd go with metal for that. The reason stone is used is because the hardness of silica is way above most other things including metal. I don't think I'd want to risk metal bits in food. Some metal can be toxic. Rocks bits (sand), other than being sharp, are chemically inert.

That might work, not sure though.

Nothing worse than inadequate throwing metals 🤣

@@PaulsGarage If I'm going to do a job, I should do it right!

Not sure. That stuff expands a lot right? I would be worried about it expanding too much and cracking the mold. Do you print the 3D lab print stuff? I have a few of those models, they are really cool

I haven't tried PVA but not all PVB is the same. Polycast is specifically made to burn out clean, unlike other PVBs

a resin printer is definitely on my list. The resolution is amazing

Never tried PVA. That's the water soluble one right? What you suggest would probably work but I've never tried it.

Many car ornaments are made from zinc already, or they were before plastic took over

Hard to put an exact number on it but at minimum you need something to burn out the mold and something to melt the metal. One foundry furnace set up from an Amazon seller like vevor might work as long as you keep temperatures low, but a devil forge would be a step up. You could use the furnace for both like I did here. Plaster, filament, and the steel vents/soup cans etc... Are expendable, though, so prices go up the more you do it. Ideally you would have a small electric furnace to melt the metal and a small burnout oven, but prices go up considerably

You never know until you try it out!

I did try various experiments of this form; for parts that are hollow it will work decent; but if you have solidly printed detail bits with a high length/width ratio it can take very long. Also, how well this dissolving works strongly depends on temperature (and also moisture; do not use wet alcohol). Ive kept it in a slow cooker under the boiling point with good results, it cast with some really nice detail using zamak.

Right! The link for polycast is in the pinned comment. My bad for forgetting. The printer is a prusa i3 mk3s

Lol they asked permission to do that, and also sent me a surprise box with a t-shirt and stuff already because their sales went up. Rotometals rules. I'll be opening the box on stream probably next weekend. It's HEAVY

Yes! I have a newer video that shows one of those. It's sirayatech cast purple. There are others too, but that's what I used in that video