3D Printing Metal At Home? Pretty Much! FarmCraft101 

I appreciate the rough cost preview. So many diy channels just say "hey look so cheap" and only calculate material cost and ignore all the tooling. Another great thing is you showing the fails, and the subsequent solutions. It makes the videos more informative, honest and, when repeating your experiments, one isn't discouraged so easily.

When I was at art school in '79 we had an interesting process that the teacher said came from the auto industry: You made your model out of wax , then you mixed up some construction sand and a liquid epoxy, Then painted your model with something called a zircon wash which looked and felt like a very soupy plaster, Then you carefully packed the wet model in the uncured epoxy sand in a cardboard box a bit bigger than the model and let it cure for a couple of hours, Then you put the whole thing in a 300°f oven for 4 hours so the wax melted through the zircon wash into the sand. Meanwhile you were heating your bronze or aluminum. Then you pour the metal into the mold, and the magic part was that the heat from the metal broke down the epoxy while the metal was cooling, so a couple of whacks with a hammer was all it took to remove the sand from the casting. You could make a big wax piece in the morning and have it in metal by dinner. The zircon wash was interesting stuff in that it was porus enough to let the wax out and the gasses out but it could preserve details like fingerprints. Oddly I have never heard of this process anywhere else. We also did lost styrofoam casting, but that is another tale.

At 3:30 a pro tip is to use anything that vibrates or oscillates relatively violently (hair clippers, orbital sander) and touch a part of the body of the device it to your mold to vibrate the whole thing which causes the bubbles to vibrate up and out of the plaster. I do this on teeth/mouth molds since air bubbles are hell when you need the fine detail. Hope it helps!

I have a lot of lost wax casting experience Suggestions: Print a sprew cone and some vents to allow air to leave more easily. Use dental investment plaster and keep it hot. Pull the mold out just as the metal is ready to cast. Pouring hot metal into a mold that isn't close to the temperature of the metal doesn't get best results. Always use a steel containment AND add steel rings to the top edge of the container or build a collar to set the casting can into. Use a length of chain to swing the container around right after your pour. This increases the g-force on the molten metal and forces it into details better than gravity. PLA has a specific density around 1.25 g/c³ and you can estimate the weight of the metal required by the difference the density of the desired metal. Make the sprew cone about 50% of the total mass so you can melt and pour the least amount of metal and still have a small sprew to remove... so, quicker and more efficient. Do the majority of your cleanup on the PLA. It's easier to finish than the metal. This reduces the amount of sanding you'll need to do to the cast piece and allows you to get better fit and finish with less work. Add a flux like boric acid to the melt to help separate slag. This reduces the risk of small oxide inclusions that can ruin an otherwise perfect casting.

Actually buddy your right it’s BigStack -D 👌🏻. I love bronze I need to start doing a lot more of it I recon 👊🏻😁. Very informative vid👍🏻

In the 3d printer you could make the gear teeth longer for casting and then trim them later

Just a couple of suggestions for future pours.... When designing the mold, have the fill pipe fill the mold from the bottom and always include a vent for air escape at the highest point in the mold

My Uncle was a friend of Leonard Lee. His name was David Pearce. We spend many hours discussing all things old. Those guys never bought stuff, they “scrounged”, and fabricated the tools, or product’s they needed. He was a student of the original fabrication techniques, mostly for making original parts for Early firearms,, wood working tools,,etc. When I needed a repair part for something, I remember him telling me how common small foundries were. Every small town had a few people who were capable , so it’s only post war that we lost the common practice. He said when he started he made many of his moods from plaster of Paris, and for one off parts it worked. Like you showed, if you need one small part who cares of you have to take two or three shots at it to get a part made, and keep an old machine running for another 100 years +. I’m sure David would really appreciate that 2023 folks are not afraid of fabricating unique parts, without buying a 100k cnc mill

I seriously could watch this guy for hours. Always learn something new, and I love that he shows failures and learnings every time. True authentic content

“When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” - C.S. Lewis

Great video! Thanks for sharing the failures and improvements you made till success.

To get rid of the “there might be air in my plaster” issue, brush some directly on the piece and let it air dry before putting it in the cup.

Ex-Foundryman... ALWAYS add the riser. The air has to come out. You produced the classic case of trapped air with your herringbones. Nice work though!

When you showed the burnout cycle, I read the temps as hexadecimal numbers (300F, 700F), I guess I've been doing too much programming lately.

👏👏👏Really applaud how you show the process...the WHOLE process...including the failed attempts that lead up to a method that works. We never lose... we either win, or we LEARN!

I'm a material engineer and I really loved your video, that's so cool!!!! Thank you 😃

Your video was very informative and well presented. I really applaud you for showing the failures as well because it makes everything so much more relatable and authentic. I've done a whack of DIY projects (no metal casting yet and soon) and while I don't make videos about it the stuff I do my best work on now is that which I screwed up so royally when I was learning it. It's nice to know we're all learning how to be masters of the process and that we're here to teach each other from our own mistakes along the way. Bravo!!! You're awesome!!!

polymaker has a dedicated filament for this - it burns out completely leaving no residue

Just got my first 3D printer. I've been a cad and cam programmer for many years now, and I often wondered how this could be done. Thank you so much for sharing. Can't wait for more of your videos!

Really glad you showed up in the RU-vid recommended. I appreciate you took us down the whole learning process, not just how-to-vid. One small note, you started with degrees in Celsius, but then moved to Fahrenheit and I kind of lost track.

I've seen the folks on Man at Arms dunk the hot plaster into water after casting the part. This seems to break up the plaster really easily.

Hey awesome video! I appreciate that it's a tutorial from start to finish, including the design and printing. I love that you used a kiln for the burnout, it's a pain in the ass with the regular propane furnace but you can pull it off if you're careful. I did some of this with a friend this summer with a propane furnace and from our experience you really don't need the investment plaster specifically. We lost pla cast some parts for a diy electric bike as well as some stock aluminum for milling. After a bit of research everything said to use investment plaster. This is essentially plaster of paris. It was pretty expensive for not a lot of plaster and we're college kids on a budget so we looked at home depot at all the interior plasters down with the drywall. These say they're "jypsum plaster". Plaster of paris is also a "jypsum plaster" with some added stuff here and there, but it's the jypsum part that counts the most for high temperature applications. We tried a few to see what worked; I'd recommend the Diamond verneer plaster. It's $13 for 50lb and it worked superbly. We actually burned those out without any reinforcement and didn't have any cracking issues. I'm sure there's a reasons to use investment plaster, but if you're really on a budget, just check that the ingredients list jypsum or plaster of paris, and in our experience it works well and costs a fraction as much. Great information man definitely subbing!

Thank you for no ads in your videos, greatly appreciated. You remind me of my high school shop teacher.

OMFG THERE ARE NO ADS this is my new favorite channel.

Get a small vibratory table and you'll knock out those bubbles. We do it in dentistry. You can also use a vacuum mixer if you really want but the vibrating platform usually does the job alone

Nice. Hey, if you use Chitubox as a slicer, It has a construct-support option. If you generate supports, you can use the cavities they create as vents and multiple spouts for the molten bronze to flow down. other slicer programs have this feature as well.

Seeing failed attempts helps us learn the various factors influencing how this works. Great Job!

Why are gears so much fun? Why do I feel like a child? I’m right there with you, mate, and it’s not because we’re childish - it’s just because the simplest, most logical and science-based things in life often happen to provide the most beauty. Wonderful stuff, I’ll be coming back for more. 👍🏽

Massive f*cken respect for you. I'm a qualified mechanical engineer and this blew my mind considering how expensive metal 3D printers are

If you have an oscillating cutoff tool you can hold it against the can to vibrate the can a bit to get the bubbles out..I find that when casting resin parts that works wonders...

*never be ashamed to feed that inner child in you!* Great video! well made! and really sparked my motivation for getting back into 3d printing! I love metal!

Am blown away at the demonstrated technology and casting. Always a video blockbuster!

“I’m just a farmer.” Yup, a really smart farmer.

The bright flashes when you first poured look to me like zinc burning off meaning you might be casting brass.

Interesting and informative. I appreciate not having any ads. Thanks.

So nice that you are showing the first failures as well.

Neat! FYI, actual at home 3D metal printing is in development right now, using metal powder and laser sintering. Enterprise metal 3D printing has already been underway (Several car companies use 3D metal printed parts for exact/complex parts). Great Vid!

Personal experience: cast the plaster, wait 2hours, then heating for 300°C for 4h, then 4h more at 700°C. After this set the furnace to 250°C and let it in the oven over night. and cast on the next day. (reduces cracks) The roundness problem is caused by surface tension, place the part as deep as possible and keep venting in mind. (hydrostatic pressure)

Showing failures makes this video so much more valuable to me. I wish more DIY videos did that. 👍 you rock 🎸

I knew this process would work. I thought about trying it a few times but never have. I know the basics and assumed that melting the plastic out would be similar to lost wax casting. You proved me correct. Maybe one day I will attempt it. Thanks for the video.

Fusion 360 is still free for personal use, as far as I can tell. You just have to renew it every year.

I would like you to make a part that just is not available anymore. Ever go to the seller to get a part for the car, piece of equipment, or an appliance and get told the part is not available anymore, they stopped making it? Or a piece of vintage/antique equipment that you want an authentic part for, but all the parts are just as worn out. I would like to see something like that done, and I am sure so would others.

Just met your your video and channel, the content is pure gold. Hope your channel gets more recognized, it totally deserve it!

I hadn't thought of lost PLA casting but now that you presented this video it makes great sense. Thanks for this video.

Man, this is a very interesting process. Wish I had more space at home to try these things personally. Generating useful objects from "raw" materials is just an incredible thing to me, and what you showed is highly versatile and relatively inexpensive.

Wonder if you could make the gears with "over-length" teeth then turn them down on the lathe co get rid of the bubble/rounding issue

Really great video, was informative, gave all the side details, admitted and showed mistakes so it helps others even more, and wasn't rambling or boring. Thank you!

Just great! Grandpa bought 10 yrold daughter a 3d printer for Christmas. I did not know you could do lost wax casting with pla..very cool! I have aluminium cans, now a kiln and crucible needed. Just Great! Thanks.

Man, this is EPIC... And it's a good, good insight into how to actually do this the right way for a lot of things. And, no, he's not kidding- this is cheap for a large class of things you'd otherwise have to spend THOUSANDS for on equipment...and then learn how to actually USE. I've not built up to Lost PLA casting but I'd heard it being done and I've been curious and wanted to see/learn more. So far, I've been doing similar magic with plastic parts on my cars that failed. Some of them...you're not going to find the parts in question, but the analog or the replacement is working miracles in my case. Looking forward to even more miracles thanks to some of the insights here.

You could try casting an AR upper that requires no machining, only hand tool finishing?

I am not much into 3d printing, i am definetely not into casting things and given that i am surrounded with terrain makes me no boater either, but man i must tell you that i LOVE your narration. Attempt 1 - fail Another - also fail yet another - well okay BUT you don't cover your mistakes, you're giving back to community on how NOT to cast things :D I think it's awesome to watch whole creative process, not just the final "oh i am great youtuber, behold my creativity" effect.

Love the process and as a 3d printer I have all kinds of ideas. However, as a machinist and owner of a open die steel forge facility (industrial not back yard) I must say something I read on my dad's desk years ago.. "A Casting is nothing but a metal of questionable integrity, usually held together by welds and or braze". Those gears not really useful in my opinion but sure is a great idea!. Nice job!

You should make a benchy haha, it would show the detail you can achieve.

You seem to be frequently in front of the pack, as far as educating the freedom minded. Thanks

Click-baity title aside, lost PLA is a great technique that's been around for a fair bit. Always good to see more people get into it!

thanks farmcraft - very cool solution for using 3d prints to cast. really appreciate you taking us through the fails too. every one you show is one we (hopefully) won't have to make outselves!

was thinking maybe some kind of vibration for the parts when plaster is drying for air bubbles maybe palm sander touching the cup

possibility: use a alcohol soluble support plastic in your mold instead of PLA. Then you would not need a kiln, or worry about cracking plaster. Not sure if it would work, but might be much cheaper and more reliable.

Could you added tiny risers to the ends of each tooth of your gear? Then the round off problem would be raised up and away from the gear tooth itself. Such small tabs would be easy to remove and sand flat, thus producing a completely flawless tooth pattern. Also, you could set your wet mold on a vibrator to help shake out the bubbles. Or perhaps a more exotic solution would be to spin it in a centrifuge prior to it setting up. You could also make your pour spout lower than a vent to get better penetration and to allow air to more easily escape during the pour. Suggestion 1: Build a DIY Electric Furnace w/temperature control. Suggestion 2: Build a DIY Vibrator w/variable speed. Suggestion 3: Build a DIY Centrifuge. Mold swings from upright to horizontal w/spin. The centrifuge could also possibly be used while the metal is still molten? I hope you like my random thoughts.

Oh my god this is perfect! I have only recently gotten into 3d printing, but I have been sitting here trying to find metal filament that can be sintered when I could have just melted some metal and used the plastic for some moulding. This is so cool, I am so excited to see what crazy stuff I can make out of metal with this method.

"These are challenging to make,but with this method it should be a piece of cake" oooooh epic rime

You can 3D print lower receivers this way too. 😏

Thank you for sharing both the struggles and successful moments!

This video is incredible. Its so cool seeing old and new manufacturing techniques coming together. A lot of channels i follow seem to just be one or the other.

"anything you can 3d print you can cast"' except for those that needs internal structural support

"If I was BigstackD i'd have a big block of ice" lol

Very cool. Nice to see you work through it by trial-and-error.

I made a vibrator out of a multitool for getting the air out of plaster (or resin). It also works well for encouraging metal to get into the mould. It's pretty good for shaking rattle-can spray paint too!

"Tools cost too much!!! $500 for one small part!?!" Pro tip... you buy the tool once and can reuse them....

Make a 2+"solid copper ball and shine it up like a mirror finish

Very well done. I have always had the vent hole design. My experience was with casting sand . For a finer casting I used screen sizes fine for the first contact and course for the fill with talcum fir the release agent.

I'd never thought about using PLA for casting like this. Very cool idea and those cogs are awesome!! 👍👍

"Why are gears so fun?" Testosterone poisoning, that's why.

Want me to have a word with that camera guy? I'll set him straight.

Good day sir, you spent about 1000 bucks for the equipment you "need" , please dont get me wrong, I absolutely understand why, this is your hobby and this is what you like to do. Have a great day, thank you so much for sharing.😎

I just realized I am subscribed to this channel. I never get notified of new videos. I bet, because you don't allow ads. RU-vid is part of the BIGGER problem happening in this world. I will check from now on.

Nice clickbait in the title. I guess "Casting metal at home" is a bit less interesting.

3D printing metal at home? Yeah, not even close. Clickbait sh..

Cool! Love your process. Yes, as you well know, everything shrinks when it cools, PETG and ABS as great examples! Great video! I can't wait until 3d-printing of metal is affordable for the DIY'er!

My high school instructor was into lost wax casting and he would make castings like that. Burn them out til the wax got burned out then he wou place the cast into a centrifuge which spins the metal into the mold . The plaster was poured into a can like and then the object would be put into that can. He was great metal shop teacher and talented jeweler and a great guy.

3d print ? I know this with another name, "metal casting".

Amazing information to share, thank you for being very thorough and realistic about cost.

this is awesome. I'm a 3D artist and was thinking of getting a 3D printer for the sole purpose of printing my art then casting it in metal. This video gave me a lot to think about.

Really great video! I love watching things like this.

I’ll never do it but this is one of the best videos I’ve come across in a long time. We’ll done.

In this one little video you have taught ALL the important points of casting!

I just stumbled on to this video and I like the way you explained everything! Now I want a foundry!

I am planning on making a 20 cc nitro engine using these casting methods, this is yet another great video using a 3D printer for casting.

Nice video. Thanks for the verbal explanations as well. Large Job

Great video. Thank you. You have inspired me to create this type of setup and start casting.

Really dope idea never thought about using 3d printing for modeling

My first video I've seen of yours. Thank you, it was very informative.

Great video, a tip.. on the printed gear, you need to add a output chimney, then when you add molten metal fills entire. (sorry for my english)

A tutorial and Priceless like this is a dream come true Instantly subscribed

so happy to find this channel, thanks

Brilliant, love to see casting, learnt how to do sand casting at school 40 years ago! I never realised copper needed 2k to go liquid....I use a lot of it in plumbing, goes cherry red in seconds but its a long way from that to a liquid...

That's really cool, appreciate you showing that (and the mistakes which are just as important). I never even thought about this... now I want to try! Thanks

This was awesome. I enjoyed learning. Thank you

I'm about to spread this video all over the place thank you bro

Love this video. Thank you so much for the time and effort you placed in creating this educational video. Love your channel.❤😊