Easy, Reusable and LOW TEMP Metal Casting from 3D Printed Parts! 

Hi Chris, so good to see that you are using the direct casting in silicone. I used that technique 30 years ago in my Berlin studio, but for much larger sculpture castings. The silicone could stand 500 C = 932 F. I made my own tin bronze, casting temperature about 400-440 C. The problems that you had with the ' dry ' look of your casting: the metal temperature too low and the inner surface of the silicone not adequate. You can entirely skip the vaccum when u do the following: use graphite powder and brush it on the inner side of the silicone. Better is to cut open the silicone and prepare / have an outer plaster shell to hold it later firmly together. The graphite lets the metal flow perfectly smooth and the outer plaster keeps the silicone hot so that the metal cools evenly and creates a dense structure. For the first layer on your part: this is of course a delicate procedure and is essential to have a very good surface. To avoid a parting line on the metal when you have several cut silicone: use cyanoacrylate and glue the silicone parts step by step together. For larger parts also staple carefully across the cutting lines. Then put it all in your plaster mold. For larger castings it is best to prepare a sand box to place the plaster mold in, that is a mandatory protection feature and also extends the cooling process which is essential for a good cast. looking forward for your next experiments :-). Like 104 Herri

I don't own a pressure vessel, but I do own some gloves...

6:50 holy fuck, going to give me a heart attack lol

So helpful seeing the failed castings, it gives such a better understanding of why to have a warm mould and why to use a pressure chamber. Best video I've seen in ages, I wish more channels would show the ones that didn't work, it helps understand the process.

Chris! Your process brought back memories from when I started doing small pewter castings, in Germany, in the early '80's. Stationed there as an Army NCO 3 times total. Lived there twice as a child starting in 1953. I used a German high temp RTV available at German hobby shops at the time. Started by casting spoons and small objects to get the skills needed. The comments by 'erlinghagendesign' below covered other issues I needed to solve at the time. Now I use Smooth-On products for small automotive based items. I do have one desire that an even higher temperature resistant Silicone was available where Brass, aluminum and other nonferrous metals could be cast. I also learned about "Kirksite" from casting and stamping videos on RU-vid! That too is a very durable metal with a low melting temperature for stamping sheet metal parts in the automotive industry! Thanks for your post! Jesse

Subbed. I really like that you showed and documented the mistakes you made. People often underestimate how much others can learn from these mistakes. Loving your content so far.

Man, lifting that molten metal, was on the edge of my seat :D

The first casting failed because the silicon was still wet (with oils and catalyst), pre-heating in a oven (15 minutes @ 200~250ºC)would solve this. There is a iron oxide infused silicon that works better (less thermal expasion mainly, wich uncovers the silicon bubbles) but it is brittle and may not work well with very irregular pieces using single part moulds. Coating the inside of the mould with baby powder or graphite powder (graphite is best in my experience) before casting increase the flow of the molten metal and reduce it's surface tension allowing better details without the need of casting under pressure.

I was sanding off the layer lines at great distress. I never thought of using paint until your video. Thanks man!

Shocked by quality of the print then I saw the milling spindle. Out of the question! Strongest 3d printer. Ever!

Interesting approach on the mold using pressure.. The traditional approach to making sure your silicon is bubble free is vacuum.. But I guess really tiny bubbles are just as good as no bubbles at all.. Thanks for sharing.

Wow, that's great! The music was perfect and I watched the entire thing. Please make more of these 3D Printed casts, it's great! Subbed for more.

THE best videos in terms of "Lets find out how to cheaply make a metal casted replica" ever. I am still grateful for this video. It shows that I don´t need a vacuum chamber as well but just a pressure pod.

That’s awesome!!! One of the best video I saw in last few years 😉 I especially appreciated the trial&error method you used to show us the improvements...very impressive and well explained 👍👍👍

I've always used a vacuum to remove air bubbles from silicon prior to pouring, this would no doubt have issues when using hollow printed parts, very cool to see your alternative method here with pressure. Also I like the electric furnace as a base for your heating the metal! Will keep that in mind for when I finally get mine finished too heh. Thanks for sharing!

Now glue the falcon to the hood of your car!

I appreciate videos like this where there is experimentation and learning from mistakes. Very helpful! Thanks!

From my previous casting of lead figures you could forgo the pressure pot for the casting of the metal. Mainly all you need to do create the mold as you did, then when casting it heat up the mold either by placing it in a toaster oven, or do what you did and just do multiple castings in a row which will keep the mold warm, also use a cone as the riser or half sphere thats larger than the object that way you have a resivoor of molten metal so when the metal shrinks a bit you'll have enough to keep it filled, also easier to handle and you don't have to fill it up 100%. The big thing is you could make a slight zig zag cuts on one side (back perhaps) to make the master and castings easier to remove you can use clamps and two pieces of acrylic or hard board to secure them so the clamps don't squish the mold, and then use use of talc (or baby powder) to liberally coat the inside of the mold which allows for air to escape out the edges and give you a clean cast, thus eliminating the need for the pressure pot for casting.

Awesome video with great editing and music!

I admire your persistence.

Those are some amazing quality prints!

awesome video! it was fun to watch and i like how honest you were! :) make more!

Brilliant! You have wide range of projects and great music, that is a extra plus plus!!!

Great video, CDP; thanks for sharing. When I saw your excellent pressure chamber, I thought that you were going to pull a vacuum on the liquid silicone to draw all of the bubbles to the surface. I guess pressure works as well as vacuum. Using pressure during the cooling of the molten metal is a great idea. Good job. thanks

Great video dude and I loved the soundtrack aswell :)

Fantastic! (I hope you don't mind that I laughed when you showed that you hadn't mixed enough silicone the first time.) That was very honest of you! 😆👍

love this video! answered all questions I had :) nice to see someone do mistakes and learn from it!

Everybody else has made appropriate comments, but let me say very well done video! Thank you.

awesome video man! super informative.

Wow! I learned so much with this video. Thank you!

The soundtrack is just awesome!

Great Video thanks for showing solutions for bubbles in casting! Problems are more interesting than immediate success!

Great video! I think that vibration could also work for removing the bubbles.

Pretty cool! A great example of the old adage, "If you at first don't succeed, try, try again"!

Great work!

Deposition 3D prints (PLA/ABS) have TONS of air in them, and will bubble if not sealed. An easy way to seal is with primer and paint. Resin 3D prints are solid by nature so they make for best molding. When pouring metal into a cold mold, dust with baby powder. You'll get a reliable pour the first time.

Nice job. Thx for sharing.

1. 3d print the mold case 2. calculate the required silicon volume in the design software (Rhinoceros my case) 3. use plastic 10ml & 50ml syiringes to measure the given mold component volumes. 4. thanks, good video.

Very nice work! I do some epoxy molding but I may have to try this as well. :)

Great video. I wish you many more subscribers!

Try, try, and try again. Until you get it right, or satisfactory, or moderately acceptable. Love this channel!

Nice. Would like to see more videos like this.

wow dude, you're not giving up also giving up your research free on youtube. thanks bro

Its nice to see the steps you take.

This was a realy interesting project.

Have this video playing in the background, and this music is excellent!

Awesome, thanks!

Well done!

Trade names for that metal alloy are Cerrabend and Woods metal. They were used to fill copper pipes prior to bending, then heated to get it out. Now resins are used instead as the metal is very expensive now.

Maltese Falcon is one of favorite Radio Mystery Theater shows 😂😂👍👍..... nice content on your channel

very good work!

Great video! Subbed!

your printer has almost no z banding its great

Dude I though I was very ballsy around molten metal till I saw you lift that mold full of molten metal.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD use a clamp or some grabbing tool, my fingers were burning just watching you move that mold into the chamber. Even RU-vid's recent product suggestion addition below this video are suggesting gloves and a set of tongs

I will be purchasing a pressurized unit for my modes in the future.

came here from AvE, I love the ave logo on the shelf behind you :)

Now that's extreme casting.

8:20 - Instead of extra pressure you'd better go with a vacuum - it will not shrink the bubles in a smaller size, but let *all* the air from the metal which is much better!

Came for the casting, subbed for the soundtrack

As opposed to just crushing the air bubbles you could actually get ride of them. Flip that pressure vessel to a vacuum chamber! Poof bubbles removed from both silicone and metal

This is some kind of Shell Mold Casting process isn't it? I mean, it seems like the same principle. Great video! thank you for sharing the whole process.

Hi Chris -- Great video. Love the inclusion of missteps so we all learn the why as well as the what. Quick question, though -- what's your recommended setup for the mini-forge? I'm finding nothing on Google.

wow, using a giant precision mill is unfair!!😂😂 by the way, really love that setup, it's the dream of every maker!

Thanks that was cool.

Thanks for such an informative video. Seeing you pick up the mold bare handed had my heart racing. Wouldn't a safer way to handle everything be to put the mold into the pressure pot, and then pour the liquid metal into the mold so you don't have to move it?

Very cool indeed, thanks for sharng. Which model of vacuum chamber is that ?

That looks like the start of an awesome chess set. Those would be great rooks. The kings could probably be that little Aztec-like statue from "Raiders of the Lost Ark".

Wait are you using a cnc vatical milling machine as a 3D printer ?!?? That’s awesome !! Subscribing now

Is that a milling machine 3d printer?? I love it hahahahaha

Hey brother, great video, very well done. I learned a lot. Thank-you! Have you ever cast using Pure Bismuth?

I'd like to cast in bronze, a Roman wall mounted torchiere, with an ancient bowl on top, that would be used to put out a decent bowl of fire, ... via propane or natural gas. It would be a good foot-and-a-half high (or more), and the bowl at the top would be about a foot in diameter (maybe a tad smaller).

This is a good candidate for making name plates

Wow great vid! Does the primer and topcoat really smooth the pla over that well? Brill idea I’m after something similar, that hadn’t occurred to me I was trying sandpaper and it’s just not that smooth afterwards. Cheers loads I’ll try it. Edit I also like your persistence! I’m also persistent it gets a lot of things done :)

Ladies and gentlmen, when dealing with molten metal, please wear safety gloves. And treat your mold with kindness

That eagle was removed from the pink stuff very romantic. The sound is included 😁

Chris, excellent vid even after all this time. Question: What are you using to heat the metal, and what kind of pot are you melting it in?

0:50 That fly is checking your extruder temperature! ;)

I love the sound of polycarbonate on wood in the morning.

My ex wife has a lot of silicone lm gone try this

Could you use a hot-wire and a frying pan to cut and smooth the metal instead of saw and sander? Very cool!

great video .was wondering if you could load the printer with to save making the first model.

Hello Chris, loved the video. A friend and I are working on some vintage speedometers from the mid to late 1920's and there are some pot metal parts used in the original design that over time swells and destroys themselves rendering the speedometers useless. We'd like to change that, I like the ideas you used in the video, want to make a few bucks and assist us in making a few of the small parts? The parts are a little smaller then what you made here and a lot less metal! I look forward to hearing from you.... Regards, William

Plaster also works fine. and no pressue is needed.

Sherlock would be proud.

Awesome!!! If I understand what you did. You used pressure to remove the bubbles? Does this work better than degassing by using a vacuum?

Thanks very educational! Its just that i'll wear protective gear though...

I would use vacuum first for bubble to get the air evacuated. Then pressure to crush what miniscule amount would cling to nucleosites.

Well, I learned some things.

Make sure you pressurize your silicone mold under the same pressure as the pressure you intend to use during your final mold casting pour. This will remove the micro-bubbles from your mold that will otherwise explode while under pressure if you did not cast the negative mold at the same pressure, thus destroying your mold and the casting. Pressure is weird!

I saw another method whereby a person holds a sander against a block of wood that has the mold on top, in order to get the bubbles out. Thought it was a great little hack.

fire

i believe you have to use 2 halves to make more complex moulds

I'm a newbie to this but I noticed you measured the Alumilite by weight, using a digital scale. I was measuring by volume and, while it still worked, it was crazy messy. Using weight measure, it is still 10:1? Thanks for the super helpful tutorials!

what silicon are you using ?vacuum degassing helps take bubbles out of the silicon too

you should try vacuum in stead of pressure for taking away air bubbles

Super late to the party but: 1) Pre-heat your mold. This gets rid of any moisture that will boil off and cause air bubbles, and also stops your metal from cooling too fast. 2) The pressure pot will have little to no effect. The outer 'skin' will have solidified by the time you get it into the pot. 3) Jiggling the mold once the metal is poured in is almost always a bad idea.

If someone wanted to cast metals with higher melting points, you could then pour hot wax into the silicone mold, then plaster it, melt out the wax, and fill THAT with metals. More ideal for bronze or aluminum and others.

Alumilite instructions say de-mold in 12-18 hrs and fully cured in 7 days. How long did you let the silicone sit before removing the 3D printed part and pouring metal? thanks for the video! waiting on my silicone to set up right now!

are you using cnc mill as 3d printer ? :o Nice, it must be the stability that gives it so precise detail, I must try to drill the frame of my printer to wall or something similar