Casting in the Snow

On the first snowfall of the... fall (surprise!), I had me some more casting fun in the garage. 

I'd like to make a few more good aluminum castings before we wrap up this stage of pyro-history and move on to the Bronze age. I'd like a good salamander specifically, because we haven't made one yet.

And we still haven't! This casting session was a bit of a bust, but good times nonetheless. 

As usual, we made our plaster molds with sand, then burned out the wax in the toaster oven for a few hours, then continued the burn out in the kiln at around 550º C.

Some of these should have stayed in longer because the black soot burns off at a certain point, as you can see here:

This time we had new aluminum from an engine casing I found in a back alley - what a find!

Crucible with ceramic fibre wrap

We went up to 927º but for sure the metal itself wasn't that hot. A little below this temperature I poked it and still felt some thick sections in the crucible.

The first time I poured, the crucible slipped out of the new tongs I was using and dumped the aluminum all over the floor.

The second time was better.

I had six molds and really only one worked out.

The salamanders came out without limbs, like little 1970s Lake Erie mutants. But this was a nice problem because I think (think) that it can be easily solved next time.

I think the molds need vents for the legs to allow for better flow, and maybe even connections between the limbs. You can see the space running off the body into the legs is quite tight - hot air must have blocked it up.

The Venus looked lovely at first, but then I realized she has no detail on her head! Without that classic Willendorf grid hairdo, she looks very alien.

This yoni-lingam was full of air pockets. It was the first mold I poured into, so maybe the metal was too hot and that's why it produced an air pocket under the rim of the yoni.

The other YL cast just a little later came out well, although perhaps the base is a bit short. So, on second thought, it's probably best to toss it back in the can and try again. Make that 0 out of 6 casts worth keeping. 

Next time, then, a new design for the salamander molds and we'll try not to pour the YL molds first, to see if that solves the problems.