Bad Brass

We had these molds that never got filled from our first bronze casting session, so we bought some brass at Metal Supermarkets, loaded up the crucible...

...and got to work.

We started just before 2pm and the fire and charcoal took a little while to catch as usual, but by 2:30 there was lots of flame so we filled the furnace up.

 

Close to 3pm, the brass was softening but not melting. We then covered the whole thing with charcoal, crucible and all, and waited about 10 more minutes.

So from starting the fire to having molten brass, it only took an hour (pyrometer reading was 1067).  But before we pulled the crucible out for casting we needed to scoop out as much of the charcoal dross as possible.

 

I made a little spoon device which worked more or less; we tried scooping out the dross without also scooping out the metal, but it wasn't so easy. We scooped a bit and then just went ahead and cast:

We each cast our own, putting the crucible back in the furnace in between pours. 

But by the time Gloria cast hers, it was all too cold, so we refuelled to reheat. After 20 minutes we tried again but it was too soon, so we waited until everything was glowing red again (pyrometer at 1051º ) and then no problem.

Well, the only little problem was that that the metal got too cold to do both molds at once, but that was easily solved with more heat. 

Finally, we had all poured and were eager to see how everything turned out.

Sigrid's little Egyptian cat turned out... meh. One of the legs is bad, and the points of the ears are dulled. One bee medallion turned out okay (the first one cast, as seen in the video), with some detail missing and rather blackened by the charcoal, we think. But the other didn't work at all.

And none of my pieces worked.

 

This was the "Threenus" I molded -- three Venuses each on an angle: 

You can see the bases, but where the legs start there must have been an air pocket, because the metal never made it through that tiny space in two of them. And on the third there's only a thin line of brass and then a blob where the chest and head should be. I joked it was a Venus a la Giacometti.

The yoni-lingam I had also came out very badly. (Although it's kinda great how awful it is, it looks almost prehistoric.)

And look at that big, black hunk of charcoal encrusted in the side! That's what you get when you cast molten brass that's still full of crap!

So, overall, we were not nearly as successful as on our first attempt (beginner's luck strikes again). But since the work of the Craft is partly about developing permanence in the face of difficulties, it's rather nice to have our next steps so clear: 

• 1) build bellows to get the furnace hot enough to make our own bronze, and 
• 2) learn how to clean the molten metal before casting, or how to keep it clean in the first place.

Happy New Year indeed!