So I am trying to make a metal casing of animal paws. I am using a clay mold that I created. I have already made a casting of the print using plumbing solder (tin, copper, silver mix) This comes to about $15 a casting using 1/2 lbs of solder wire. I used a charcoal grill to heat up a copper tube to melt the solder then poured it into the cast.

 

To make things cheaper i was wondering what I could add to the liquid metal to be a kind of filler (like using ground up aluminum foil). Or is there something else I could use that is cheaper than $30 / lbs that I would be able to melt in a charcoal fire?

 

Also I melted the bottom of the copper tube the last casting I tried to make, luckily I had enough ash that caught the melted solder I was able to save it. I was going to get a cooking pan to melt the solder next time and add in the filler material. Hoping to get the cost down to around $5 - $8 to make the casting.

Start here: http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/index.html

Start here: http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/index.html

 

I looked at this site and it was good, I am looking at more lower melting point I also have looked http://www.rotometals.com/Pewter-Alloys-s/23.htm for another lower temp metal to work with that is cheaper than what I am currently working with. Should I use a clay pot or a steel cooking pot to melt the metal in?

Steel is always better for crucibles, unless you can get nickel or the two holy grails, graphite and platinum.

 

EDIT: Also, I've seen solder / lead ingots at some local hardware stores - one or two of those could easily make 2 or 3 castings of this size.

Edited August 25, 201312 yr by elementcollector1

so I made an error when pouring the solder. I used an oven bake clay for the mold and lets just say that did not go over to well. Made a cool print but ruined the mold. I had better luck with the air dry clay than the oven bake. I did read the package and it said nothing about stay away from flames. So back to the air dry clay.

Edited August 30, 201312 yr by traviscoty

so I made an error when pouring the solder. I used an oven bake clay for the mold and lets just say that did not go over to well. Made a cool print but ruined the mold. I had better luck with the air dry clay than the oven bake. I did read the package and it said nothing about stay away from flames. So back to the air dry clay.

Oven bake is usually epoxy. Air dry, in my experience, is usually real clay.