Metal Casting question

So I have an .stl that I want to make into a metal casting. I want it to be silver plated bronze. I’m having a hard time finding a good company that will do it for a reasonable price (read - “cheap”). Does anyone know of any reliable companies that will take my computer file, make a wax, and then cast, finish, and plate it?
Thanks for any help!

First step is to not make it bronze. If you’re plating it, make it steel. 1 off casting is always expensive. The more you can provide to them, physically, the better. Why not try a Rapid Proto company first?

It’s a decorative piece, and I want it to have some value, so that’s why I said bronze. But I could do steel or something I guess.
Ok, so let’s say I get an SLA of the piece. I still need a company. I’m in Chicago if that helps. It’s hard finding these places.

The first place that comes to mind is Matthews International. They work primarily in bronze and aluminum, and do exceptional work. But expensive. Home - Matthews Cemetery Products

Otherwise, here’s a quick TomasNet search http://www.thomasnet.com/nsearch.html?cov=IL&what=Castings%3A+Lost+Wax&heading=12280244&navsec=prodsearch in your area.

what size is it?
do you only need one?
any fancy details like undercuts?

H - 3.2"
W - 2.13"
L - 2.37"
Volume - 3.42 cu. inches

I want to make about 20 so I can start to sell them. It’s this:
Eclipse Candle Holder by Stephen Christ at Coroflot.com, but this one has proportion issues. So I want to make it from a computer file so it’s perfect.

What are you getting for quotes? 20 pieces is a pretty small order for something that, if mass produced, might cost $20-30 retail if done in plated steel. And at that scale, how are you going to differentiate between the cheaper candle holders out there?

Looking at the design, I might say another process could be better suited. have you considered lathing each piece from something (even solid aluminum would look sweet), then welding and grinding them. Depending on the materials, you might not even need to plate it, but it’s always an option if you choose the right material.

R

another option… is to make the part an sla or stl, … weight the part with led and bondo over the insert hole… use a copper bath to dip the plastic into… color the coper to look like bronze.

Thanks for the replies everyone. Some interesting ideas there.

What are you getting for quotes? 20 pieces is a pretty small order for something that, if mass produced, might cost $20-30 retail if done in plated steel.

That’s the thing. One quote I got was like $1100 for one piece. I know there are cheaper places out there, I just haven’t found them yet.

Looking at the design, I might say another process could be better suited. have you considered lathing each piece from something (even solid aluminum would look sweet), then welding and grinding them.

Well I don’t have a shop like that at my disposal or any welding knowledge. When I did that first one I posted, I was still in school, and we did a lost foam cast in our foundry. Now I can’t really lathe metal or weld everything. I’d rather pay someone else to do it.

So I’d like to have it all metal and either made from a mold made from an SLA or have the wax 3D printed itself. And silver plate would make it somewhat valuable. Now I just need a place.

Try here: http://www.rapid3d.com

They’ll build you an SLS model and then electroplate it with nickel. Shouldn’t cost too much and it will look like & feel like steel (albeit much lighter).

Another, possibility is slip casting, there are a number of metallic finishes available, including a selection of ceramic lusters. They could be produced rather easily and inexpensively. Also I have experimented with electroplating ceramics with interesting results.
I know you want the piece cast in metal… your best bet for doing it “cheap” is to connect with someone locally. Colleges or a local art center usually pour once a semester maybe you can barter and just pay for your materials, it has worked for me. :slight_smile: All this new technology is exciting and great, but it’s not really affordable for the little guy, sometimes it’s better to do stuff old school. Good Luck!

Try here: > http://www.rapid3d.com
They’ll build you an SLS model and then electroplate it with nickel. Shouldn’t cost too much and it will look like & feel like steel (albeit much lighter).

Thanks! I requested a quote from them, so we’ll see what happens there. I didn’t know you could plate an SLA. Good to know! (And I can put a weight in the bottom to make it heavier :stuck_out_tongue:)

Great, let us know how it goes. I would have thought SLS would be the way to go because the parts are much stronger, but they would know better than me. Good guys.

Well after talking with them, that idea was just that. An idea. The guy I talked to told me it would cost too much and he didn’t think it was a good solution. He even went as far as to say the nickel plating they do on the SLAs wasn’t very good and didn’t look too presentable. So I’m back to square one. Unless I can get a metal casting place to do it for cheaper, this plan is dead in the water.

Sorry to here that it didn’t work out. The nickel plated parts I’ve seen must have had some extra polishing done to them.

Have you thought about DMLS ? Direct Metal Laser Sintering. GPI offers this and we are in Lake Bluff, IL

I would ask you to come check out our facilities we will help you with the process if you decide to do SLA and cast it that way I can also help you with that here.

Tim Ruffner
www.gpiprototype.com
timr@gpiprototype.com

Have you thought about finding a local crafts person or artist that does sand casting?

You could go along and help out/learn to speed it up/keep the cost down?

I was thinking the same thing… find a local craftsperson, or even a knowllegable person at a local art school with a foundry. they’d probably work with you on the price.

Overall, I would send this out for quotes at all the above mentioned prototyping methods and evaluate on cost. Make sure you don’t just send to one shop for each method, prices vary a lot.

You might want to try a DIY route if you really want to get costs down. You could have an RTV mold made of your part, then make wax castings and then investment molds. Places like Forecast3d do some rock bottom priced work (and you get what you pay for), but the bottom line is very low. Just to buy the mold would probably set you back around $500 and you could make 40+ wax parts Then make plaster investment molds ready to pour. Melt out the wax, then all you need is molten scrap metal… I wish I had the time to build one of these DIY kilns, it would be perfect for this kind of thing

http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/bucketfurnace1.html

Once the you get more volume, you could go to more economy of scale type manufacturers…

While it’s great to do stuff yourself, jumping into something as complex and potentially dangerous as lost-wax bronze casting without really knowing what you’re doing is just asking for failure, or worse. Just melting out the wax and pouring in metal is not going to work - the residual wax in the mold will volatilize and rapidly expand, sending a spray of molten metal everywhere, like a volcanic eruption. You don’t want to be standing anywhere nearby when that happens.

You got some good suggestions here - the best was to do this project on a lathe, and weld the components together. This will give you better results than the more high-tech processes mentioned, and will be cheaper as well. There are lots of people with lathes looking for work, and they’re more likely to give you a deal than someone with a $100k rapid prototyping machine to pay off. Even if you just did one that way, you could take it to an art foundry, have a mold made, and have the things cast for you by professionals.

If you want to go the high-tech route, the least costly way would be to use a CNC mill to cut the component parts for you in wax (or just one part, if they’re as identical as they seem), make molds from that, and produce them by casting. I’d suggest casting the “donuts” separately and welding or silver-soldering them together. Sandcasting will work, but you’ll have to do more finishing to get to a polished surface than if you went with lost wax. On the other hand, the process is considerably cheaper.

Whether you can actually make any money selling these candleholders is another question, since most people don’t have much appreciation for what things like this cost to do in small quantities (it sounds like you’re finding out) but if you avoid killing yourself, at least you can try again…

Andrew Werby