After a few weeks of testing 3d pens, an idea came to me: What if I turned ABS to Bronze with the lost wax casting process? The first step towards this feat was to find a piece that would turn into a glorious sculpture or get destroyed in the process. The winning object was a red ABS plastic heart I had sketched days before:
ABS to Bronze — Step 2
Sprues were to be added to the heart in order to create a lost wax mold, these strands are made of wax, and will be soon surrounded by heat-resistant plaster. This is by far the most time-consuming part of the lost wax process, since it involves adding many small wax straws in a strategic way so your molten material reaches every single part of the sculpture mold.
After careful examining of the piece, it’s time to melt some bronze and pour it into the empty mold that once held ABS plastic and wax. Days of careful planning are reduced to this one moment where molten metal fills up the empty spaces of what used to be a 3d sketched heart!
Voila!
From ABS to Bronze in a couple of weeks, underneath those bronze sprues there’s a bronze heart that was sketched with a 3d pen. Unfortunately, removing the sprues would destroy the entire piece, so I can finish this experiment with some ideas on how to create a complete piece next time.
Check out my other metal projects in my portfolio here.
Leave a reply