CurioBullion

sorry, missed the notice that I had to be a paying member

update. A few things, I played around with lowering the oxygen and kept the torch head 4-6" away from the silver, it took three times as long to heat up but poured well (over three casts anyway). Minimal air popping and only on one cast where I caught myself having crept in close with the torch head!! so that's it! keep the O2 down and the torch head well out of the silver. I also switched from Petrobond to Delft clay which, wow is so much easier to work with and definitely gives better detail! Of course this just led to yet another question, the latest cast (below) before antiquing came out light like a tiny bit whitish with a hint of blue tint even after a light polish... very interesting maybe not enough oxygen to cleanly burn the acetylene? hum. I was digging it but the liver of sulfur gel brought it back to normal, I'll have to try and replicate that again and leave it be.

oh well that's totally different, for reference and since I don't have anything offered for sale on my Instagram account maybe its ok if I mention that can be found under an IG search for curiobullion you can see my designs, only six so far but a dozen more are in the works. Thanks for the interest!

No, only because I'm not a paying member just yet, other platforms but I understand I'm not to promote myself without paying the dues

20 times! geez, I've been heating the silver pretty rapidly, I'll experiment with adjusting the oxygen as low as possible to hopefully insure its all going toward helping the gas burn and see if I notice a difference. That's a good start, Thanks!

Thanks Liam84, I appreciate it! I'm ordering some Delft clay to see if its the petrobond that's giving me grief.

I've had a chunk of sand fall into the mold which didn't seem to effect the cast other then leaving a void where I didn't plan one. this one was strange in that it seemed to cool, the sprew matted over then the mold suddenly popped open.. is it air escaping?? so frustrating. plenty of people are making great hand casts with just a little map gas torch, unfortunately nobody seems to be posting their failures to learn from. maybe its normal to have 2 out of 3 pours fail? doesn't seem right though.

yeah, I'm doing everything with the oxy/acetylene torch, I'm not quite ready to invest in a furnace just yet. I move around the outside of the silver with the torch and shake the crucible around until I can see the full mass of silver is liquid If I leave it long enough the silver gets a light red glow which I'm afraid may be too hot at that point? here's a photo of the strange eruption of mountain ranges, these were cast one after the other, I'm at a loss as to what I did differently.

Hey Liam84, I hadn't seen that one, thanks. he really has a tone of great content, maybe I haven't gone back far enough but the only issues he seems to have is being .1 gram over or under his goal. I will however keep watching. thank you!

I've spent quite a bit of time on gootube and have scoured the internet a bit but haven't found a great source for in depth knowledge on torch casting silver and problems that may arise. I've jumped right in and have made some pieces that I'm quite proud of and even sold a few but getting consistent results has been very difficult. I'm using an oxygen acetylene torch in a 3" ceramic bowl crucible and casting into a petrobond mold. my issues, 1. lack of detail which I've attributed to not getting the silver hot enough even though the mold has completely filled. does that sound right? 2. torch setting, I've noticed on a few random castings air releasing from the top of the fill sprew upon cooling, am I introducing air into the silver? how do I remove the air or avoid this all together? 3. am I over heating the silver? after three attempts this morning I finally got what I though was a decent cast but closer inspection revealed tiny mountain range like structures/protrusions randomly cutting through the details of the piece. any idea whats causing this? any resources are greatly appreciated, thanks in advance for the advice and comments!