First attempt at pouring today.

[Vision47]

Well.....I'm 70% happy.

I didn't get injured, didn't burn the house down and didn't lose any silver.

Not great pouring as shaking like a sh*ting dog. I'll put a picture of the back side underneath. 

I made the mould in delft clay from a silicone honeycomb cooking mould using thermoplastic which is brilliant BTW.

Any hints and tips as to why it caved in and looks pitted welcome. 

[billysilver]

Looks great dude!

[Vision47]

2 minutes ago, billysilver said:

Looks great dude!

The back is awful, I can't upload a picture as file to large. 

[billysilver]

Congratulations on completing your first pour, best of luck with all in the future

 

[Vision47]

The backside. Not really sure why this happens.  

[Vision47]

I didn't have enough silver for the full mould. It'll go back in the pot and I'll try a 1oz in graphite mould tomorrow.  

[Rll1288]

Nice....👍

[Relm]

An educated guess is that the metal cooled in the mould too quickly causing a "skin" to form and then cave in on the back as the metal cooled and contracted.

[Vision47]

10 hours ago, Relm said:

An educated guess is that the metal cooled in the mould too quickly causing a "skin" to form and then cave in on the back as the metal cooled and contracted.

I've slept on this and I think you're right, I wasn't able to heat up the sand mould (can you even do that? )  and not having a sprue (not sure if spelled correctly) from a closed mould means all the skank from the crucible is in the pour. I'll melt it back down and make a 2 x 1oz bars and have a little left over. 

[SilverAngel]

That's a very good start at sand casting...  Obviously you can't heat a sand mould but make sure you get the silver up to a good temp say 1040c before the pour. If you can, don't pour till nothing left in crucible as you will get gunk and that can stop some it it appearing (although cleaning afterwards is a part of it :-)). It will sometimes bubble up when cooling.

[Vision47]

2 hours ago, SilverAngelPouring said:

That's a very good start at sand casting...  Obviously you can't heat a sand mould but make sure you get the silver up to a good temp say 1040c before the pour. If you can, don't pour till nothing left in crucible as you will get gunk and that can stop some it it appearing (although cleaning afterwards is a part of it :-)). It will sometimes bubble up when cooling.

Thanks for this. Yeah I poured it all out. Live and learn I guess.  I'll pour later tonight and see how I goes.

[Vision47]

Using a graphite mould is definitely easier.  A little over pour was aiming for 1 oz and came out at 1.44oz. Tried stamping...also not a skill I possess yet. Lol. But I hooked already.  Happy with how it turned out 2nd time around.  

[Arganto]

They both look awesome, especially for early attempts! Noice!

[Vision47]

11 hours ago, Liam84 said:

They both look awesome, especially for early attempts! Noice!

Thanks. I appreciate it. I was surprised at how fast it came out the crucible on the pour. I think I'll try a full sand cast next if I can find something good to mould that'll be about 1oz or less. 

[pooley]

Kudos to you for having the stones to even attempt this  

[Vision47]

5 hours ago, pooley said:

Kudos to you for having the stones to even attempt this  

Not sure if stupidity or bravery lol 🤔