Metalworking by Isaac T Cheek

icheek — 2015-12-17 14:54:04 UTC

icheek — 2015-12-17 14:54:09 UTC

icheek — 2015-12-17 14:54:13 UTC

icheek — 2015-12-17 14:56:02 UTC

Gargoyle Casting Project

icheek — 2015-12-17 14:59:57 UTC

Inspiration

icheek — 2015-12-17 15:00:35 UTC

When coming up with inspiration for this project, I tried to think of something that had a design that would lend to something more solid and stone looking. Based on this, I chose a gargoyle for my project. I wanted something fairly compact, which is why I chose to put the gargoyle in the position that he is in.

Wax Carving

icheek — 2015-12-17 15:28:48 UTC

The wax carving was probably the most time consuming and frustrating part of the process. It was hard to turn the cube shaped wax into an organic shape. It was difficult to shape the gargoyle, and to keep it smooth. There were a lot of dimensions to it that were hard to create with wax, heat, and the little chisel and exact tips. I ended up being fairly happy with the final wax model, but because of the lack of refinement in some areas, I had a little more work ahead of me when it came to refining the casted metal gargoyle.

Casting Process

icheek — 2015-12-17 15:29:43 UTC

To start investing, I had to add sprues to make sure the metal would flow into the mold. Then I had to make sure that the wax weighed a certain amount, and then I had to calculate the amount of metal I would need to use to cast the mold. To create the mold, we invested the wax in plaster, and then burned it out. After burning it out, we centrifuged it and poured the metal into the plaster mold. After removing the plaster, I had to begin refining the casted gargoyle.

Refinement

icheek — 2015-12-17 15:29:47 UTC

Refining the gargoyle was difficult because during the casting process, part of my gargoyle was cut off, most likely because I accidentally used two different types of metal when casting. I then had to round his whole back again with the diamond tip, which took a lot of time. Most of the time refining was spent doing this, and smoothing out the inconsistencies that were caused because the wax model was not as smooth as it could have been. To continue refining, I had to remove the sprues which I did with a saw. When I was done refining the rough edges and bumps, I was pleased with the overall texture of the piece, because I wanted it to look more stoney and rough, like a real gargoyle. Mr. Kaiser said that the best way to do this would be with the sand blaster, and I was very pleased with the result of sand blasting the piece. It then looked more like stone.

Final Reflection

icheek — 2015-12-17 15:59:33 UTC

I ended up being pretty content with my project, although there were several things I would have done differently if I was to do it over. I would have spent more time smoothing out the wax, rather than saving some of the inconsistencies to smooth out after the casting; it is much easier to smooth wax than metal. I did enjoy the process, I thought it was really cool to see the wax sculpture go into the plaster and come out a solid metal project. The process of actually centrifuging the project was probably the most interesting, when the cylinder spun around with the molten metal inside of it. Overall, the process was enjoyable, even though it was tedious at times, and I was pleased with the end result.