Microfoundry Lost Wax Casting System

‘MICRO-FOUNDRY’ is a new and unique system for casting Brass, Silver, Bronze and Gold items of jewellery at home using the ‘Lost Wax Investment’ process. Any item carved, moulded or copied in wax can be reproduced in precious metal in the MICRO-FOUNDRY.

The small ‘MFJ’ is intended for crafting items of jewellery up to 12cc in precious metals, which is plenty of capacity for rings, charms, pendants etc and represents excellent value at 350 pounds + P&P. The user must provide a family size microwave oven and a clear work bench Otherwise, full instructions and everything required to allow the first castings to be made in Brass as soon as the prescribed ‘safe working area’ is set up.

The main components of the MICRO-FOUNDRY are the Burnout furnace and the Melting furnace. The burnout furnace takes a flask of 38mm diameter by 65mm tall. The melting furnace in a 1000w microwave melts 25grammes of copper in an A5/0 crucible at 1100 oC in around 16 minutes. Test ingots are cast and the actual time needed gives a benchmark for your furnace / oven combination.
BRIEFLY, to cast a silver charm:

STEP 1: Read the SAFETY instructions, cast a test ingot of 25g of copper to give timings.

STEP 2: Yours or one of the supplied wax models is mounted on the sprue base invested in a refractory slurry, which when dried and the wax melted out is burnt out to provide a clean, hollow mould into which the molten metal is poured.

STEP 3: Metal casting grain is melted in a graphite crucible contained in the special melting furnace. This furnace is a ‘thermal transformer’ which draws energy from a family size microwave oven. It concentrates the full 800 to 1000 watts of energy given out by a typical oven into a small, well insulated enclosure within the furnace containing the graphite crucible.

STEP 4: Wearing glasses and gloves the user checks the temperature of the furnace, then removes the furnace from the oven, opens the furnace, holds the crucible with tongs and pours the molten metal into the hot mould.

STEP 5: The flask is allowed to cool to solidify the metal, then it is quenched in cold water. The last of the investment is scrubbed off.
The casting is then be wire brushed, maybe polished and mounted on a bracelet.
The above technical procedure is soon mastered and is basically the same for any piece of jewellery, allowing the hobby jeweller’s creative input to be focused on the making of their original wax models by carving, moulding or encapsulating natural objects in wax etc.
please see http://youtu.be/sq36fn5jwKY for further details