Precious Material Casting and Design Guidelines
Molten material is poured in to fill the cavities of a 3D printed wax mould. Once the material has cooled and solidified, the plaster mold is broken and the metal models are removed. Your model is filed and sanded. It will be polished, plated and/or PU-coated according to the finish you desire.
3D-Printed/Lost Wax Casted Model
Cost
3D-Printed/Lost Wax Casted Model
Cost
- In 3D printing, wall thickness refers to the distance between one surface of your model and the opposite sheer surface. For most models in Brass, Bronze, Gold, Silver etc.. the minimum wall thickness you can use is 0.6 mm for the natural finish and 0.8mm for the gold, copper and color plated finishes. However, when making something small, the wall thickness should be at least 1 mm. For example, the fragility of the brass might cause the ring to break when you wear it if the model is too thin.
- Since the resolution of the wax printing process is so high, make sure that you create your model and export your file with enough definition so you don’t see the triangles.
- Be careful when having large areas of your model connected supported by thin rods. Ask yourself if the rods are strong enough to ‘carry’ the weight of the larger area. Also, internal structures are possible to print, but removing support structures, cleaning them and casting them can be difficult or even impossible. If you have doubts about whether your model is feasible, please contact us
- The smallest features in your design should be at least 0.35 mm in diameter and 0.4 mm in height and attached to a solid surface. Details this small are suitable for delicate projects such as micro pavé settings.
Because Gold is not a very strong material, longer features such as rods or prongs (in mesh-like structures) should be at least 0.8 mm in diameter. Otherwise, they might break during casting or even when you wear the piece. - The distance or space between two or more parts in your model is called clearance. If there is too little clearance between the parts, they might become fused during the casting of your model. Therefore, we advise a minimum gap of 0.3mm.
- In order to polish, we have to be able to reach the surfaces. As a rule, we can’t file, sand or polish cavities and small sharp edges will be rounded off. Also, as you can imagine, complex internal, mesh-like structures are also impossible to reach.
- Nested objects (objects floating within another object), hinged parts, and interlinking parts, such as chains, cannot be made with lost wax casting.
- For embossing or engraving details such as text, we advise you to keep a maximum height/depth-to-width ratio of 1:1. Also, keep in mind the minimum wall thickness of 0.35 mm.
| Design Specifications | Copper |
Brass |
Sterling Silver |
Bronze |
Gold |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum Wall Thickness | 0.8mm | 0.6mm | 0.6mm | 0.6mm | 0.8mm |
| Minimum Detail | 0.3mm | 0.3mm | 0.3mm | 0.3mm | 0.35mm |
| Accuracy | +-5% | +-5% | +-5% | +-5% | +-5% |
| Clearance | 0.35mm | 0.35mm | 0.35mm | 0.35mm | 0.35mm |
| Interlocked Parts | No | No | No | No | No |
| Hollow Objects (Model Depender) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Maximum size | 88x88x125 mm | 88x88x125 mm | 88x88x125 mm | 88x88x125 mm | 88x88x125 mm |
Polished Bronze.
Untreated Brass showing casting marks on part surface.
Polished & Natural Coated Brass.
Brass with black colour plating.
Polished 99.9% pure Copper.
