Making a bolt with double threads - DOES IT WORK? - Lost PLA metal casting - 3d print to solid metal

welcome to robinson foundry my name's seth robinson and in this video i'll be casting an awesome solid bronze dual threaded bolt by using the lost pla method in a recent video i showed how i made this two-way bolt using a fairly cheap and easy method the bolt turned out really nice looking but the method i used didn't yield the best results and honestly this doesn't look much like a bolt does it i mean what kind of bolt doesn't have something to grab onto so i looked around and i found a different model that actually looks like a bolt before i get too carried away you should know that this is not my original design the first guy to make one of these dual threaded bolts is named oleg peptzoff he made a great video showing how he machined his you can find a link to that video in the description to start making a bronze bolt first i had to 3d print some models in a plastic called pla pla is great for this casting process because of its relatively low melting point and some normal pla filaments can be burned away without leaving any ash behind i use overture black and i can tell you from experience that it burns away very cleanly these models were printed on my two auto pyramid 3d printer two auto sent me this printer to use in my videos and i've been very impressed with the print quality if you're interested in possibly purchasing one for yourself you can find a link below once everything was done printing and i finally stopped playing with the models i started attaching the parts needed to turn them from plastic to metal this big funnel shaped thing is a sprue feeder combination it'll act as a funnel helping me to pour in the metal and it'll also feed the casting as the molten metal solidifies and shrinks the nuts will be cast from the bottom to the top metal will flow down through the center sprue and rise up through each nut and out the vents each sprue was printed with a threaded hole so that i could screw in a bolt to use as a handle this stuff is called suspend a slurry it's essentially a liquid ceramic that is used to create strong ceramic shell molds for metal casting i carefully dip the models into the slurry doing my best to avoid trapping air bubbles on the surface of the models my goal was to slowly build up thick shells by coating the models with slurry about nine times the first few coats are the most important as this is where the fine detail is captured [Music] after the first two coats i sprinkled each subsequent coat with silica sand and allowed it to dry before adding another after the fourth coat i wrapped the shells with very thin steel wire this acts like rebar and it's a crucial step in preventing the shell from cracking during the burnout i also experimented with sprinkling some fiberglass onto the shells for added strength i let the shells fully dry for a few days and then place them in my kiln to burn away the plastic and turn the shells into ceramic i actually made two bolt molds because i wanted one to be cast in aluminum and one to be cast in bronze at this point i hadn't even turned on the kiln yet this is showing the ambient temperature outside i hardly even need a kiln when it's this hot out i turned on the kiln and brought up the temperature very slowly to about 500 degrees fahrenheit which is the temperature at which pla starts to melt out of the shells at this point i was able to remove the vast majority of the plastic instead of just burning it away then i cranked up the temperature to around 1500 degrees fahrenheit this vitrified the shells turning them into a ceramic that can withstand the temperature of molten metal the next day i inspected the shells and i was happy to see that none of them had cracked substantially i don't know if the fiberglass helped or not but i can confidently say that if i hadn't wrapped them with wire the shells would have cracked with the shells ready to be filled with metal it was time to melt some bronze and aluminum here's everything that i melted down copper and tin on the left and scrap bronze and tin on the right as for the aluminum i just melted down some pieces that i had left over from previous projects the bronze for these castings consists of roughly 90 percent copper and 10 percent tin the tin i'm using is actually lead-free pewter which consists of about 95 percent 10 and 5 percent antimony i melted the pewter into an ingot that i could easily add to the molten copper when the time came before the shells could be filled with metal they needed to be preheated to about a thousand degrees fahrenheit so i stuck them back into the kiln for a little while once the shells were at the right temperature and the metal is ready to be poured i remove the shells from the kiln one at a time and pour it in the metal each shell is sitting inside an old crucible filled with warm sand which keeps them stable during the pour so i let the shells cool down for a few hours and then started breaking them open breaking open these shells is like opening presents it's always exciting and you really hope you're not disappointed sometimes casting using ceramic shell feels like two projects one project is casting and the other is removing the shell removing the shell can be really difficult especially if there's a lot of small details like with these fortunately i have a sandblaster which made the job a lot easier but it still took about an hour and a half to remove all of it these castings turned out great i'm blown away by the detail the shell captured these parts look like they were 3d printed in metal i used a hacksaw to remove the sprues and excess metal and then clean up some of the threads with a file then using my large disk sander i carefully smoothed out the areas where the parts were removed from their sprues [Music] this scene is for my wife it drives her crazy when i use her pyrex for my projects to finish up i used a wire brush to clean up the threads and then polished everything with a die grinder and these dual threaded bolts were finally done [Music] i absolutely love how these turned out the detail is incredible and everything works just as i had hoped it would [Music] the more i play with these the smoother the threads become [Music] i know some people will say that the visible layer lines are ugly and should be addressed but personally i don't mind them layer lines are part of the process and i think in this case they just add to the coolness of these castings if you enjoy watching these videos and you want to help me continue to make them you can do so by checking out some of the amazon affiliate links below if you visit amazon by clicking on one of my links and you end up purchasing something i'll receive a small commission for that sale as always i hope you enjoyed watching this video and if you did please give it a thumbs up tell me what you think in the comments and subscribe for future projects thanks for watching you

Channel: Robinson Foundry

Views: 3,126,906

Rating: 4.9133315 out of 5

Keywords: lost pla casting, lost pla, lost pla casting aluminum, lost pla casting from 3d prints, lost wax, lost pla 3d print to metal casting, pla, lost, lost wax casting, lost pla metal casting, lost pla casting brass, lost pla casting process, how to lost pla cast aluminum, lost pla casting home foundry, lost pla method, lost pla process, metal casting lost pla, lost pla casting bronze, lost pla casting a benchy, lost foam, lost pla casting an eagle, lost pla casting tutorial

Id: v96LTfmtDPU

Length: 12min 48sec (768 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 09 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/twbrn]

I know some people have been interested in it, but I've never seen anything come of it. I imagine trying to get a good pour, and get all the PLA burned out, would be easier said than done.

You might want to look into wax filament if you really want to try casting. It would at least make the cleanout phase a lot easier.

[u/strange-illusion]

The detail captured in this makes me think this could be a viable process depending on the form of what you are trying make. Bolts/Parts/maybe simple frames?