Alloys and Casting

So when it's all tee'd up and the wax was well and truly lost, It was time to try this alloy for the first time. As Recommended by Sylard, I've gone with a mixture of pure copper and then added 20% lead free pewter, in this case what I have is Rio Grands alloy that is >95% tin with a touch of zinc. Now my biggest problem in this was actually making the alloy up. I rushed it. Bad move on my part. The trick with this is that you have to melt all the copper (just shy of 2000'f) and then add the tin in which melts at 350-400'f.  Well, since I'm doing this with a torch and I only have two hands (where are minions when you need em?) this was a bit of a juggling act.  Swishing the crucible, which was a bit too small (which may well hasten my crucible making) adding the fiddly bits and trying to see if it was well stirred was  a big pain.   Next time for a more even mix, at least until I'm working in the pit, I'm going to make up the alloy in advance and pour it off into water making casting grain so that I can have it at least partially mixed and can melt up only what I need.   

Aside from that, the alloy did work out alright at least in part. It was a very liquid pour and filled well even if my mixing was downright bad.   So that bodes well for a more properly mixed batch.   The colour is good, I suspect it may be rather brittle in parts but I won't judge anything on this mix.   On both brooches the long part for the tongue catch did not cast, next time I will make them much more substantial and see how they cast. There were a few under-filled areas and a few gas bubbles in the bigger flat brooch.    I was pleased to see it hold the bronze well, even though there was a sizable crack down the side where the assembly seam was. 

Cast and quenched after the bronze lost its glow. The molds did not break up until I started striking them against the floor while holding them in the tongs.  The earthenware was fired through, though not particularly tough. It seems to have taken a good impression and the castings conformed well to it. I was able to break it up in my hands after it had cooled and the little bits that got trapped were no fuss at all to remove with a pick.

 You can see the bad pour on the top of the casting on the left, it took a few tries to get that one filled and get the metal out of my crucible.

I did a few swipes with a file to get a quick idea of the casting, the integrity looks good overall, a bit of flashing can be seen around the beak of the bird and the bottom half of the round brooch has a really rough surface.  All in all, it's a good step forward, I'm not sure I will take the time right now to do more than a cursory finishing, but I'll have a look again in the new year.