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Routb's Creative droppings


Routb3d
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I'm testing 3D coat and want to try it out in a real world project.. I decided that a door knocker is a good excuse to sculpt something.. I intend to carry one design all of the way to a finished cast iron door knocker using an RP machine and a local foundry.. Ill post my progress here..

Here are sketches of door-knocker ideas I have come up with so far..

Thanks,

IC

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Those are really cool sketches. Ill be watching this one.

While i like them both and the upper version is more elaborate i just love the idea of the man whose nosering you can bang on his tongue. Its just a really cool idea.

Post up wips soon plz! ;)

GrtZ

JW

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Cool! I really like the one with the bird.

It is a good candidate for testing 3DCoat features ,I can see curve usages along with primitives and E panel operations...

in other words..I think you won't have a hard time making it. ;)

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I went to a local Bronze foundry here in Tacoma WA today.. Very interesting.. I learned a whole lot about the lost wax casting process and actually got to watch some of the artists poor bronze into a casting.. I was able to hang around for about 3 hours talking with the owner and the other artists there.. They were all traditional sculptural artists.. At one point I popped open my computer and showed off 3D coat.. They were all very interested to see..

Here is the process as I understand it..

1st they make a rubber mold of the part.

2nd they use the rubber mold to make a wax model.

3rd they clean up the wax and add sprews and supports. (sprews create little tunnels for the molten bronze to flow through.)

4th they dip the wax in a slurry coating the wax with a slurry that hardens into the cast.. (they actually do this several times to build a thick cast around the part..

5th they put the cast into a kiln and burn the wax out of the casting..

6th they poor molten bronze into the cast and let it cool..

7th they cut off any sprews, clean and grind the surface..

8th they put a patina on the bronze to give it a finished look..

All in all I found out that having one of my door knockers made would cost me about $1500 to make with this foundry.. That does not even include the price of having the Rp model built!!

I contacted a local bronze foundry that does sand casting.. Sand casting is 1/20th the cost but the process looses detail in the final product.. You also loose the ability to put undercuts in your design.. I think I will pay the sand casting foundry a visit and see what kind of parts they are turning out..

I guess I should get to work on a knocker..

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I went to a local Bronze foundry here in Tacoma WA today.. Very interesting.. I learned a whole lot about the lost wax casting process and actually got to watch some of the artists poor bronze into a casting.. I was able to hang around for about 3 hours talking with the owner and the other artists there.. They were all traditional sculptural artists.. At one point I popped open my computer and showed off 3D coat.. They were all very interested to see..

Here is the process as I understand it..

1st they make a rubber mold of the part.

2nd they use the rubber mold to make a wax model.

3rd they clean up the wax and add sprews and supports. (sprews create little tunnels for the molten bronze to flow through.)

4th they dip the wax in a slurry coating the wax with a slurry that hardens into the cast.. (they actually do this several times to build a thick cast around the part..

5th they put the cast into a kiln and burn the wax out of the casting..

6th they poor molten bronze into the cast and let it cool..

7th they cut off any sprews, clean and grind the surface..

8th they put a patina on the bronze to give it a finished look..

All in all I found out that having one of my door knockers made would cost me about $1500 to make with this foundry.. That does not even include the price of having the Rp model built!!

I contacted a local bronze foundry that does sand casting.. Sand casting is 1/20th the cost but the process looses detail in the final product.. You also loose the ability to put undercuts in your design.. I think I will pay the sand casting foundry a visit and see what kind of parts they are turning out..

I guess I should get to work on a knocker..

Yep, that's the long arduous process of turning a sculpture into bronze. My first cast cost me $2,000, plus mold cost.After having the foundry cast a couple more over the next couple of years I decided the only way I could afford to get my work into bronze, at the rate I could sculpt ,would be to build my own foundry.What a journey that was. :) With the help of my dad we were able to build a complete working foundry (in a four car garage) in about six months.Not an easy task.I won't go into detail because you have seen the equipment used.

I spent the next couple of years pretty much working alone sculpting a model,making the molds,pouring the wax,spruing.dipping,burning out wax,firing negative molds,pouring bronze,cutting off sprues,grinding,sandblasting,polishing,patinas,making the bases, and finally marketing.I get tired thinking about it.I wouldn't do all that again unless I had a couple of full time employees working with me.But at the time it was the only way I could see getting my work into bronze "relatively cheaply".It did pay off in the end as I was able to cast all of my own work and put them in galleries as well as do some sculpture shows.My profit margin was also a lot higher. :)

I don't mean to bore you with my experience in the lost wax casting business,but you bring back many memories of days gone by.

You are correct about the sand casting method, you will be limited by the short comings of this method.We used to do this at my local high school and it is not near as complex as the lost wax process, but you will not get the finer details of your sculpt or undercuts.If you can afford lost wax I would recommend this method.The way to offset the cost is by selling multiple editions of the bronze.If the price is right, after a couple of sales, your cost should be nullified.The rest of your sales will be profit, plus you get a piece for yourself.Remember you get to keep the silicone mold so you can cast as many pieces as you want.On finer art limited editions is the way to go.

Anyway good luck with this.I hope you succeed in turning your dreams into reality.

Best wishes,

Rick

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I had a little more time to work on the mouse today.. I was able to rough in the boots, the body and the front shield.. I'm not sure if I like the shield yet. Ill add detail to the boots later..

I learned a bit about cloning and degrading this session.. I'm not working on a super computer so I have to try to keep my res low.. As I added parts I noticed that some of the smaller parts like the eye and the nose had vanished.. The parts re-appeared when I merged them to the head. I figure the problem could be my graphics card playing tricks on me.. Honestly, I feel like the vox tree and managing higher and lower res parts is still a mystery to me.

Anyhow, here is the mouse so far..

IC

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Nice mouse. It is getting better and better. I agree that the shield look a little bit off right now but I don't know your plans with shield so I can't say much about it. But i'm looking for your next version.

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