Playing With Metal
May. 2nd, 2010 04:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peteyfrogboyBefore Serafina starts making the furniture for her belt, I figured I should figure out how to do it myself so I can get some of the mistakes out of the way. I tried making belt mounts once a long time ago, but never got thing to really line up properly. Today I worked on making some new mounts and casting some pewter sheets that I could use to fabricate buckle plates and strap ends. Pewter sheet is expensive (even more so with shipping), and comes in sizes far bigger than I need,so I thought I would try to make my own. It turns out one of my friends also has access to a sheet roller, so I may go that route later if this stuff doesn't work out.
So here is the mold for the belt mounts. The top part is made from an old cutting board made of an unknown hardwood.
Here you can see the mold taken apart. I decided to make two different faces just for variety. The registration pins are made from friction fit wooden dowels.
The rook mount.
The rook mount back, showing the integral rivets.
The lozenge mount.
To cast the sheets, I cut a shallow depression into a wooden board, with a sprue on one end. I clamped this onto a second board, and started pouring. It worked surprisingly well, though there was a lot of moisture in the wood that caused bubbling and some surface discoloration. The rollers will probably produce a far superior product, but this will give me something to play with now.
When I did the last pour in the sheet mold, I opened the mold too soon and the metal cooled too fast and crystallized. It broke up into chunks, and I decided to play with the smallest chunk. I put it on the anvil and whacked it with a hammer, which smoothed it out well and removed the discoloration. If the hammer face were smoother, the final surface might have been very nice. I played around with engraving it using a graver made from a screw set into a carved wooden pen holder, which worked better than I expected. I look forward to playing with decorating the final pieces.
So here is the mold for the belt mounts. The top part is made from an old cutting board made of an unknown hardwood.Here you can see the mold taken apart. I decided to make two different faces just for variety. The registration pins are made from friction fit wooden dowels.The rook mount.The rook mount back, showing the integral rivets.The lozenge mount.To cast the sheets, I cut a shallow depression into a wooden board, with a sprue on one end. I clamped this onto a second board, and started pouring. It worked surprisingly well, though there was a lot of moisture in the wood that caused bubbling and some surface discoloration. The rollers will probably produce a far superior product, but this will give me something to play with now.When I did the last pour in the sheet mold, I opened the mold too soon and the metal cooled too fast and crystallized. It broke up into chunks, and I decided to play with the smallest chunk. I put it on the anvil and whacked it with a hammer, which smoothed it out well and removed the discoloration. If the hammer face were smoother, the final surface might have been very nice. I played around with engraving it using a graver made from a screw set into a carved wooden pen holder, which worked better than I expected. I look forward to playing with decorating the final pieces.