Casual Conversation

1585 readers

371 users here now

Share a story, ask a question, or start a conversation about (almost) anything you desire. Maybe you'll make some friends in the process.

RULES

Be respectful: no harassment, hate speech, bigotry, and/or trolling
Keep the conversation nice and light hearted
Encourage conversation in your post
Avoid controversial topics such as politics or societal debates
Keep it clean and SFW: No illegal content or anything gross and inappropriate
No solicitation such as ads, promotional content, spam, surveys etc.
Respect privacy: Don’t ask for or share any personal information

Casual conversation communities:

Related discussion-focused communities

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Hobbies Wednesday - what have you done this week? (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

21 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Was the picture an open mold that you printed?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

The picture is of the 'finished' pin, I'd still like to refine the process a bit.

The general process I follow is:

print the pin
use a casting sand like petrobond and fill a metal container
talcum power the printed pin
press the pin into the casting sand to make the void for casting
heat up the bismuth until it is liquid
heat up the actual pin (looks like a thumbtack)
pour the molten bismuth into the void, and quickly put the actual pin piece in the molten bismuth, if it's not hot enough the bismuth will cool and the pin won't sink in
wait for it to cool (about a minute) then pull the pin out with some pliers (it's still hot so you don't want to touch it at that point)
take a dremel to any flashing that occurred
paint as required (I'm just using nail polish right now since it's pretty durable)

Hopefully that helps! If you have any other questions I'd be happy to answer them :)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Great description. I'm thinking I'll use some of that expensive castable silicone to make a reusable mold for pewter... or outsource the work to a professional.

It's a hat badge for the marching band I play in.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

That's sounds rad! You should post some pics on here if you do end up doing it! Totally understandable if you didn't want the trouble tho!