Found Dreaming

The weather has cooled down some and I have all this stuff I put together over the years, I've decided to try to use the vacuum table. I built the chamber a few years ago and have used it for degassing plaster and rubber. I built a table to do vacuum casting about the same time and haven't done anything with it except crush a couple coke cans.
I've got a kiln for the burnout, a can for the investment, a bunch of wax, and the CNC to cut out some patterns. I'm planning on a cane tip with three tips to help it stand on solid ground. I get tired of picking up my cane all the time.
I have the table hooked up through a tank to build the vacuum and the be able to release it all at once while I pour. I think the pump would be too slow to help much.
This is an ambitious project for me, just hope I can stick with it.

Suck it up!

That looks great Jerry

I'm about ready to cut some patterns in machine wax. I'm probably going to have to melt some more. It's not going to be real complicated, just weird shapes that I won't be able to ram up. I hope the vacuum works to fill all the little places and details.
Trying to figure out how to post some pics of the drawings. I lost some programs I was using the last time this box crashed. Need to run over to Chucktn so he can fix it again.

I got the machine wax scraps out and melted a lot of it. It's really easy to melt and pour. I had trouble with the micro-crystalline wax, I got it too hot and need to do as Rasper said and set up a double boiler. Frank told me to scrape off the dirt and bad wax, that is working great. Most comes off easily and if there is some tough stuff, I hit it with the torch and then I can cut off the bad stuff. I like working with wax and hope this comes together. It doesn't look like we will be selling our house this year, so I decided to work on this project before it gets cold.
The wax cuts really nice on the CNC, I just smoothed it down from cutting it with the band saw. The band saw didn't work real well but it cut and melted some slabs off. I think I need a coarser blade and slow it down some.
What kind of speed should I use on the CNC to cut the patterns? I tried a few different speed on the router and it din't make much difference. The travel speed was too fast so it pushed to piece and didn't cut well.
These are the shapes I poured and then the pieces I machined down. It's messy, I wish I had a small shop vac that I could only use for wax.

I guess Photobucket has kicked the bucket. Can't get it to open at all.

I got some pieces cut today. Spent the last week making up the g-code and then changing it and fixing it. Finally got the base parts the way I want them. Still having some issues with the decorative stuff, but I'll get these melted together and then work on the other. I'm going to talk to a glass blower in Chattanooga to see if we can trade some stuff if he'll help me make a glass ball. They help people make blown glass ornaments, so I think he'll help me. He wants some gold and silver foil I have. I'll try to get lots of pictures.

You seem to be having a good life there in Tennessee.

Photobucket won't open for me either at 5:20 Central time. That's two hours since your post. A long time for a major web site to be down.

Richard

It just opened. Photobucket lives.

Richard

I've about had it with Photobucket. They sent me an e-mail and said they were sorry for the outage, all is fixed. I can open the site but not load more than one picture but all their stupid ads come up just fine. They want money to go ad free ad promise everything will be faster and better. No Thanks!

Anyway, I made some progress. I got the pieces cut out after rewriting the code about 12 times. Also, mad a new center part. I cut it on the lathe, much easier than using the CNC. Almost ready for the invest, for the bottom part anyway. I still have to make the top part for the handle. I'll probably do it on the lathe also. I got the parts stuck together with an old soldering iron. I still have to clean it up some, but I'm pretty happy.

looking good,