Found Dreaming

A friend at the forge used to do a lot of casting but he had sold all his stuff. One day I was talking to him and he ask if I wanted some foundry wax he had left over, I said sure. Went and picked it up the other day and, man, there's about 200 pounds! Most of it is a Microcrystalline wax like a hard carving wax. It's all in blocks and is very dirty and bleached from sitting outside. Also, about 10 pounds of Blue Machinable wax, it's dirty too.
I melted some of it and strained it through some cheese cloth. It got a lot of the junk out of it but the wax separated. A thin layer of brown on top and some grainy orange wax on the bottom. After chatting with Rasper and looking online, I found that I didn't heat it up hot enough. Richard also gave me some tips to help clean it up and to soften some of it so I might be able to sculpt with it.
Should be fun. I'll get some pictures posted in a day or so. Maker's fair in Chattanooga tomorrow. We are going to see what that is all about. Probably a bunch of 3D printers.

Hey that's cool Jerry, have fun at the fair

It's not the world class Maker's Fair they have in some of the big cities. They are secretly calling it a mini makers fair. It's in an outdoor pavilion, so I don't know how good it's going to be. I'll try to get some pictures.

Please pardon my ignorance. What is a 3-D printer? I envision some miracle device that prints out a picture that you see in 3-D without the glasses. But of course I know better than that. So what is it?

Richard

Rasper wrote:Please pardon my ignorance. What is a 3-D printer? I envision some miracle device that prints out a picture that you see in 3-D without the glasses. But of course I know better than that. So what is it?

Richard

3D printer Richard

It was pretty much as expected. A gaggle of Geeks with about a dozen 3D printers, some little robot battles (they didn't even destroy each other), and a couple remote control helicopters. I did find a company that will sell me a PLA head for my CNC machine to turn it into a 3D printer. He said it would run off the 4th axis. I'm not sure I want to go that route.

https://www.facebook.com/MakerFaireChattanooga
Here's the page for the Maker's Faire. I guess they are calling it a success, maybe a good start. I hope it's larger next year.

Some of the pictures of the wax. You can see how dirty it is. I still need to pick up some filter material.

Hi Jerry, could you just melt the wax in a pot then scoop the crap off the top once it has melted

Most of that crap is heavier than wax. It doesn't float on wax the way it floats on metal.

Richard

Yea, most of it sinks, but some floats and a little stays suspended. I want to make a cone shape and put the filter cloth in it. When cleaning beeswax, I usually made a long piece of material so I could pull the dirty part away and have some fresh filter material.