Getting Started With Hand Poured Metal

Ever since the #MetalsMafia guys started posting in #SteemSilverGold I have been getting flare-ups of Stackitis happening regularly. I have been watching in awe at some of the amazing stuff they are making and sharing here on STEEM and I have been thinking about getting into hand poured metals myself. However it does seem daunting and it’s hard to know where to begin so I have started mapping out a plan of attack and I’m posting here in the hope that some of the more experienced guys might help me with it.

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In my youth I remember making some fantasy figurines out of tin using rubber molds with my dad. So I guess I have been interested in pouring metal from a very young age but I had let it go. It’s only now in my “Stacker Years” where I can see the potential for an old hobby of mine to merge with a new one. Not that I’d consider Stacking to be a hobby these days, but you get the idea. Now that I’ve been thinking about things it just feels like this is where I was always headed.

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I know that these old rubber molds (I still have them somewhere I am sure) are not going to be able to handle the serious heat required for melting Silver and Gold, but it’s possibly still a good place for me to start from. Using a cheaper metal with a lower melting point makes common sense so I’d been thinking about what the logical progression of metals might be.

Level	Metal	Melting Point
1	Tin	231.9 °C
2	Aluminium	660.3 °C
3	Copper	1,085 °C
4	Silver	961.8 °C
5	Gold	1,064 °C

Tin has the lowest melting point so it’s an obvious place to start and those old molds can help me get the cobwebs out. Aluminium and Copper are also cheap and easy to forage from scrap so they seem logical stepping stones as I turn up the heat.

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Getting a proper furnace has to be on the cards at some point. I can use my dad’s old gas cylinder and blow torch to get started, but that is not going to get me too far once I start to Level Up. I’m probably looking for an Electric Metal Furnace of some kind so that would be a few hundred dollars there and I’d need all the accessories like tongs and protective wear too.

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I’d also need to look at upgrading my molds as well because those rubber things will burn beyond Level 1. I could pick up some Graphite Molds for bars pretty cheaply so that would be good for Level 2. I’d love to be able to do custom molds with greensand like a lot of the #MetalsMafia guys do, but it does look like there is a fair amount of skill and practise required so that would be a long range goal for maybe Level 4 or 5.

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Then there is the possibility of picking up a 3D printer so that I could start making some of my own designs to turn into custom molds. I got pretty excited when I saw the custom bar that @raybrockman made using a 3D printed prototype. I would love to be able to do something like that. A 3D printer is another few hundred dollars to purchase for a basic model but obviously I’ll need to do some more research into the size and quality that can be made.

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All up there is some decent financial outlays but they are not prohibitive and so possibly the genesis is there of a decent little niche hobby business. My wife has even expressed an interest in getting involved and making some jewellery type items. She is far more creative than I am and at the end of the day this is a creative process. Maybe I am just in a day-dreaming phase but it might not be too far from reality. What do you experienced #MetalsMafia guys think? I am sure there is a lot more to this so are there any good newbie resources or information you could point me to that could help me turn this day-dream into a reality?

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Images and Credits
https://www.shutterstock.com
https://www.ebay.com
https://www.thegamecrafter.com
http://www.italimpianti.it
https://steemit.com/@raybrockman