*** Elk Hunt Story Belt Buckle Underway***

[25contender]

Getting ready to end the week here at the shop and thought I would share the completed models for the buckle. I finally finished up JJ's Elk as well as finishing 90% of the detail carving. The little detail work that is left will be done after the two pieces are cast and assembled. Everyone have a great weekend.

 

[mntnguide]

very impressive and awesome! ! one of a kind! really enjoy watching your updates and seeing it come to life

 

[jjenness]

That is way more detail then what I had envisioned. Can't wait!

 

[marcusvdk]

Thats amazing you have a real gift. Thanks for sharing it with us

 

[atrietch]

Wow! I wish I would have got my story in last fall!

 

[libidilatimmy]

All I can say is WOW. That thing is going to be REALLY nice! You do great work, 25.

 

[ElkTrout]

Exciting watching it all come together! Beautiful work.


Sent from my iPhone

 

[genesis27:3]

Beautiful work Mark!
So, am I eligible to enter if I kill another bull next year (2016)? Or will the fact that we'll be hunting together make it a little biased?

 

[sneakypete]

Jjenness , you deserve it!

 

[RUTTIN]

Heck Ya that is awesome! Can't wait to see it finished.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jjenness]

Jjenness , you deserve it!

Thanks Pete, but I assure you that I don't deserve it any more than most anybody on the forum. I just happened to get lucky this year.

 

[sneakypete]

JJ, luck is what you make of it= hard work! effort , and the drive to never give up.

 

[25contender]

I should have the parts cast by the end of this week then assemble it next week. It is kind of a long process from start to finish. I always have five or six projects going on at the same time. I am considering making a small line of buckles with the animals we love to chase. If that happens I will let you know. It just takes a while to develop a line when I have so much going on.

 

[25contender]

Just a little update. I have the parts ready to cast. I have a few more pieces that I have to get ready today and should cast everything tomorrow.

 

[25contender]

Rolling along, sprued the pieces up on the base, Invested them with high temp medium, and now they are in the oven for burnout. They will be ready to cast tomorrow.

 

[jjenness]

Rolling along, sprued the pieces up on the base, Invested them with high temp medium, and now they are in the oven for burnout. They will be ready to cast tomorrow.

I have no idea what this means but it sounds great.

 

[25contender]

Justin,
The green models are a hard meltable plastic., So what you do is sprue them up. The yellow and blue looking rods I put on the green models are the sprues.Once sprued they are attached to a rubber base like the photo above. Once attached to the base a stainless flask/sleeve is put around the models and depressed into the rubber base. At this point the Medium in this case a very high temperature plaster is poured into the flask and the air is removed with a vacuum assist machine. After a few hours and the plaster is hard the rubber base is removed. Now the flask is put in a high temperature oven and the oven is brought up to 300-400 degrees.This will melt the meltable plastic out through the sprue openings. As the temperature rises on the scheduled burnout the heat will disintegrate the plastic leaving a cavity in the plaster. This takes about 10 hours and the temp gets up to 1200 degrees. After the burnout is complete the temp will be brought down to a specific temp for the molten metal that will be cast into the flask with a centrifuge. That is the short version!! Hope it helps Mark

I have no idea what this means but it sounds great.

 

[25contender]

If you look close at the flasks in the oven you will see writing on the top of the flask.. This is the wax weight in each flask as well as the metal to be used to cast into each flask. With that weight and metal type I can calculate exactly how much metal will be needed (by specific gravity of the wax X the specific gravity of the metal + Button weight = Metal needed) for each flask.

 

[25contender]

A little hot in here today!! Finishing the burnout process.

 

[25contender]

finally in the metal stage. Both parts are cast. The base of the buckle in Sterling silver and the Elk in gold. The photos are of the rough unfinished castings. Those might say those don't look like Silver or gold? That is what everyone says when I show rough castings. There is still quite a bit of work that needs to be done.They still have to be detailed polished and then assembled.