I am wanting to try Cerimac Shell castings. Dose amy one have a
supply source for the materials or seggestions on where to start.
I will be using Bronze and Cast Iron.
All help will be appreciated.
Bill Calvert
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What you primarily will need are two products - Molochite and water glass ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_silicate ).
Molochite is fired and ground china clay, and you will need two fractions of it - a flour fraction; very fine powder; and courser grog (about 0.3-1.0 mm). I suppose you can find local Molochite sources if you google it.
If you can't find the courser fraction of the Molochite, I suppose you just as well can use white stoneware grog from your closest potter's clay supplier. But you will nevertheless need the fine fraction.
You use water glass as a binder, and it shouldn't be hard to find a local source for that product.
Anders
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The materials used for industrial ceramic shell and for most sculpture are based on colodial silica not water glass.
See : http://www.shellspen.com/index.html This is a suspension aid that is used in conjunction with the standard ceramic shell supplies.. REMET supplies the base materials.. If you are learning by yourself buy (expensive ) copy of "Fine metal art casting"Also see: "Metal
Casting: Appropriate Technology in the Small Foundry" by Steve Hersh
which is inexpensive.
Both can be found at Amazon.There is a lot on the
web too! GOGGLE search "ceramic shell casting"
There are a few places
in the US where you can learn from workshops.
jesse
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True - sorry.
The product I've used is called Bindzil ( http://www.ransom-randolph.com/ceramicshell/bindzil_colloidal_silica.html )
There also used to be a product named "Ethylzil" where the silica was solved in alcohol, with the advantage of drying more rapidly than the water-based Bindzil. But I can't find that product when I google it, so perhaps it doesn't exist anymore.
Anders
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