bronze casting

the concrete drawings that we have made will be set in place and then some bronze and glass sculptural elements will be set on top of them. there will be bronze cast buckets that have glass "water" inside the buckets.

to make the bronze we contracted our friend tom who is a talented wax maker, mold maker and bronze caster. we had to find the buckets and chair that we wanted reproduced in bronze.

tom did heaps of work before the actual casting day making the molds of the real objects then waxes, then the casting system and setting these into molds ready for the bronze casting day. these are photos from that day.

 

above are the molds that were in the kilns, melting out the waxes and heating the molds up ready for the pour.

the molds are re-enforced with burlap soaked in plaster that are wrapped around them. this is an extra measure in case the mold breaks with the hot metal in it.

the furnace that holds the crucible with the bronze in it is roaring away in the background. bits of bronze are set on top to make sure any moisture evaporates off and then tom loads the bronze bits into the crucible to melt.

meanwhile the molds are flipped and set into place in a sand pit, the openings kept covered until it is time to pour to keep them clean.

here are the raw bronze bricks that were purchased for the casting.

once the bronze is ready, the guys who are pouring the liquid metal get geared up in protective clothing.

the crucible is lifted out of the furnace, and then set into a pouring bar.

the pouring bar is then lifted over the molds and the bronze is poured out. i dont have any photos of this as i had to operate the overhead crane that assisted with lifting the full crucible. but it all happens pretty quickly, moving from one mold to the other pouring the bronze in. the bronze pours really easily, like milk.

here are the molds that have been filled, the hot bronze still glowing.

after a little bit it visually cools down to a grey colour, but they are still way too hot to touch

the excess bronze is recast into metal frames to make bricks for next time.

all in all it took a full afternoon to get the bronze cast.