"lost wax" filament

[garrattmaker 2]

Theres is some "lost wax" filament on the market - with 3mm...

I'm wondering about 2.85mm ?

Is there any experiences with wax ore "wax similar" filament?

I want to print items for metal casting for my live steam loco models.

( see Facebook: "Garrattmaker")

[meduza 191]

Have you looked at the PolyMaker PolyCast?

http://www.polymaker.com/home/polycast-info/

[tomnagel 126]

Why not use PLA for this?

See http://3dtopo.com/lostPLA/

or http://www.instructables.com/id/From-3d-printed-part-to-metal-the-lost-plaabs-me/

for examples.

PLA is very easy to print with, and will get you optimal results in terms of print quality and user friendlyness.

Edited February 16, 2017 by Guest

[peggyb 171]

Moldlay works very well

Edited February 17, 2017 by Guest

[garrattmaker 2]

Great,

That is really helpful ....

Mille grazie

[ahoeben 1,985]

Note that - at least in my experience - moldlay needs a much higher temperature than wax to melt out of your investment. A friend of mine uses steam to melt his wax, and the same steam just barely made the moldlay soft.

There's also http://www.machinablewax.com/, but I have no experience with it.

[peggyb 171]

Moldlay needs 270 degrees to melt out.

[tomnagel 126]

Hi @peggyb,

Why do you use moldlay? Did you try other stuff mentioned here? Could you share you experience?

[peggyb 171]

No, I just tried Moldlay and it works. It prints good and the casts come out nice, so why try others... I don't cast myself, but let a professional do it, it takes good equipment to cast a detailled print (with vacuum conditions) and he doesn't have a problem with it. Casting does work with normal PLA as well, but the temperature to burn the PLA must be higher.

[ceystath 0]

According to the "experts" PLA leaves residue, at normal temperatures for lost wax casting and the temperature needed to not leave any residue, breaks the mold.

[UM2NEWBEE1 0]

I used MoldLay and the wax filament from http://www.machinablewax.com/ that ahoeben linked. Between the two, MoldLay was a little easier to print with, but the wax was not too bad once I got the settings dialed in. Overall, I prefer the wax filament for most designs. I seemed to have better results with it for investment casting. None of my designs are suitable for relying on melt-out, so low ash was important. The MoldLay left some minor defects, I believe was due to ash. The wax has yielded flawless results.

[tarquasso 0]

For the wax filament for http://www.machinablewax.com/ , what settings did you find to work for you? Did you use Ultimaker 3 or another model?

[garrattmaker 2]

I use "Polycast" it is also a wax filament

(it is just for companies.. not on the "free market")  

settings are very similar to normal PLA on a CR 10s printer.

[tarquasso 0]

5 hours ago, garrattmaker said:

I use "Polycast" it is also a wax filament

(it is just for companies.. not on the "free market")  

settings are very similar to normal PLA on a CR 10s printer.

 

I would like to use it for melting it out, how well is that possible? What temperature? Does it leave a residue? 

 

As a university, is it possible to purchase this "commercial" filament?

[garrattmaker 2]

Please look to this side

... special materials. 

https://www.polymakerindustrial.com/material-portfolio

 

from my view it is perfect for melting out. And casting brass. No residue

ca. 250 degrees Celsius - time depends on volume. 

the minimum quantity is 3kg.

 

I don't know how they handle there rules with an university.

they are in Asia - and have a Europe center in Nederlands.

And a center in US (I think NY)...

 

This material you can perfect glue with alcohol 98%. In my case I do not need support-material - complex parts I print in 1,2,3 parts and glue them to one complete piece. The material is hard- you can use sandpapers und so on...

as you can see on the pict: to complete a castingtree you can also use a soldiering iron. 

 

kr ht

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 25, 2018 by garrattmaker

[Dreya 0]

On 3/25/2018 at 5:19 AM, tarquasso said:

For the wax filament for http://www.machinablewax.com/ , what settings did you find to work for you? Did you use Ultimaker 3 or another model?

Hi did you find what settings worked for machinable was I am very new to 3 d printing butvwsnt to use the wax for making glass moulds 

[garrattmaker 2]

I print with a CR-10s. 

and with the “Polycast” (wax)material from Polymaker.

Extruder 220 / bed 60 degrees celsius

 

With machinable wax I have no experience.

 

😊

 

[Dreya 0]

Many thanks for getting back to me and for this info 

[Design94 4]

We did some trials in our company with Moldlay and professional lost wax casting. The result was ok but not good enough. We have now tried Polycast. We made some tubes for a customer and I made a part for my filament extruder.

I did manual grinding and I have also used the Polymaker Polisher to get a final smooth surface roughness of Rz 20 which was quite good. I have finally managed to print the 43 F7 tolerance (after adjusting the shrinkage rate) at the tube. So for us it was a promising start and we will continue our tests. The most important point is that the material could be burned very clean and that it`s not absorbing too much moisture. The parts were casted in 316L material.

 

BR,
Thorsten

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 26, 2019 by Design94

[garrattmaker 2]

That sounds really good! 🙂

 

My Table today...

 

kr Helmut 

 

 

[Design94 4]

Looks like a relaxing Sunday 😉 Beautiful, delicate parts....

Br

Thorsten

[ikkg 0]

Which print cores are you all using to print Moldlay and Polycast? 

[garrattmaker 2]

Nozzle 0,4

layer 0,1

60mm speed 

220 / 60 degrees 

 

use the CrS10 as it comes out of the box.

(Sorry Ultimakers -I’m retired with a small budged) 

 

if you want to see a making of my models go to YouTube- “Garrattmaker”

[DivingDuck 105]

Wow, that's an interesting long time project and very well done so fare.