Newbie question regarding printing for investment casting.

[DannyT]

Hi all,

I’ve been doing some research on printing for lost wax/investment casting which I intend to do in aluminium.

It seems that the material called Moldlay is more appropriate for burning out than PLA. Does anyone have experience of printing with this or any other wax like material?

Also I’m looking at getting a Creality cr-10s as I require a larger build area, would this be do choice?

Thanks,
Danny.

[DannyT]

Anyone??

I’m also looking into the Artillery 3d x1 as the creality cr-10s pro has quite negative reviews. Anyone else got the Artillery?

[steveprinters29]

Hello Guys,
if you are looking Creality cr-10s 3D printer, you can get it online from reliable store such as ‘3D Printers Online Store’.
Check this link- https://www.3dprintersonlinestore.com/ ... 3d-printer
I hope it will help you
Thanks

[Septic]

PLA is fine for investment casting, but as with other plastics such as polystyrene, it’s important to use robust mould material and to burn out the plug properly. It’s not like lost wax, or other easily combustible materials as although it melts quickly, it takes a while to get rid of the molten blob.

My experience is limited to relatively small, light parts, printed with a perimeter of no more than 2mm and 20% fill. so I can only comment reliably based on that.

I have done this in a home built propane casting furnace quite a few times using parts printed by others, both simple and intricate and had good results.

For simple parts with little fine details above 3mm thickness I’ve found that if it’s hot enough to melt A piece of aluminium, maintaining that temperature for around 20 minutes after the fumes subside seems to be enough, but if the detail is fine, or for intricate parts, such as jewellery, or war gaming figures where fine detail is involved and sprues are narrow, I either raise the temperature until a small piece of brass melts and use the same timing, or stay at aluminium melting point for around 45 minutes. This almost invariably gives me a good, clean casting.

I’ve tried with shorter burn out times and lower temperatures, but the success rate was far lower.
Obviously, these heat/timing results will vary according to the overall density of the PLA form. So if your printed part is solid it will require more time, or heat.

Hope this helps.