Make Custom Bronze Signs from 3D Printed Patterns

[@babbagebrassworks4278]

Life is learning and so is making. We all learn lots from your learning.

[@julias-shed]

With patina you have the damaged G just adds character. I like it 😀

[@evanbarnes9984]

Jesus man, you're going to get me into another hobby I don't have the space or time for!

[@blazunlimited]

“Definitely don’t do that, but if you do”, lol. I am a tradesman and I say such things to apprentices about things like sniping a wrench with another wrench.

[@PaulsGarage]

If it works, it works, right? 🤣

[@ralphmourik]

That came out pretty cool in the end, like something from early industrial era. Think I would prefer green patina on bronze, but I would have to see blue too 😁👍

[@orange-micro-fiber9740]

1:40 "I think that's what was in the printer at the time" Ah, a true 3d printer at heart.

[@PaulsGarage]

Well what else would I use? All the other different colored filaments I bought because I was going to use them for...something... but never opened? 🤣🤣

[@awldune]

The patina looks great as is, IMO

[@MasterThief117]

Why are your videos so good? Keep being you!

[@PaulsGarage]

Thanks! Glad you like them!

[@thechumpsbeendumped.7797]

Am I the only one that likes the slight imperfection? The green looks great.

[@PaulsGarage]

It kinda goes with the "old and found at the bottom of the sea" vibe of the green crusty patina

[@VincentGroenewold]

That, to me, looks great! The G even shows what your channel is about... screw ups! haha Kidding... I would love to see a bit more footage of the heating and pouring, I liked that in the past.

[@justinchamberlin4195]

Friendly point of interest for the budding copper casters out there: phosphor copper is indeed a good deoxidizing additive, with a few caveats. 1) Don't use it with silicon bronze or aluminum bronze. At best it will have no effect, at worst it could cause embrittlement in your castings. Aluminum bronze's aluminum content and pouring silicon bronze quickly with careful temperature control should be all you need to minimize gas in these alloys. 2) When used in tin bronze, there is a risk of adding too much and causing even more gas problems. Total phosphorus content in tin bronzes should be kept between 0.015% and 0.030%....not very much at all, especially if you don't know how much is in your scrap or other raw materials. Too much phosphorus, or the right amount added way too soon, can scavenge all the oxygen and leave nothing to help get rid of hydrogen, which is another unfortunate source of gas defects. If actual casting defects aren't obvious by themselves, gas problems in tin bronze can be identified by tin sweat - where molten tin is literally pushed out of the casting by gas voids forming as the copper solidifies. 3) If you're melting brass, it's probably easier to just flare off some of the zinc than it is to mess around with degassing additives. Crank up the temperature to 1900 degrees or so, watch for some flaring, drop the temperature again, and add 1.5 lb of pure zinc per 100 pounds of metal (or about 1/4 oz of added zinc per pound of metal in the furnace) to make up for what you just torched off. 4) No amount of phosphor copper shot added to your melt is going to fix problems caused by dirty and/or mixed scrap. Small amounts of iron can cause hard/discolored spots in the castings and positively tiny amounts of silicon or aluminum can lead to leaky, brittle castings.

[@johnmccanntruth]

That turned out great. I like the green, but I would like to see the blue as well. I might have to get you to cast me one, make yourself a part time job making signs. Somehow I’m not sure that’s what you were thinking…

[@PaulsGarage]

Lol I was definitely not planning on starting a sign business but I could probably work out my process a bit with more practice!

[@joshuadelisle]

Excellent update, thank you. Cheers J

[@TheJayJacker]

I think it looks awesome!

[@user-qy9rg3nt2l]

A light sanding and multiple light coats of paint makes it smooth enough to fall right out of the sand.

[@jackkuehneman9300]

I recommend the Book Patina by Matt Rufola. Tons of recipes for brass, bronze, copper, steel, and sterling silver.

[@trentw26]

you may want to get some card scrapers for smoothing print lines. I find them to be infinitly faster at doing so.

[@dfross87]

Another Sunday/Monday release this weekend? Hope all is (at least passably) well in your part of Wisconsin, Paul.

[@KrakenCasting]

I don't know if this would work on bronze, but you can get a blue patina on copper by mixing red wine vinegar, Miracle Grow, and salt water. Always worth a shot!

[@PaulsGarage]

I tried that first, it was taking waaaay too long. Had to break out the super chemicals. This is also home-made bronze so it's possible there are contaminants screwing it up

[@joell439]

I think it's AWESOME!!!!!! 👍👍😎👍👍

[@PaulsGarage]

Thanks!

[@lornablewettandlee504]

I like it! A perfect sign belongs on a doctors door. Rustic rules, OK.

[@kursor6127]

Casting plaques is my hobby. I started 10 Years ago and my goal from the begining was to get good quality plaques as cheap as possible. That is very difficult. Theres always something wrong;) i made huge progress but its stil far from Perfect. What can i advice about loose sand- use soft brush ( that one girls use for makeup) its very soft and IT will brush away every loos grain without damage to mold.

[@custos3249]

Should give a card scraper a try for flat and convex surfaces

[@PaulsGarage]

I used to have some of those, never did find them after moving

[@shadowmage36]

ProTip for longer life on your crucibles in an electric furnace: If you're using a graphite crucible, and can afford it, flow nitrogen into the melting chamber. It'll keep the graphite from burning and leaving just the clay behing. Alternatively, spring for a silicon carbide crucible. It'll last a lot longer.

[@PaulsGarage]

Silicon carbide crucibles, eh? Not a bad idea

[@tobhomott]

I like the idea of 3D printed patterns, but even if you only ever make 2 more one-off sign plaques I think you could save a lot of time and filament by printing standard background(s) without any text on them. Then can cast a blank metal pattern, white glue plastic pattern letters onto it, and make your mold. Then you can soak and scrape the letters back off to reuse next time without damaging the main pattern. Plastic sign board letters are very smooth and have great draft. Perfect pattern letters once you cut the tabs off the back, and a variety of fonts can be found online. Really like the patina you achieved here 👍 looks sharp even if you were aiming bluer.

[@PaulsGarage]

That's a great idea!

[@PaulsGarage]

Want me to personally teach you how to use your 3D printer to learn sand casting? Click here: paulsmakeracademy.mykajabi.com/joinus Equipment mentioned in the video (some are affiliate links, some not): Where to get that electric furnace: Code: VVMH5%OFF (5% off on all products) US site: s.vevor.com/bfQdDt Petrobond casting sand: amzn.to/3BpobQB Water putty: amzn.to/3pE2MAC Dap wood filler: amzn.to/3OHIlwW Clog-resistant sanding disks: amzn.to/3C03b3b 3D Printer i used*: amzn.to/3BYNxVB *any FDM 3D printer can do this. No need to buy a specific one, as long as it's big enough. maybe resin ones can too, no idea, i haven't tried those Ancient Bronze casting grain: www.riogrande.com/product/ancient-bronze-casting-grain-5-lbs/7060515GP/?code=7060515 (silicon bronze should work, too, also brass) Phosphor Copper: www.belmontmetals.com/product/15-phosphor-copper/

[@jimintaos]

Way cool, Paul. I am going to experiment with using a weed burner torch to pre-heat molds to see what happens. I recently poured some aluminum into 36-inch long castings. Each one was about 5 pounds of aluminum-including the sprue and riser. I poured length wise rather than from the center and to get the metal to run the full length I had to pour at around 1450 and even then it would freeze before the metal got all the way up to the top of the riser. However all 5 pours came out without a problem other than a lot of texture and flashing from pouring so hot. I have a house number sign for a friend and I am going to do it with bronze and make the number side of the mold with sodium silicate sand backed up with green sand. I'll pre-heat to 350 or 400 and pour hot. All that said-this was a great vid. Thanks for posting.

[@PaulsGarage]

Very interesting! In my experience, copper alloys are more likely to freeze than aluminum, and zinc is even more forgiving. Preheating would help I bet

[@ConeDodger240]

Thanks. Go ahead and ship mine with the sander. 😅

[@PaulsGarage]

😉

[@steverenken5143]

I wonder how wax casting woodwork for the bronze

[@OtherWorldExplorers]

You could artistically drill a hole through that broken g. And make it a bullet hole. Or. You could drill it and then put a bronze bolt in it unscrew it out and then shape it as needed to fill the hole of the g. And then of course do the patina thing.

[@PaulsGarage]

Those are good ideas

[@user-rk3yb6nd1n]

Or, and I'm just spitballing here, you could just...shoot it. Lol.

[@DerekWoolverton]

Yes, I fired my Vevor up this weekend to melt down some scrap aluminum, and oh my goodness its slow. On the other hand because electricity is so cheap in Iowa, I only spent a nickel to run it for an hour. Turned a pile of foil into a lot of crud, and a little blob of metal. Also my home-made scraper is too thick, and would freeze the metal when I put it in. Final result? Set the furnace at least 200° hotter than you want to the metal to be. Also it looks like you can get 10 packs of those crucibles off of Alibaba for about $10/ea. May be the real cost of operating the furnace.

[@valeriiradchenkov5761]

There is a very good way to make black (actually very dark blue) patina on bronze and copper (not brass). It acts very fast and if you dont dilute it enough the patina will be flake off easily. So, you make a reasonably concentrated solution of caustic soda (how concentrated doesnt really matter) and add some sulfur to it, untill it dissolves and makes the solution reddish-yellow. It goes faster if you heat it up but hot caustic is a bit unsafe do i wouldnt recommend it. Then add a few ml of this red solution to about a litre of water, about enough to make the water look straw yellow. This will stain copper and bronze blackish-blue in a couple minutes and the patina will be fairly durable. If you try this with brass youll need to use the concentrated solution and it will turn orange-yellow instead of black. This method is essentially liver of sulfur but made of caustic instead of potash. Also it can be used to tarnish silver black

[@BenjaminNelsonX]

Hi Paul! Love your videos. I'm a youtuber in Oconomowoc. Maybe I could come visit some time!

[@camillosteuss]

Looks damn nice! Im not against some defects in name plates or detail plates, of course, depending on the size of the font, but what the hell did you expect from ammonia compounds?? A lovely floral fragrance? Its accursed... Ammonia and burnt sulfur both are a terror to inhale in even the slightest amounts, as they are essentially the ingredients for spicy wind... Sure, spicy wind has many recipes and different ways to cook it, but among the earliest chemical warfare methods, sulfur and ammonia were the quite popular... I would highly advise getting a full face gas mask with adequate filters if you intend on dabbling in use of high chemicals, as well as a good rubber apron and thick gloves approved for chemicals handled... Ammonia is bad enough, but mixing it with other shit is akin to mixing acids... Great results, but the compounds can be absolutely lethal even on contact, so spillage of any kind must be defended against with rigor and diligence... Some compounds literally dont hurt as in causing pain, but they absorb and can literally cause any imaginable catastrophic organ failure or other such injury, which will hurt... Be careful, read up on every chemical you are using, and research the mixture compounds as well, some are no more harmful than kitchen salt, some will corrode your bones and stop your heart... High chemistry is no less dangerous than handling molten metals... Im no certified chemist per se, but i have had over 8 years of schooling in varying fields of chemistry, so its not chemist snobbery, its just a heads up... Also, if it smells like it will kill you, it likely will, and so will its compounds as well, but some things dont even smell, yet its fumes will dissolve your innards, so just be careful, there are far worse things than smoking cigars in the world of chemistry, and a bit of molten metal on your toes is likely highly preferable over some of the injuries that mishandling of some chemicals can cause...

[@steverenken5143]

I've never done this have no idea but could you make a plaster negative, fill it with wax to do a wax casting

[@PaulsGarage]

Probably yes. You can get wax filled printer filaments and resins too so you can just print the wax one for investment casting

[@johnperkins7179]

XCT-3D is a good smoothing coating that means less sanding

[@PaulsGarage]

Thanks for the tip!

[@ifell3]

Awesome 👍

[@PaulsGarage]

Thanks!

[@roscoepatternworks3471]

Your assumption is right, you don't need risers on a casting that's 1/4" thick. Try putting the letters in the drag. Bad metal goes up(cope). For the 3d printed pattern i use files and homemade scrapers. And my preference is putting patterns on a matchplate. Last don't use water putty on wood patterns. Bondo, famowood and dap work fine. Water putty takes too long to set.

[@PaulsGarage]

Thanks for the tips! These were face down. I was ramming the drag up first, my reasoning is the same, hopefully bad stuff floats. I like the longer working time of water putty personally. I though wood filler dried too fast. Or maybe I just work too slow 😂

[@YourArmsGone]

If you are too lazy to sand just spray paint your plastic mold, most primers are great at filling in the layer lines.

[@Boosted98gsx]

Liver of sulfur?

[@Nickle314]

Look up acetone smoothing for PLA

[@PaulsGarage]

That would definitely help cut down on sanding

[@Nickle314]

@@PaulsGarage I await with interest your experiment! 🙂 The fault look good by they way. You should of course claim it was deliberate and very difficult to achieve.

[@PaulsGarage]

@@Nickle314 haha of course! I meant to do it to replicate.... Bronze disease? Yeah that's it

[@YourArmsGone]

I thought Acetone only worked on ASA and ABS.

[@Nickle314]

@@YourArmsGone Not sure. But for making the pattern, ABS is good enough

[@richardbrobeck2384]

I sure Like using Fusion 360 I just designed a Gear !

[@lordzeppo]

Hey Paul, DM me if you want a pro-level 3D model with drafts and all.

[@PaulsGarage]

Will do! Thanks for the offer!

[@lordzeppo]

@@PaulsGarage No problem, love your content, keep it up!

[@bartybollocks]

Real degrees? you mean Kelvin right? not the olde worldey one used by 3rd world countries.

[@johnallen8680]

Aw no ! I was just about to build an enormous furnace out half a 45 gallon drum and have roaring burners , flames and handling a big crucible of bubbling hot metal with big foundry tongs ! ! All very matcho man ! Now it's evident that a near silent titchy little 'coffee maker' gizmo will easily do the job ... Do I have a small d**k ? Absolutely not ! 😮 Honest !

[@PaulsGarage]

haha i have a gas and electric one, no judgement here! And vevor just released a new electric furnace that's black with a few updates. I don't have a video out on it but i have one and i've messed around with it a bit, the thing is awesome.