Casting a bronze Molon Labe belt buckle

I decided to cast a bronze belt buckle with the words molon labe on it. It also has a spartan head as well.
If you're not familiar with the phrase, tradition holds that Leonidas said it to the Persians when they were defending Sparta at the battle of Thermopylae.

[@Hobypyrocom]

coming here from Paul's Garage channel... your videos are great, keep up the good work... subbed...

[@swdweeb]

Couldn't have come from a better place. Thanks for letting me know. :-D

[@ArtByAdrock]

Great buckle! One of these days I gotta make one. First I need a day off though 🥴

[@swdweeb]

Just quit that pesky job and do KZbin all day ;-D

[@IveysFamilyFactotum]

Love it. I cannot wait to get into my new house and shop today as I really want to cast along with my blacksmithing and woodworking. Yeah I try to keep busy...lol.

[@swdweeb]

Life's too short to spend it watching TV, Stay out there doing stuff... after you finish your move that is ;-)

[@RockingJOffroad]

Perry, that came out nice! You might have to go into production with this! I have a reproduction U.S. Civilwar belt buckle that has the date cast in the back it was cast in 1960 for the Civilwar centennial. I’ll have to get you pictures of the back so you can see how the tangs are cast, the tangs are exactly like they were done in 1860 there were three tangs two on the right side and one on the left side. I have worn this buckle off and on for many many years. The patina on it makes it look like one of the originals and the patina on my buckle is real! The buckle has outlasted many belts!

[@swdweeb]

Yeah, send me a picture, I'd love to see it.

[@ValueHunter7947]

came out great- she's a looker

[@swdweeb]

Thanks :-)

[@robinson-foundry]

That turned out really nice! Glad to see "Molon Labe".

[@swdweeb]

Thanks. Nice to still be able to show it ;-)

[@ehuiyaqui6879]

I'm gonna be your new follower Martin. I already subscribed to your channel. I will be watching you from the southland of sombreros amigo.

[@swdweeb]

Wait, was that for Martin or me? Martin es el hombre muy viejo down in Australia that I have learned just about everything from.

[@GaryForgingOn]

Okay, I looked it up. :) I should find my old coors belt buckle. I think it was Coors anyway. From back in the early 80s. It had a bottle opener in the center of the buckle. Back in my wilder early 20s. Before I quit drinking. ;)

[@swdweeb]

I'm reminded of a waitress in a cafe in the Latin Quarter of Paris... no I'm not making this up. I'd been there a few times over the course of a couple of years and she always opened bottles using her belt buckle.

[@GaryForgingOn]

@@swdweeb I'm sure she looked better opening them than I would. LOL

[@bigstackD]

Maybe I’ll cast a hammer that’ll certainly open a beer 🤔😉🍻

[@swdweeb]

Or a saber. You could open it like they do a bottle of champagne ;-) Now that would be cool.

[@WhatDennisDoes]

you joke, but I'm totally planning on using a hammer in my bottle opener design

[@hansolo5967]

I remember as it was yesterday, a bloody noob swdweeb telling himself... casting? no problemo. And the story begann from there where he learned from his mistakes and grew. And yes the cool guy called swdweeb never gave up and is still growing like crazy. Thx man for another awesome video! 💓

[@swdweeb]

It was just yesterday, well Sunday to be exact, but I'm still a noob ;-)

[@johnmccanntruth]

It looks good. I like the idea of leaving it and not polishing it. Another might be to attempt to polish the voids to make them pop. Sounds difficult though...

[@swdweeb]

yeah, I think some pattern work is in order. Once it's done there, it'll be done in all of the future castings

[@metalworksmachineshop]

Nice work . 👍

[@swdweeb]

thanks boss

[@russbrownell6312]

Nice job! Down with the safe act!

[@swdweeb]

Thanks.. yep

[@raydirkin9107]

Nice casting Perry, good to see fresh casting video I think I've watched every casting video only KZbin now😂 not many casting videos coming out now. That's a belt buckle to be proud of man, you've made huge improvements from some of your early stuff in fact I'd say you are the go to guy if anyone is serious about learning the best way of casting. Awesome be looking forward to the next.

[@swdweeb]

Wow, not too sure about that but thanks!

[@RustyGlovebox]

That buckle came out great. You make it look easy.

[@swdweeb]

The magic of special effects editing :-D But I'll take every complement I can get.

[@rockelec]

That turned out pretty darn nice and great subject matter also. 😎

[@swdweeb]

Thanks ;-)

[@rockelec]

How thick is the buckle?

[@swdweeb]

little over 5mm, just shy of a 1/4"

[@rockelec]

@@swdweeb thanks

[@sarigiannis2002]

Greetings from Greece! I Love this casting and its meaning! It's still means a lot to us.

[@swdweeb]

Did I get the letters right? ;-) It's an epic story, there's no doubt.

[@sarigiannis2002]

@@swdweeb The letters are right. mind that at μοΛων, Λ symbols not a letter (which actually is the real capital letter) but the place of origin, sparta known as capital of Λακωνία (lakonea), which makes this even more cool. Going to my my mothers home at lakonea for orthodox easter, i will show your cast to my friends there. Cheers mate!

[@meshaft]

Looks great Perry! Molon Labe my friend......and since you are starting to be living behind the "iron curtain" I say, "the chair is against the wall", "the chair is against the wall", "John has a long mustache", "John has a long mustache", ;-) lol

[@swdweeb]

I thought I replied to this earlier... apparently not. Nothing like a little Red Dawn to get your day started ;-)

[@tobhomott]

Figured it was Greek for "Ottawa Senators" until I looked it up. Turns out it's actually what you say when the government tries to take away your guns. 😁 Anyhow, the buckle turned out great! So for the tang - did you just poke a wire into the mold, or was there a loose pattern piece involved? I'm guessing the former; I think I missed that part, or maybe it was part of the lost footage.

[@swdweeb]

What??? I thought it was just something cool from antiquity. ;-) I poked a nail that I ground the point off of into the sand. That actually happened as I was waiting for the metal to melt. I was sitting there and it hit me "you never put the prong in dummy"

[@tobhomott]

@@swdweeb good trick with the nail. Much simpler than loose pattern pieces or trying to draw the pattern out at an angle...

[@diygeneration5566]

*The buckle is great! Casting! I make buckles too, but they are very different! Friends? ;-) Come by and visit!*

[@swdweeb]

I looked. You should show part of the process of making one

[@diygeneration5566]

@@swdweeb Not all of the buckles were captured on camera. But the Owl and the Blue Abstract are. Eventually I'll be sure to post these videos on the channel, but that will come later. Right now I have serious plans, I need to shoot and post about fifteen to twenty videos on the content plan for the channel.

[@JCSalomon]

I was about to say “As a New Yorker, I’m not offended” but then I reminded myself that I moved to a free State last week so I’m hardly representative.

[@swdweeb]

So slavery is illegal where you live? ;-)

[@JCSalomon]

They don’t call it slavery, @@swdweeb, but New York does restrict (almost to the point of elimination) one of the traditional basic rights of free people.

[@swdweeb]

Yeah... I know.

[@grandadz_forge]

Between you, Paul & Chirpy; I gotta try this sometime!

[@The52brandon]

Molon Labe was not once mentioned in the movie 300. Though it's english translation was once I think. Though it was (supposedly. I obviously wasn't there) a popular saying during the real battle of Thermopylae, which is the basis for that movie, and a fantastic story of how even in defeat one's actions can directly lead to victory in the end. The saying is again popular in the US with gun owners and gun rights activists as idiots that live in a bubble feel the need to impose their idiocy on regular law-abiding citizens aka the only people a gun ban would really affect. Which was proven in every single school shooting. Guns are illegal to possess in a school zone, so the only people with them were coward special snowflakes that didn't get hugged enough and took it out on random classmates in a weak attempt to make people care about them. And they think the way to prevent that is to essentially turn the whole of the USA into a school zone. It'll only result in those tragedies happening any and everywhere. Why should I forego my constitutional right when the only benefactors would be criminals and a potentially tyrannical government? I live in Phoenix. I drive past Xcalibur Guns regularly. They STILL sit shut down as a result of the feds forcing them to sell guns to people they KNEW were smuggling them into MX. Big story that was regularly in the news back then. Shame on us Americans for supplying the cartels with scary looking guns. Until the absolutely tragic death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry (I apologize if I've messed up the spelling, it's been a very long time), a poor guy just doing his job and trying to protect our border. And then it turns out our own federal government was responsible for providing that scumbag with that gun - along with God knows how many others. But that news story conveniently just faded away. I don't believe anybody was ever brought to justice for that aside from maybe the shooter. But we're expected to trust that Washington acts in our best interest? Of course an abrasive reality TV star with bad hair sounds better than a Clinton, or a Bush for that matter. The people are sick of the status quo they've set for so long. Want my guns? Sure. Molon Labe (sorry. I think I just fulfilled my soapbox quota for the decade)

[@swdweeb]

Glad I was able to give you a box to stand on ;-)

[@Mistertbones]

Great job! That came out nice.

[@swdweeb]

Thanks

[@olegk9599]

Отлично! Спасибо!

[@swdweeb]

spasibo

[@Thewulf56]

Nice pour. Love that Aluminum Bronze. I'm getting low need to make a couple more batches.

[@swdweeb]

Have you tried tin bronze yet? It is more expensive in that you have to buy the tin but in my limited experience it has less shrink than aluminum bronze.

[@Thewulf56]

No, not yet. I will one day, I have to buy some tin. It's not to expensive, seen about 10lbs for under $30

[@swdweeb]

@Michael Walter I started to do that but I wasnt sure what I was buying and I don;t know that the price was significantly better than the stuff I bought at a supply house. Basically I stood there and looked at the "pewter" plates and then chickened out ;-)

[@olfoundryman8418]

@Michael Walter, If you get tin based pewter its not too bad you get some copper and a little antimony too probably not to much of a problem BUT a lot of old pewter is lead based - very little tin and a lot of lead - not useful for making a tin bronze and its hard to tell the difference. My advice buy decent tin before you ruin a lot of good (and expensive) copper... Martin

[@olfoundryman8418]

@@swdweeb, I think its more that the pattern of shrinkage is different as the tin bronze is a pasty feeder the aluminium bronze a skin freezer. The latter gives marked and thus obvious centreline cavities while the former give dispersed shrinkage that's widely spread and nowhere near as obvious... Martin

[@smallcnclathes]

You could print those low areas a little deeper and then load with some filler to smooth the surface. Suggest you could try XTC3D ( a bit expensive) or epoxy used for fibre glass or polyurethane floor finish. All these products will flow over the layer lines and leave a smooth surface. This way you don’t have to sit for hours trying to sand the area with abrasive paper on the end of a pencil!

[@swdweeb]

That's actually flippin brilliant. I'm getting ready to print another buckle that I can try that with. Thanks!

[@JointerMark]

@@swdweeb Punished Props Academy is a KZbin channel that talks a fair bit about finishing 3D prints. You may find something useful there.

[@swdweeb]

Great, thanks. I'll take a look

[@olfoundryman8418]

Ah Grasshopper, you do well!... Martin PS, who the hell was the dislike? Is he for real?

[@swdweeb]

Oh, did it finally come in? ;-) I generally have a token dislike. Never quite feel complete until it comes in. Probably from that weaselly nephew hiding behind the portable throne

[@teteuscot5098]

dont forget to put the dingus in there

[@teteuscot5098]

dont tell me i didnt remind you :)

[@swdweeb]

Oh sure tell me now ;-)

[@BrianDaleNeeley]

A few things: First, your logo was showing up halfway up the screen and further to the left (in fullscreen on my phone), and it didn't show up otherwise. I was wondering if anyone had that issue. I will have to remember to check on the computer tomorrow. Second, since you can't use acetone to smooth the print (the casting looks great though!), maybe use some paint (I think black would look awesome) to fill the lower areas. I realize you might not want to have to do that every time. You could also potentially use enamel (I know you can enamel copper, but don't know what temperature they use). Third: I don't think I have ever seen anyone else on KZbin use a cutout backer for a raised piece. It seems I have seen something like that in some old casting manuals, but I don't remember specifically. Fourth, could the vents be larger, as they don't come "into play" until the metal has filled the cavity? Larger vents wouldn't cause issues with the bifilms in the casting itself, would they? I am trying to get my head wrapped around your casting practice, and it helps me to understand the "edge cases" Finally, I don't care how long I look at the writing (yes, I *KNOW* it's Greek) my brain keeps telling me that the lettering is backwards. I'm sure it isn't, although Greek was (?is) written right to left, so maybe that has something to do with it.

[@swdweeb]

Hi Brian, I'll respond to the rest later, but I refer you to this picture of a statue of Leonidas in Greece. Note the writing www.fotobabble.com/m/NXNKVDIyVDh5ejA9. You had me worried for a sec ;-)

[@swdweeb]

Not sure what to say about the logo placement. I don't have any control over that. KZbin throws it up wherever they want. I'm working on a couple of ways to smooth the pattern. One I'm trying on my own and the other @insidethemindofmatt is working on. Hopefully he'll have a video out soon on his technique. The cutout suggestion came from Martin on another project. When I did the belt buckle, and stood there staring at it for far too long, it dawned on me that I could use the same technique here. It worked remarkably well. The first time I cast the buckle, without the prong, the same vents filled all the way to the top. I think on this pour my metal was colder and it simply stopped flowing sooner. I'm not sure what else would have caused things to freeze up where they did. When I put a vent in, it's simply to let gas out, to keep the back pressure low. A 1/4" dowel is excessively sufficient for that. I could probably get away with smaller ones but these are handy as I have several cut. These vents of course should not be confused with feeders which as I expect you know would be much larger.

[@BrianDaleNeeley]

@@swdweeb I don't know what the issue was with the logo. It looks fine on my work computer. It was just this one video on my phone (and it's still doing it). I don't have any idea why either, but it was just strange enough that I thought it worth asking. As for the writing, it's all Greek to me...

[@swdweeb]

I checked with @sarigiannis ioannis who is Greek and his mother lives in lakonia (old Sparta). He confirmed that the letters are correct ;-) You can probably find his comment associate with this video ;-)

[@kaysiesargent4086]

First off I want say thanks for taking the time to teach others. Getting ready to start my first pour. It's a belt buckle I hand carved from wax. Your videos are the most informative I've seen. Just curious what kind of sand you use? It appears to be much darker than the stuff I've seen everywhere else.

[@swdweeb]

Thanks Kaysie, I appreciate that. The sand that you see started out as petrobond but has been used so many times it is loaded with carbon from the burned oil. It used to be orange ;-) I just kept adding clean motor oil to it as the bond weakened to keep it going. I've recently decided to make the switch to green sand (sand and cat litter) and am still trying to get the finish to be as smooth as that oil-based sand that I used. I'm not quite there yet.

[@blueroseyt]

Wow, 7th viewer ! woo hoo. Always waiting for now vids!

[@swdweeb]

Do I get to claim 1st? :-D

[@JulianMakes]

awesome result Perry. lovely finish. I've seen you use the spin trap a few times now and i've been forgetting to ask what it does... what does it do? also printing the part with gates etc on is an excellent idea. i'll try that one day :) also when you do these strange parts with a curved parting line it plays with my mind man... so clever and very ineresting. cheers o/

[@swdweeb]

Oh behave baby ;-) The spin trap is a bit of an enigma to me. I think it has to do with a couple of things. 1. it reduces the opportunity for metal to splash back when it hits the end of the runner. Thus reducing the opportunity for more bifilms from forming. 2. it reduces some of the energy from the initial fall of the metal through the sprue thus creating a less dramatic entry into the part 3. it might catch dross that has entered the system at the beginning of the pour. 4. it might catch dirt from the early parts of the pouring system although this doesn't appear to be conclusive. 5. it might be a place for a cold leading edge to get trapped and not enter the mold If you have Campbell's book I think sections 12.6 and 12.7 are where this sort of thing might be described. I'm looking at it now and I don't see the spin trap that I used being discussed. This may be a new advent as the edition I have appears to have been published in 2015, four years ago.

[@JulianMakes]

@@swdweeb ahhh thanks mate they all make sense. I'll see if it's in my book tonight. cheers o/

[@maxhammontree3169]

Hey buddy, what would you charge to cast an old international harvester belt buckle for me? I have an original.

[@swdweeb]

Sorry for the the delayed reply. Email me at [e-mail] and send a picture of the original buckle.

[@junit483]

Why not use acetone vapors to smooth out the prints?

[@tobhomott]

That doesn't work on PLA plastic and I believe that is the type of filament he is using.

[@kieranblack4172]

Also you lose some detail doing that

[@swdweeb]

@tobho mott is right, it's PLA and you can;t smooth it with acetone. There is some stuff called gloop I think that smooths PLA. I saw it on one of @insidethemindofmatt videos recently

[@swdweeb]

@kieran black good point

[@unclebobsbees4899]

Perry, as always nice result. When did the spin trap come into vogue? Is that just a bronze thing? Sorry have not had much time to dig through Campbell's tome, or anything else....

[@swdweeb]

It came into vogue for me when I was shown a proposed gating system for a project I was trying to cast. Bob sent it to me. Like you, I haven't read Campbell's book near enough.

[@unclebobsbees4899]

@@swdweeb Sweet! I suppose the swirl is supposed to trap loose sand and other nastiness. If I can get the foundry finished AND the video stuff figured out you MIGHT actually see something from me this year. 😂

[@swdweeb]

@@unclebobsbees4899 I think the intent is do do exactly that and to catch the leading cold edge in a circular trap that prevents it from splashing back when it hits the end of the runner. The upward taper in the bottom of the runner should help with the metal racing down towards the end of the runner as well.

[@JCSalomon]

It certainly looks as if the spin trap has caught the “shrinkage” (which John Campbell and Bob Puhakka will tell you is actually bifilm bubbles, and the reason for the spin trap).

[@swdweeb]

@@JCSalomon Well... truth be told, because of the relatively uniform thickness... or maybe I should say thinness... there doesn't appear to be shrinkage. However the place where the prong is located is on a small mound of bronze. The face of the buckle is indented directly opposite of that one small thicker part. So there is shrinkage where the mass of material is thicker than the rest of the part.

[@InsideTheMindOfMatt]

Awesome job that turned out Great give me an idea!!

[@swdweeb]

??? I'm curious now.

[@northstarjack]

That's awesome! I don't have a 3d printer like alot of you have but I'm thinking about trying some silicone molds to do some lost wax casting

[@northstarjack]

And btw I LOVE your angle iron flasks I hate building my cope and drags they never seem to be completely square or flat. Never line up perfectly lol

[@swdweeb]

I've been experimenting... with nothing but failures... on making a wax pattern. I have something that I want to cast that requires a lost-something mold.

[@northstarjack]

@@swdweeb I'll keep you updated on my progress on making my mold for the wax.

[@swdweeb]

@@northstarjack where did you get your wax?

[@northstarjack]

@@swdweeb FREEMAN INJECTION WAX FLEXIBLE BLUE FLAKES WAX JEWELRY LOST WAX CASTING 1 Lb BAG (LZ 1.2 FRE) NOVELTOOLS www.amazon.com/dp/B0155JVHXE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_pP3TCbGQSEEV8

[@Benjamin-du6kr]

6 views and 5 likes some one isn't doing their part.

[@swdweeb]

Well, someone unsubbed on it so I'll take a missed like as a positive thing ;-)

[@Benjamin-du6kr]

@@swdweeb Oh well that unsubscriber probably doesn't like personal property or personal liberty either.

[@swdweeb]

;-)

[@jackdawg4579]

So... did your trousers stay up?

[@swdweeb]

They have, for three going on four days now ;-)

[@solihinpalembang3064]

Pasir apa tuan?

[@swdweeb]

I used refurbished petrobond sand for that casting. I use green sand now.