Glossary
With over 40 years of casting under our belt, we've answered many queries and solved many problems.
10% conc. sulphuric acid, used to soften the oxide layer on castings before clean up.
A mixture of different metals.
Aluminium potassium sulphate - a safe form of Acid.
Early part of the kiln cycle which melts the wax out of the flasks.
Extra metal added to the overall amount of metal used in order to create more pressure in casting.
A computer file used in 3D printing and multi-axis milling - a 3D picture of your work.
Wax which has additives to make it ideal for hand-carving.
Any piece of metal which has been cast by our Lost Wax Casting Method - our final product.
A machine which melts metal and fills flasks with precise control.
As materials cool down, they get smaller, contracting in all directions, be it wax or metal.
The heavy, central trunk in the Tree which feeds metal to the pieces being cast.
A container made from graphite or ceramic. Used in our casting machine in which we melt the metal.
A printed copy of your order with metal weights, etc which will arrive with your castings. Not an Invoice!
Preparations made to a casting to make it ready for polishing
A metal tube which houses the wax tree, surrounded by investment plaster, into which the casting machine pours the metal.
A compound used to reduce oxide on hot metal. The most common is Borax.
Metal alloy which has been processed into the form of small beads in preparation for casting.
A service we offer, smoothing the inside of cast ring shanks.
A cavity in a piece to be cast. A limitation of the casting process.
A heated pot, filled with wax, under pressure, used to push wax into rubber moulds.
A powder, similar to plaster which cures to a basic ceramic during a kiln cycle, used to make a mould for casting.
A summary of your order with prices. Typically emailed on the day your castings are ready for shipping to be paid.
A large, temperature controlled oven.
Any object you want reproduced by casting.
A rubber like material which has a cavity in the shape of the master.
The frame used to contain the master on its sprue during the moulding process
A sprue with more than one piece. Can reduce the overall casting cost but often the quality is compromised.
An inert gas, used to eliminate oxygen inside a casting machine.
An email with a summary of the work we are going to undertake for you.
The outer layer of metal which has reacted with oxygen - not a good thing.
Royal mail or the metal wire on an ear stud
A CAD Model which has been 3d printed. Some can be cast directly, others can/must be moulded first.
An invoice which must be paid before goods are shipped
After casting hot metal/flasks are placed in water to cool them down rapidly. Avoided with Stone-in-Place castings.
Metal which has been cast/worked previously is turned back into grain by melting and dripping into water.
Room Temperature Vulcanising - a form of silicon used to make moulds without heat
A casting defect in wax or metal where two molten streams have not fused completely. Also known as a Cold Shut
See Contraction.
The process of removing castings from the Core with shears.
Any low melting point alloy used to create a permanent bond between two or more metal surfaces.
The passage through which molten wax or metal is introduced into a mold.
A modified soldering iron used to join wax sprues to the core of the tree
A service we offer where the remainder of the snipped sprue is smoothed off.
Where small stones are set into wax before casting. Trickier than it sounds!
An essential for casting jewellery.
For us this means Jewellery Show London. We hope to see you there!
The completed wax structure for casting with waxes, sprues and the trunk/core.
An order (up to 20 pieces) which can be fast-tracked through our system. An additional fee is applied.
Curing of natural rubber - by heat and pressure - to produce your rubber mould.
This is what we call your piece before it's added to a tree.