Metal Casting

ChiCubsGordon24

ChiCubsGordon24

Active Member
Hello all,

Hopefully I'm posting this in the right place. Doing a quick search I did not see anything on this topic but I could be wrong. I have a few pieces that I had 3D printed and I was wondering if anyone has any experience casting with metal? I want to make the piece magnetic and look like metal but its pretty thin so embedding a magnet inside the item is probably out of the question. Any help would be great!
 
If it's thin enough to not embed a magnet, then casting it in steel could be very expensive. If you need it magnetic, why not cast in a thin sheet of steel and put the magnet in what ever you want it to attach too?
 
That could work. I created a back piece that i was planning on putting a magnet in. What about mixing in magnetic fillings or powder into resin?
 
How about some pictures so we can see what your trying to do. There are so many variables to casting in metal, and there are so many ways to make something magnetic. Post some pics and you'll get a lot more help!
 
In that case, the one you get back you need to fully fill/sand/polish, mould in silicone, and then when you pour the urethane, embed the biggest solid piece of steel you can fit in there (and file round all the edges, of course).

If you cold cast it with a steel powder, you can do a partial-cure print coat before adding the solid steel, then pour the rest, and even if a corner of the metal does poke through the plastic, it should polish up fairly unnoticably with the steel powder of the cold cast.

Definitely not worth going the route of casting in actual steel. Very expensive (unless you're making thousands of these things), very dangerous.
 
Daegurth said:
In that case, the one you get back you need to fully fill/sand/polish, mould in silicone, and then when you pour the urethane, embed the biggest solid piece of steel you can fit in there (and file round all the edges, of course).

If you cold cast it with a steel powder, you can do a partial-cure print coat before adding the solid steel, then pour the rest, and even if a corner of the metal does poke through the plastic, it should polish up fairly unnoticably with the steel powder of the cold cast.

Definitely not worth going the route of casting in actual steel. Very expensive (unless you're making thousands of these things), very dangerous.
Click to expand...

ive molded printed items before just never needed or wanted them in metal. Adding a small piece of metal is a good idea. Thanks for the advice.
 
You could also use thin magnetic sheet... the same stuff they use for refrigerator magnets. It's sold with a pretty decent adhesive backing, so you can attach it to almost anything.

If you don't want it to protrude, you could maybe incorporate an inlay for the magnet sheet, cut the magnet insert and when you insert the magnet, it should fit flush or really close to it.
 
Have to agree with the guys so far, casting metal other than pewter (which isn't magnetic) is pretty tough. Steel melts at 2500F or above which is actually a pretty tough temperature to reach. You can get rare earth magnets in really small sizes that you should be able to embed in a communicator cast.
 
I agree that the fridge magnet is going to be the thinnest and easiest ways to make the part magnetic. Probably the most cost effective too as you can cut those magnets down to any size you need.
 
dont forget about tossing in some metal powder that's magnetic. it might be easier to fit than a sheet since it's just powder you can mix in to the resin.


I did some lost PLA casting recently, using bronze! I have a mini kiln and furnace.

 
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