Finishing Up

welding the man's chest together

note the threaded rod and clamp, in casting pieces some warping occurs so we need to squeeze the pieces together to get a good fit

here we are, side by side, the arms are next, then the badges and equipment on the belts

Assembling cast pieces

Summer intern Graham Johnson with the female Deputy 

The casting is all but finished (one more mold to pour). Welding the cast pieces together. So far everything is fitting well with a little persuasion. The wax pieces can warp a bit so after casting we sometimes need to squeeze parts together or apply a hammer blow or two to close the gap.

Video about the Duluth Public Art project

Karen Sunderman and Steve Ash created this video for The Playlist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg0M5v550Yw&feature=share

Visit from The Playlist

Steve Ash and Karen Sunderman of WDSE/WRPT along with Lester Morrison of Last Chance

Yesterday (7 May) was busy and fun here at the studio. Karen Sunderman and Steve Ash of the program "The Playlist" PBS North paid us a visit. Karen and Steve shot video of our work on the Duluth Public Art Project. Lester was working on the last wax (a piece we miss-cast earlier), I was welding and both Lester and I did a pour. We were also vitrifying the final round of molds to be cast and Steve shot some footage of the molds in the kiln. Look for broadcast of this segment later in May. I'll post here when I know the date. You can keep more up to date with the Playlist schedule here.

A few years ago Karen and Steve came to the studio to do a piece on our work here. You can see a portion of that show by clicking here. This video also shows Wayne Potratz my friend and mentor. I want to thank Karen and Steve for the terrific work they do on behalf of the art community in the north land. Having the exposure they are able to give us broadens our audience and gives us a sense of accomplishment.

It has been several weeks since I last posted but we have been working very hard. We have nearly all the casting done with only one mold failure. Not a bad ratio for the number of molds we have cast.

Duluth Public Art Progress, 13 April

Making good progress on the project. We are being extra careful on the mold making and adding insurance in the form of sand molds over our ceramic shell. This adds perhaps another hour per mold but insures we don't have to start from scratch if a mold fails.

Final 3 sections of the legs, all the debris in the background is waste. But if one of our shell molds were to fail we would not only have 30 pounds of molten bronze on the floor we would have to start the wax process over. The sand mold is insurance to prevent this from happening.

Make shift blower. To dry the shell cores (inside the mold). I found a sleep apnea pressure device that blows a gentle 8 cfm, split the pipe and put ends into mold. Works great!

Arms right out of the molds

Body section, because these are so big we are coating one side at a time. To prevent the wax from spreading out from the weight of the mold material screws are set next to the wax, blocks are underneath.

We will be casting body sections early next week and assembling of the casting will start right after that. By next weekend I should have the female figure pieced together, can't wait!

Duluth Public Art Faces and more

The female officers face

male officer

arm sections in the ceramic shell room with the first coat of liquid

The pictures of the faces are taken after the initial clean up and a quick sand blast. I'm pleased with how well the castings came out. The final 3 sections of legs are in the kiln and should be ready for a bronze pour tomorrow. The arms are in the first coat of the ceramic shell process.

Here at Last Chance Fabricating we use a product called Shellspen. It is a very good product and makes the process easier because we don't have to keep our liquid silica mix in constant agitation. I did this for a number of years with an elaborate mixing machine and lots of difficulty if the power went out.

Duluth Project Update

the wax heads ready for ceramic shell process

back of sections, the red wax, called sprues, act to channel the molten bronze to the pattern

the pieces after the first dip in the liquid silica 

second dip of liquid, allowed to drip off the excess

subsequent dips of liquid are followed by dry coats of stucco in progressively coarse grades  with 10 coats total

the completed refractory shells are now de-waxed, creating a cavity in the mold where the wax was

molds are placed in the kiln and brought up to 1800 degrees, that temp is held for one hour to vitrify the molds making them strong enough for the 2100 degree bronze

Man's face right after breaking away the mold

woman's face

It has been a busy couple of weeks around the studio. We have poured three times with good results in spite of having my pyrometer (used to check the temperature of the molten bronze) die on me. Other troubles have been four trips to the dentist for a problem tooth and infection and smashing my head on a sculpture resulting in a gash on my forehead. Just your average times at the sculpture studio.  I am, however, very pleased at the outcome of our efforts.