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freeride
13-10-2009, 04:50 PM
Hi,

I've been researching PMC clay for a couple of weeks now and intend to take a course after Christmas. I do a lot of research before I commit to spending time on something.

My problem is that I have quite detailed ideas of what I want to achieve. I've knocked up a few 3D renders of varying complexity. I realise it's going to take some time to get to a point where I can reproduce my designs.

The questions I do have at the moment is regarding how clean can you get a geometric shape? Can you get sharp edges? If so are the achieved when the clay is still plyable or when it's dried do you have to machine it? Or do you have to fire it and work the silver?

I have modelling lathes, milling machines and drilling rigs etc... I'm assuming at the moment that I would have to wait until the clay is airdried and then start to machine it, the other option would be to press into moulds produced by making wooden prototypes but that sounds more like casting. Casting looks like a bit of a nightmare.

I've been struggling to find an example which demonstrates what I would like to achieve.

bustagasket
13-10-2009, 04:54 PM
Frstly, a big welcome to the forums on here, and secondly we have some marvellous pmc experts on here, who will be along anymoment to help you with your queries, so please bear with us as everyone makes there way home from work, gets dinner out of the way etc :D:~:

geti-titanium
13-10-2009, 05:05 PM
gets dinner out of the way etc

Dinner - we've no time for dinner on here! :)

MuranoSilver
13-10-2009, 06:09 PM
Hi Freeride
:welcome: to the forum...
Is it possible for you to upload a picture to your profile of the sort of thing you're trying to achieve?
PMC / Silver Clays main benefit is in organic shapes and textures.
There is a shrinkage rate to account for and it can be quite difficult to get accurate geometric shapes.
If you partially finished in the clay then fired and got a final finish in metal you may have better results.
Like any medium it takes time to get good quality finished pieces, with that tooling you might be better with sheet metal
nicola x

freeride
15-10-2009, 12:59 PM
Thanks I figured as much but saying that my designs may not suffer from a softer look anyway. I'll get some concepts posted up and then at a later date when I actually get around to the finished article i can post those up and see how close I got :)

Accessibility of the clay is what drew me in, so to then turn away because I can't produce everything exactly to my liking is probably counter productive.