Casting - cost again. Can anyone be specific?

[LydiaNiz]

I know it can vary, but can anyone give me a recent example of a piece cast from wax in silver by a third party and how much it cost?
Would be extremely grateful.

[Lucie]

Hiya:

Weight of wax in grams x 10.5 (conversion value) x price of silver per gram

Add to this a silver casting charge per item of approximately £5 = Total

For the price of silver per gram, have a look at the price of grain on the Cookson website, or give your casters a call & ask them.
Remember to add on your postage charges to & from the casters.

This is how mine are worked out & I sent off a bunch yesterday :)

[Lucie]

Just in case this helps:

0.6g wax charm x 10.5 conversion x £0.70 silver cost = £4.41

+ £5 casting charge = Total £9.41

ps: Silver price is from my casters this morning - it's gone up again (booooo!!)

[ps_bond]

On the offchance... You wouldn't happen to know what your caster charges to grow a wax from a digital model, would you?

[Lucie]

I don't I'm afraid, I tend to submit a lot of boring old waxes, but they are more than helpful when you phone them.

I use A Wardle & Co - 0121 236 2733. I've settled on these after a few bad experiences with other people. They'll "finish" pieces for me for £1 and the standard of the casts is great.

Just in case it's useful; i'm pretty sure Euro's /Exchange will grow a wax for you these days (might be wrong). Might be worth a call?

[ShinyLauren]

ps: Silver price is from my casters this morning - it's gone up again (booooo!!)

Bugger. Was pleasantly surprised by the silver cost on my last bunch of castings - knew I should have got a whole bunch of stuff done whilst the cost was low!

[LydiaNiz]

thank you so much, really appreciate it.

[Lucie]

Hi ShinyLauren, He did say that they were expecting it to drop a bit by the end of the week (fingers crossed)!

[caroleallen]

Lucie, are the finished pieces ready to go or do you still need to do some work on them?

[Lucie]

Hi Carole,
For £1, it's "initial polishing" - the sprue is completely removed and the surface polished back to remove anything major.
I still do have to polish myself as they are definitely not customer-ready, but to be honest, it saves me soooo much time.
I'm not sure what they'd charge to do a full polish - might be worth it for gold items? Think I might make some calls :)

[Gemsetterchris]

On the offchance... You wouldn't happen to know what your caster charges to grow a wax from a digital model, would you?

http://www.protowax.co.uk/ you could try this place, if I remember correctly their prices were quite reasonable.

Last time i sent an stl file for a small pendant to Hean, it was quite expensive to end up with an actual silver model, though it did come out well.
I don`t think it`s a good idea for making up stuff via this route for fun, you really need to have a deposit from a customer or then consider getting a mould made up once you have cleaned up the casting.
As far as i remember, you get charged a sum per cubic size lump of wax to be transformed either by "growing" or "cutting".
Could be about £40-£75 for an average size ring/pendant, but I`m sure you can find abit cheaper with some homework searching.

It`s quite fun to design something by CAD, but reviewing the stl code & fixing it in a third party program needs doing if you want a definate result.
The other thing is, to consider wether your "wax" model will actually cast well..quite alot of designs just don`t work very well.

[ps_bond]

http://www.protowax.co.uk/ you could try this place, if I remember correctly their prices were quite reasonable.

Ta, I'm collating at the moment.


Last time i sent an stl file for a small pendant to Hean, it was quite expensive to end up with an actual silver model, though it did come out well.

Is it economically viable to do this in silver?


I don`t think it`s a good idea for making up stuff via this route for fun, you really need to have a deposit from a customer or then consider getting a mould made up once you have cleaned up the casting.

One or two pieces done for demonstration, after that it'd be purely custom work.


As far as i remember, you get charged a sum per cubic size lump of wax to be transformed either by "growing" or "cutting".
Could be about £40-£75 for an average size ring/pendant, but I`m sure you can find abit cheaper with some homework searching.

It`s quite fun to design something by CAD, but reviewing the stl code & fixing it in a third party program needs doing if you want a definate result.
The other thing is, to consider wether your "wax" model will actually cast well..quite alot of designs just don`t work very well.

Yeah... The downside to using CAD is definitely it becomes too much like my full-time work. I'm not about to try casting anything like ballerina rings (although leaving a support structure for the prongs and putting them in post-casting might work) - but equally, there's the sintering process. Down to understanding the limitations of the processes used - design for manufacture.

[Gemsetterchris]

It was my first CAD attempt & first stl file, I chose silver just to see what happened.
I suppose it`s worth it if you intend to manufacture enough via mould over time.

Any idea how much sintering costs then? I guess sooner or later there won`t be much need for wax.

[ps_bond]

It was my first CAD attempt & first stl file, I chose silver just to see what happened.
I suppose it`s worth it if you intend to manufacture enough via mould over time.

Nah. Bespoke is the intention. But with a price point that supports the process.


Any idea how much sintering costs then? I guess sooner or later there won`t be much need for wax.

Not yet - Cooksons will do a quote based on an uploaded STL file, but I'm not quite there yet; this is forward planning for next year.