Hi Folks,
The mail just brought me a flyer from a Dental company which
reads:
“Just a 15 minute bench set and a 15 minute burnout and then you
cast!”
The info I will give is for Ill., Ind., Wisc., and Mo. but I
will include the address of the Co. for those of you out of the
area because this investment is available nationwide.
They are offering free trial samples. The number is:
1-800-862-9362
The cost of the investment is:
60 gm. pkgs. 144 to the case with liquid included $100.00
90 gm. pkgs. 100 to the case " " " "
60 gm. 1/2 case…"…"…"…$62.00
90 gm. " " …"…"…"…$62.00
Split cases include 72-60 gm. and 50-90 gm. pkgs.
with liquid…$110.00
You can also get a mini-case of 25 pkgs. of 60 gm. plus liquid
for $39.00
The Mfg. claims that this investment is ideal for all your alloy
needs from High Gold content, to semi-precious(silver
palladium), to non precious and they have local technical
support to assist with ALL your casting needs.
I will get a free sample and will test it and report on the
results. Try the 800 number and see if it goes through. If it
doesn’t here is the address. Call directory assistance and get
the number.:
Talladium Midwest
263 Ashland Court
Buffalo Grove, Illinois
This company has been in business for quite some time and makes
some prima investment for casting chrome cobalt alloys.
Regards,
Skip
Skip Meister
NRA Endowment and
Instructor
@Skip_Meister
10/23/9713:51:11
Sounds like great stuff, but at the 100 packets of 90 gms each
I figure that is 19.82 lbs for $100 or about $5/lb. My tables
say my 4x6 flask takes about 3.6 lbs. $18 just for the
investment?
Last time I checked water still weighed something…
Rick Hamilton
Richard D. Hamilton
Fabricated 14k, 18k, and platinum Jewelry
wax carving, modelmaking, jewelry photography
http://www.rick-hamilton.com
@rick_hamilton
Hi Jess,
I’m used to paying that for really accurate investment, in fact
this may be cheaper than the stuff I am now using. I’ll have to
check. I tried to cast a gold crown in jewelry investment once
and was unsatisfied with the fit.
Regards,
Skip
Skip Meister
NRA Endowment and
Instructor
@Skip_Meister
10/26/9701:54:03
Hi, Skip:
Yes, I thought that the dental business required less investment
and built in more profit per piece than the wholesale jewelry
business. I would guess you could cast more than one crown in a
flask 2x2 and that would require much less than a pound of
investment, right? Maybe if I could learn to get 30+ pieces in
that 4x6 flask i could use that really good stuff.
Hey Jess, Obviously you don’t see the significance of this type
of investment. Of course, use your regular investment for the
bulk of your silver and gold casting. But when you have paladium
white gold or platinum (high temp investment) to cast, especially
in a hurry, this new investment is a huge help. I use dental
investment exclusively (pal & plat) over reg high temp jewelry
investment in 1 1/2 x 2 1/8 size flasks. I mix and pour under
vac. With this system I save many hours of time,labor and $$$. I
have also used this system for casting silver and gold pieces
that are extra rush items, thereby making a customer very happy
(for an extra rush fee of course). It sounds like maybe you
haven’t used high temp investment. Some day grasshopper you will
understand. J.A.
Hi Jess,
The investment is still useful to you if you do custom pieces,
one of a kind stuff. As to the greater profit per piece, I think
not. The ordinary gold crown requires you to pour the models in
dental stone, 1 pour for the die, wait for the stone to set (2
hrs.) and a second pour of the models for a working model. The
models are than ground to shape on a model grinder. The next
step is the trimming of the die. This requires you to trim away
the periphal gum tissue in stone from the tooth, also in stone,
to be crowned. This is done with burrs and discs in the early
stage and with a scalpel in the final stage. The models are
then oriented properly and stuck together with sticky wax and
mounted with dental stone on the jaw simulator called an
articulator. This preparatory work takes about an hour of
actual work time. You are now ready to do your wax-up. Each
and every dental wax-up fits that model and that model only. It
is a custom piece that fits no one else and the accuracy is to
1/2 a fine red pencil line split the long way. The rest of the
process, investing, casting and finishing is the same as in
jewelry. The fees for this work are $5 for the model work and
$50 for the crown(+gold cost). On a good day of 10 hrs. a
skilled tech doing precise, high quality work can do 6-8 crowns.
The work is done over a 2 day period. Today I will hand
finish(no tumbling ever!) the work I waxed and invested
yesterday, and will wax new work in the afternoon for finishing
the next day.
When the crown needs to be veneered with porcelain, the wax-up
looks like a thimble but precisely fits the stone model of the
tooth. After casting and finishing of the thimble(coping), 5 to
7 veneers are hand placed, blended, and fired individually. After
the first 2 opaque bakes, the intermediary bakes are ground to
fit. The final bake is also not ground because it is a
stain/glaze bake(sometimes 2 bakes are required to adjust color,
a parameter of the work that is essential but not common to
jewelry). The fee for this kind of crown is $5 for models and
$85 for a back tooth(posterior) and $100 for a front(anterior)
crowns. Three to four crowns in a 10 hr. day is a fair days
work. The porcelain, once built to size, shrinks in the baking
process from 6-15% so that is why the extra bakes are required.
Jess, you figure if the dental business has a higher profit
margin. Remember that we need all carbide burrs to finish our
work(most of the time) and that a Foredom flex shaft is neither
precise enough nor heavy duty enough for our work. The rest of
the supplies and equipment are similar or are of like expense
though of different uses. My vacuum fired porcelain furnace for
example, cost me $7,000 in 1983. It was a top of the line
German made unit back then.
Regards,
Skip
Skip Meister
NRA Endowment and
Instructor
@Skip_Meister
10/28/9709:36:53
You are now ready to do your wax-up. Each and every dental
wax-up fits that model and that model only. It is a custom
piece that fits no one else and the accuracy is to 1/2 a fine
red pencil line split the long way
Skip,
If you are like a local dental lab we work with 2-3 times a
year, you then take the whole thing over to me so I can prepare
it to have a diamond set in the tooth after casting. Some are all
gold and some we leave a little raised bezel for the stone and
the tech applies the porcelain up too the bezel, then we set the
diamond. Its a fashion statement I have never been drawn to
myself.
Mark P.