Put an orchid on your bench - that’s from Ganoksin in the figurative
sense for the collection of wisdom, know-how and skills represented
and contributed by the Orchidian community.
Everybody scampers for executing orders in a rush against all odds
to satisfy customers or - if you’re lucky - to make customers smile
with a piece you’ve created with your craft.
But how about yourself? Why not take the time, unwind and focus on a
gift for yourself. Besides all recent technical advances of CAD/CAM
there’s still the most sophisticated things in nature. So why not
take ‘put an orchid on your bench’ literally.
You didn’t give ‘us’ the total burn-out time. Some of ‘us’ here
might want to know especially for flowers! Otherwise a great way of
duplicating a flower (Orchid)…Gerry!
burn-out time is THE critical parameter for natural resins, of
course. For the Oncidium a standard burn-out overnight at elevated
temperature will do (thin petals). For the Phalaenopsis we had
burn-out overnight plus half a day. The Calla is somewhat special
because of the large volume of the spadix. One of our customers
created a necklace for a fashion show made of cast sections of
twigs. They burned for two days just to be on the safe side.
This kind of stuff is trial and error for the first approach of a
new organic object, there’s not even a rule of thumb, except: the
longer the better. For objects with unknown burn-out result the
cheapest metal is recommended to explore the best set of parameters.
Jerry, I used to do this many many years (maybe 40±) ago. Her’s
turned out much better than mine as I was using centrifugal vs
vacuum. I remember specifically burning out for 6 hours and casting
14K at just under 1000 deg flask temp.
the investment was mixed in a vacuum mixing bowl and contains no air
after mixing. To avoid trapped air while the investment is poured it
is important to avoid undercuts, position hollow objects with at
least one open side up and to apply a gentle vibration.