Gold beer mug

Hello All: I have been commissioned to make a 14K gold beer mug… I
know I can cast the handle, top rim and base. I was wondering if
anyone has any experience with working a piece of this size?

Michael R. Mathews Sr.

I suppose you would want to fabricate this out of sheet ( soft )
metal. You might want to contact a machine shop about the possibility
of them forming it on a roller…Bottoms up !

Michael, I’ve raised silver and copper pieces bigger than your
proposed gold mug, so I understand some of the technical problems
you’re getting in to. But I’m too much of an amateur to offer any
advice about it as there are too many finicky steps you’ve got to get
just right for it to work. The best person I know who could help is the
Bulgarian master smith, Valentin Yotkov. I just got an ad for one of
his winter workshops which listed his (Brooklyn) phone number
718/852-8640 and email VYotkov@aol.com. Good luck, Geo.

Michael, While not having cast anything in gold that size I talked
with Henry Dunay about a scotch bottle (Pinch) that his workshop
cast. He said that they had great problems with castings that size. I
have had some experience with large (4"x5") cowboy belt buckles in
14K and they were very difficult. We had to recast several times to
find the best spots to feed the piece. Lots of shrinkage porosity and
stress cracking . The main sprue ended up being 3/4" in diameter and
the runners off of that were 1/4" but once we got the spruing right
they were very nice castings.

Jim

@jbin
James Binnion Metal Arts
4701 San Leandro St #18
Oakland, CA 94601
510-533-5108

One more thing about the hydraulic press forming a cylinder,it does
it out of one piece of metal! Sounds impossible until you see it!
Thomas

I didn’t read your Question about gold beer mugs, but at a recent
class on hydraulic forming, Lee Marshall had some large cylindical
forms he had made.Amzazingly formed with the press, some were as many
as 8 inches deep!If this intrest you, get back to me and I’ll tell you
more. Thomas

Hello Michael, I have done several large pieces through the years.
Let me know if I can help in any way. Have you considered casting the
entire thing in one piece? It is hard on the nerves, but over fast. Have fun.
Tom Arnold

          Hello Michael, I have done several large pieces through
      the years. Let me know if I can help in any way. Have you
      considered casting the entire thing in one piece? It is hard
      on the nerves, but over fast. 
  I know in the Northern Catalogs I've see inexpensive sheet
  metal rollers that will form shapes like you need.  You could
  run some bronze of the same guage through it to get the tension
  right.  Then, I'd see about doing a TIG (tungstun inert gas)
  weld of the seam using a wire of the same alloy.  I've seen
  Japanese craftsmen TIF weld copper seams in raisings, it works
  nicely. . . say, there's a way to do it. . .if it were me, I'd
  raise it out of a circle of sheet metal and weld on the trim,
  but then, I've done quite a few raisings.  good luck.  How
  about having a specialist in metal spinning do it for you?  Try
  the www.abana.org site, I think you can find one there.  I know
  the Anvils Ring has ads for that.. . maybe metalsmith magazine
  does too.  I'll look it up for you if you'd like. David L.
  Huffman, bench-geezer.