I had an interesting thing happen for the first time. I was
casting about six flasks and after the first one, I ran out of
OX. Everything was all ready, burn-out done, and at temp. So, I
didn’t have any choice, I just shut the oven off and three days
later, got the new OX. I turn the oven back on, brought the
flasks to about 900 (detailed waxes) and cast them. They all
came out perfect. I was surprised. I figured that the
investment would break down and I’d have a mess. NOT. Has
anyone else burned out their flasks and casted four days
later??? I’m not intending to make it a habit… Bud Cravene
Bud, When I had an element go bad I too was forced to wait about
four days to reheat my flask. The flask had three hard wax
patterns in which I spent about a total of three hours carving.
To my suprise my casting came out perfectly and I chalked it up
to the Casting Gods for once blessing my prayers.
Funny thing you should mention that Bud. I used to do wholesale
trade work for a man that had a store in a town that was located
about 90 miles from my store. He would prepare his waxes, invest,
burnout and let cool. Then he would bring them to me several days
later and I would put them in the oven and bring up to cast
temp, and cast . I cast many a flasks this way and never had any
problems. I just didnt want to admit this 'till you brought it
up, lol Regards, Ken Sanders
The reports I get from Marc Robinson at Fine Gold and confirmed
by desperate customers from time to time go like this: If the
burnout is a clean complete one and ALL temperature changes (up
and down) are slow, you have a good chance at good castings. This
seems to be true with gold and silver. I work at PMWest where we
cast with all kinds of precious metals and have a variety of
equipment. Daniel
Has anyone else burned out their flasks and casted four days later?
Yes, On rare occasions due to electrical blackouts when we are
not in the shop. we use digital Oven controllers which reset
themselves if the electricity goes out(rare) and when that
happens, instead of going through the full burnout procedure ,
they go to a manual setting (the 1st casting temperature around
1000oF) .We know when this happens as we may have greyness in
the flasks (when you look inside). We always use Kerr or R&R
investment which seems to resist accidental problems much better
than most other materials. At one point, we took 2 flasks 5x7"
and left them for 1 year on the floor(these had been completely
Burned out properly) and we slowly brought them to 950 oF and
cast them in sterling( about 130 Pendants) They were harder to
break out of the investment, but that was all… Oh… we used
a vacuum cleaner to remove any accumulated dust out of the
interior of the flask before putting it in the oven. I don’t
recommend doing it either, but sometimes life doesn’t go as you
or i would have it !!! 
Daniel Grandi
http://www.racecarjewelry.com Casting , mold making model making
…for the industry
I once had a student at CCAC who brought in a flask that had
been burned out two years before and had been in his locker the
whole time. We cast it and much to my surprise it worked just
fine. Sometimes you get lucky.
Jim
@jbin
James Binnion Metal Arts
4701 San Leandro St #18
Oakland, CA 94601
510-533-5108
I once found a flask that was not cast before we closed school
in May. Never did figure out why it was burnt out, but not cast?
Sometime I use one as a demonstration and for this one just did
not cast it. It was October when I found it. I put it in with a
bunch of new flasks and two from the previous year that were
invested but not burned out, in April or May, cast them, and they
cast just fine.
In Taiwan, Alan Revere told me, it is normal for jewelry shops
to sell pre-invested dried waxes in disposable tin flasks, you
buy a particular pre-invested model and burn it out rather like
the way that in North America people buy waxes and then invest
them themselves to burn out. I have one. Charles
Charles Lewton-Brain
Box 1624, Ste M, Calgary, Alberta, T2P 2L7, Canada
Hi Bud, Yes, I have shut down for various reasons. As long as
you bring the flasks back to your casting temp, slowly, there is
no problem. Curtis