Methods of casting (Delft Prices)

Jewelry Discussion
1 
To Michael Parkin, I don't know what age you will be teaching at
camp... but a very inexpensive method of casting is cuttle fish
casting and Delft clay casting ...

Thanks for that useful info on tin and tin alloy casting in
Delft clay, Daniel. I agree it’d be a good way to go for a camp
activity.

I’m using the Delft system in my casting and alloying jewellery
classes I teach at summer school level here in New Zealand, but
my problem is that the institutes do not have more than one or
two Delft systems to use. So I need to either make some more rings
up myself, or buy them in.

Buying Delft kits is expensive here, so I wonder where else’s
the best place to get them from? I really just need more rings.
Here in New Zealand the whole Delft kit sells for (the
equivalent) $US158.00 The rings alone are not available, as
they’re ‘so expensive’.

Rio Grande is my main overseas source and they sell the Delft
kit for $US82, the rings alone for $US50.00

I don’t have the Gesswein catalog. What is their price for the
Delft system, and for the rings alone?

    There is also a small sand casting kit available from some
suppliers as well.This kit has a larger frame than the delft
system and can be used for more projects.

Where is this available, and how much, anyone know? Is it
Pro-Craft, from Grobet?

Brian
B r i a n A d a m J e w e l l e r y E y e w e a r
http://www.adam.co.nz/workshop/street.htm
http://www.adam.co.nz/workshop/bush.htm

2

Hi Brian,

The small ProCraft sand casting outfit is available from Grobet.
It should be about $55 US. MP

3

Check with a local small machine shop and see if they will turn
some for you out of their scrap pile. I don’t know how to put you
in touch with any home shop machinests in NZ but one of these
would be an even better bet. Probably would work for free or near
to it just to help. Rings could be made up of scrap pipe. Jesse

4

Hi Brian, You might be able to find the clay nearby… try a
store that sells ceramic supplies.You can build the frames easily
by buying some tubing and copying the way the tube is made on a
lathe (very cheap if you have a lathe available or a friend in a
machine shop).It is possible to take 2 pieces of tubing/heavy
cans, sand all the ends square and flat, then weld/solder 2 pins
on the outside of one of the can/tubing. Then solder some small
piece of tubing on the second can so that the pins of the first
can line up perfectly. In this way, you can make your own frames
as large or small as you want. They don’t have to be round
either. The larger sand casting unit is in the procraft casting
catalog. As far as the pricing from different Jewelry supply
house in the USA, i think they are all pretty close price wise.
Visit my casting workshop @
http://racecarjewelry.com/page03.html Daniel Grandi

5

Hi Brian, for the rings you could always go to an exhaust shop
for cars and get them to cut pieces of exhaust pipe for you to
use. If you need a 3 inch ring set get them to cut a 3 inch OD
pipe the height of 1 side of ring you need , insert it in a 3
inch ID pipe slightly shorter which will give you a lip to seat
the top ring on .For the other side of the ring set , do it
exactly the opposite of the first . The 3 inch ID will now be
the longer one which will fit flush in the other ring. You can
sand the lip of the ring to make the separation easier when
removing the original. Friction should hold the 2 pieces of each
side together or you could solder it .

Hope this helps,
Timothy

Just trying
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