Dear John,
Here’s another option. If you are machining your wax you might try
having some inside expansion collets made. I have two that I use for
holding wax rings as they are being turned on the lathe or held for
milling. One for a size ten and the other for a size six. You could
have a set made for each size. They hold the wax from the inside out
and allow a full 360 degree rotation. You can still crack the wax by
tightening it too much but at least you have the right size. I also
prefer the purple wax. These collets are called either expanding
arbors or expanding collets. Maybe Chris knows the best item
description. They come in all the wrong sizes. At least they are not
sold to finger sizes. They are made to be tooled to size. Plus or
minus .002" (sorry all you metric folks). You can buy an eight piece
set in various sizes for about $60.00. They are also available in a
5C collet shank. One of the sources I have is Penn Tool at
1-800-526-4956 or www.penntoolco.com. The size I tooled for the size
ten started out as the 3/4" #9114 (part number). Swiss cutting
machines also use an inside expansion collet for ring tooling. Gold
Machinery Inc. sells used sets although they are a little expensive.
These are available in quarter size increments also.
Best Regards,
TR the Teacher,
Todd Hawkinson
Ken, we had exactly the same problem with Kerr wax tubes,
imperfections, bubbles and cracking. Often the tubes would have
cracks nearly the length of the tube when we took them out of the
container (we store them in a dark room temp. cabinet). We use green
wax 90% of the time, we like the harder wax for the work we do.
Anyway we buy about two dozen tubes at a time and go through them in
60 days, so they are not old or mistreated. We sent a dozen back and
had them substitute Matt wax for the Kerr. That was a year ago and we
have had no problems with the Matt wax. I wrote a letter to Kerr and
the distributor and neither one replied. It seems like it wouldn’t be
that hard to maintain your consistency when making wax tubes, I am
surprised Kerr is allowing itself to slip. Mark
John M., I’m not speaking from experience, but here goes.
Sharpen the sizer and use light pressure. Also, bolster the exact
area of cutting with counter-pressure on the outside of the band.
Dan Woodard, Indian Jewelers Supply, Gallup, New Mex.
I sent two samples off to Kerr about 2 months ago and havent heard
back from them yet. So I have switched over to Matt wax and the
problem disappeared. Anyone else experienced this?
Given my past experience with Kerr, I can’t say I’m surprised. They
do a nice job with their products, as far as they go, but my suspicion
is that they don’t actually test/quality check sufficiently after
they’ve developed a thing. Just keep making it and making it, never
wondering if it’s still as good as the competition. Now that’s just a
guess. But I do recall hearing a story, back when the Japanese
platinum investments (supra) first became available from Gesswein. We
were all blown away by the dramatic increase in surface quality of the
castings from Supra. Our Kerr sales rep mentioned, on her next
visit, that it seemed that the department that made platinite
investment, and had done so for many decades, had tested the stuff in
various ways to make sure it set up, could take the heat, and all
that, but had never actually invested a wax, burned it out, and cast
it in platinum. So they were unaware of the metal/mold reaction that
took place with the molten platinum that was roughing up the surface
of the platinum casting. Till a competing product came along to show
that one could do better, they had no clue. I don’t actually know
whether this is the truth or not. It’s just what our rather dismayed
(and soon to quit, as I recall) sales rep told us. I’ll bet your
inclusions in the wax, which I’ve seen too, simply means that they’ve
been melting the wax in the same pot for decades, and have yet to
notice that it’s gotton a bit dirty with bits of burned wax or
whatever. Who knows. But I, too, use the Matt or other competing
waxes now.
Peter Rowe