I use sticky wax to assemble trees. The best way to use it for a
large job is to heat a small container such as a small candy tin on a
low temp hot plate. Dip the sprue in the stickey wax, and quickly
stick it on the tree trunk (main sprue of the flask). If you want a
smoother fillet, wait a few seconds or more, and go in with a small
hot tool to smooth the joint’s surface. But I have seen many
successful trees with the original sticky wax fillets, kind of a
globby bagel shape around the sprue, that have cast just fine.
If I am only sprueing a few pieces, I just heat a small area in the
wax pot with my hot tool to make a small melted pool, and dip the
sprue in there instead of heating up the whole pot.
Sticky wax really speeds up the chore of setting up a bunch of
waxes, since it positions them so fast. You are not sitting there
holding your wax model while the warm sprue wax cools. It sets up in
about one or two seconds. It is totally uncarvable and unworkable.
It’s just for sticking things together.
M’lou Brubaker, Jeweler
Goodland, MN