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Nielscorn
(@nielscorn)
Active Member
3D print to clay to metal

Hello

I'm looking to buy the Prusa MK3 as my first 3D printer.
I've always been fascinated with 3D models and especially with metal figurines and models.

now, I know most 3D metal models are made on the cheaper side with Lost Wax Printing & Casting.
I suppose I need a resin based 3D printer for this?

Anything else possible?

Posted : 09/11/2018 1:20 pm
surfgeorge
(@surfgeorge)
Estimable Member
Re: 3D print to clay to metal

You can run a google search, there is a company offering a special, wax-like filament for printing models formetal casting.
Soem people even did it with normal PLA,, there are youtube videos as well

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=3d+print+metal+casting

Posted : 09/11/2018 2:07 pm
Nielscorn
(@nielscorn)
Active Member
Topic starter answered:
Re: 3D print to clay to metal


You can run a google search, there is a company offering a special, wax-like filament for printing models formetal casting.
Soem people even did it with normal PLA,, there are youtube videos as well

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=3d+print+metal+casting

Hey, thanks for the reply!
I know there are possibilities and I have actually searched quite a bit but I was hoping to get some feedback from people with this prusa 3D printer and any possibilities that they have used.

Posted : 09/11/2018 2:55 pm
randolph.l
(@randolph-l)
Honorable Member
Re: 3D print to clay to metal

I saw some ok castings in ductile iron that were done using lost PLA but this was at a tech school foundry and they had the help of a retired pattern maker and foundry-man and the best (really excellent) castings were done using the print (with proper draft and shrinkage calculations of course) as an old fashioned pattern for green sand casting this for things that were to be machined and the cast items ranged from about 500 grams to 15 kilos smaller things like gaming miniatures i think would still be best done by printing your master and properly finishing it to remove things like layer lines. then using silicone to make a mold of it then using the mold cast lost wax models to be used for investment casting if low temp metal like pewter is the end result then just use a high temp silicone mold and cast the models from that... note that even with care and high temp silicone you might only get 10 or 20 casting from it even with pewter.

Posted : 09/11/2018 7:26 pm
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