doc_rot said:The foundry I have access to is operated by the sculpture department at my college. As a grad student I get a pass to do pretty much anything I want; interlope into other programs and departments. Its awesome. That being said, this foundry pours metal maybe 6 times a year for the sculpture students so there is a VERY loose/crude process established here. Typically sculpture doesn't need to "work" so a lot of things that would make castings unacceptable for industry use are widely tolerated here. I blew their minds when I showed them how to do a "face coat" with chopped fiberglass in the investment. That should inform you to the caliber of work they are turning out. I asked for their advice on gating and started talking details and got blank stares in return; its something I know little about, them as well. I did one cover per investment to keep the investments physically smaller. I have only done the plaster/silica investment once before, the other times I had access to ceramic slurry investment which is much better IMHO. The castings moved around a bit and there is porosity throughout. Its not too noticeable unless you inspect close up. I would not expect them to hold oil but its for the ignition cover so its good enough.
The expense to run a foundry class has limited the ability to teach it and much of the knowledge has been lost as a result, save for what people can find online. For the most part, schools have shuttered programs, so to find a functioning foundry at a university at all is an achievement. In major cities or areas where there is access to commercial foundries, the process stops at wax positives in the studio and a professional foundry casts the work. I taught it for years, but we shuttered the metal foundry at Temple University in 2009 when we moved Tyler School of Art from Elkins Park to the main campus in N Philly. We didn't include a metal foundry in the Sculpture program in the new facility and instead, all casting shifted to the Glass and Ceramics programs where I taught. One exception is in Metals/CAD/CAM (Jewelry) programs, but that type of metal casting typically occurs in kilns or with torches. It's unfortunate.