Into the Kiln!

I really like to listen to music as I work.  Normally I'm tuned to 88.7 FM, a really good eclectic NPR station down the mountain in Spindale.  But I'm not really into an hour of Frank Zappa, so at noon I tuned to 96.5 as I was working on the waxes for Heidi and David's rings.

All I can say is they must have great 'wedding karma'!  This station has been playing great love songs all day long!  It's been amazing and Fun and really helped to keep me focused on what's really important about what Pat and I are doing!

After making the new mold I shoot fresh waxes of both rings.  Now came the tricky part . . .  I cut the Ridgeline sections that we're casting in gold from each ring.  Here they are sprued together and ready to invest.

I deliberatley over-sprued their rings, and even ran an extra sprue up to the heads to ensure they turn out perfectly.  Sorry for the blurry photo!

I don't know if I mentioned it, but I really like to cast pairs of wedding bands together.  So these two flasks went into the kiln together to share the same five hour burn out cycle.

The first hour is at 300 degrees, then the wax tray is pulled out and the temperature is raised to 700 degrees.  Then an hour at 1350 degrees.  At the third hour I turn the flask over and they spend another hour at 1350 degrees.  They spend the fifth hour cooling down to 1150 degrees.  I'll pour the gold flask first and then I'll pour the silver rings' flask.

All I can say is that these rings must want to be made!  It's a perfectly behaved burnout cycle, they've hit each time and temperature mark perfectly!

They'll be devested and spend the night in the pickle.  Then tomorrow we'll carefully de-sprue, grind and buff, solder the gold Ridgeline plaques in place and set the stones and Heidi and David's Wedding Rings will be ready!

And I'm still listening to some truly great love songs!