Sand casting my wedding band from placer gold

[Mgumby16]

Not exactly a gold prospecting video, but it still deals with placer gold.

My fiance and I decided to make our wedding bands from the gold that i have found in Virginia. At first we tried actual forging, which was way to hard and required to many specialized tools. So after a little more research we decided to try sand casting. This process required a few tools, but none were very expensive, and this process was easier to do. That being said it took about 10 failed attempts to make her ring and 1 failed attempt to make mine. Something to note is that the smaller and more intricate the item you are trying to cast the harder it is to get it to work properly.

This video is just of making my band. All in all i am very happy with the results and i actually like the little dimples and imperfection that are in the band, it gives it character, and since im not perfect my band shouldnt be either lol. (FYI her band is perfect because she is lol)

Hope yall enjoy the video. Thanks for watching.

 

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[BillA]

alternatively there is lost wax with clay

good effort

 

[russau]

Better'n store bought!

 

[SunshineMiner]

That's awesome Gumby! I hope to be able to do the same some day!

Question, how much gold did you use making each ring respectively?

 

[RustyGold]

That was awesome! I’ve cast hundreds of jewelry items with the lost wax and centrifugal casting method when I was in the business.

 

[Mgumby16]

Sunshineminer - So i had her engagement ring made by a jeweler using my gold, i think i sent him 10 grams. I then used the spru to make both of our wedding bands. I think the spru weighed 5 grams. The jeweler took some of the raw gold as payment as well, so its hard to determine exactly.

Ill have to look into lost wax casting, never heard of it. Is it simpler and easier then sand casting?

Thanks

 

[BillA]

lost wax casting has been in use for thousands of years, not too hard

an example from the locals ~1000 years ago

 

[RustyGold]

The burnout oven, casting machine, rubber bases and flasks and various other sundries needed gets expensive.
My first lost wax cast I did, I used a small tin can with both ends removed and upside down on an electric hot plate. Covered with a clay pot and aluminum tin foil covering the electric coils.
Then once the wax was melted out, I had an already made jar lid lined with wet asbestos (lol) and a wooden handle added to the jar lid, I melted silver in the dug out recess of the hardened investment (before burn out of the wax) and steamed cast the metal into the cavity. It worked perfectly. Maybe you can find that simple process of how to steam cast online.
Later I used wet cardboard that replaced the asbestos.
Good luck!

 

[RustyGold]

Here’s a link I found that may be of help.
https://www.myheap.com/casting-mold...r-10-steam-casting/steam-casting-lessons.html