say i want to make a mold for casting precious metals.
how the FRICK do you design a 3d model, used to create a mold, that correlates to x weight of gold?
metal casting
say i want to make a mold for casting precious metals.
how the FRICK do you design a 3d model, used to create a mold, that correlates to x weight of gold?
You know gold's density. So you know how much volume you need to achieve X weight, just make a mould with that number.
checked but can you explain like i'm moronic?
He just did
ml = cm^3
A CAD program like solidworks can tell you the volume of a 3d model and if you set the material to gold/ density of gold then it will tell you the weight. It doesn't work like that in practice though, you need some molten metal in reserve in a reservoir where you pour into the mold to compensate for cooling and shrinking.
Jewellers use spin casting machines btw, you can't just do pour over casting for israeliteellry with fine details and I imagine it takes lots of experience designing molds for those things.
you'd have to use the weight of gold at it's melted temperature to get an accurate volume to use as a reference
I think you mean you'd need to know its volume when molten to use that figure to determine that volume's weight.
IOW an ounce of gold weighs an ounce whether it's solid or melted.
Which points out the obvious simple solution used to cast bulk ingots- you use an open mold that's got plenty of volume and just pour an ounce or a pound or whatever weight of metal into it using a scale to determine that weight.
This homie can't into basic math, you think he's going to have the neurons to install an application, never mind use it competently?
For one, if you're thinking they design the mold with the lettering and logos, they don't. They cast the ingots, then stamp them. You just need to mold a basic shape.
thanks anon this looks easiest. i just looked into it and it looks like they laser engrave steel for the stamps.
i can't find in 1 minute a method of automatically fixing the volume of a body in solidworks, which is what i use, but you can just tweak a number by hand until you have an accurate enough volume, then use that body to subtract material from two pieces to use as cast bodies
pic related, made a quick 500.06cm3 ingot-like body, by manually adjusting its height a few times, then encased it in another body, subtracted it from the encasement, and split the case into two bodies
I haven't used SolidWorks in a few years (I have to use CREO), but there's a way you can have dimensions be driven from an excel spreadsheet. You can slap the equation for the volume of the body you want in a certain cell and have the other dimensions calculated based off that and the part in SolidWorks will automatically update.
solidworks can do excel-powered design tables as well, though i haven't used that feature personally as the kind of things i normally draw don't benefit from it
solidworks provides mathematic formula-based dimensioning on its own which is good enough for many tasks, you could probably use it for this purpose as well but i can't be fricked
unless you want to make 100 different ingots of varying sizes then this should be fine, op will quickly find there's more room for error than just the drawing
Creo > MS Paint > Fingerpainting with Fecal Matter > Solidworks
Solidworks is the worst thing to happen to engineering. Frick that garbage tier program
Remember that metal shrinks about 2% as it cools down, so the model needs to be 2% larger than the finished product
>how the FRICK do you design a 3d model, used to create a mold,
how do you do this part
You don't. You buy a mold for casting lead ingots for making bullets and use that. Remember when you sell ingots you must have them assayed to determine value, no one will take your word for it. If you have scrap precious metals it's better to keep the scrap as it is however autistically exciting MELTING THINGS may be. You can melt aluminum or lead to play with exciting HOT METAL and not lose profit.
Learn more about buying and selling precious metals if the point is profit.
Where are you getting your gold? It matters because there might be things that alter density.
That's why I suggested keeping scrap gold in the form it's found. The point of gold is money. When I worked at a coin store we ran into homegays casting their own ingots (commonly with tungsten inserts to cheat on the weight) and had to send off that shit to get assayed. People desperately crave melting because they're insane and this is PrepHole, but that's stupid.
Accumulate gold, take to pros for offers (not just one) then take highest offer after studying scrap gold prices.
this is a good point, if i was a buyer and saw a homemade ingot i'm gonna immediately think there's a chunk of tungsten or something inside of it
bruh, what if i want to melt silver or copper.
the excitement isnt melting, its possessing a self made and designed metal casting
Making ingots is exciting? (Silver requires assay if sold too.)
If you want to make sexy steel ingot molds (all that effort for something with nil function is autspergic so own the mental defect) get yourself a vertical knee mill and some end mills and go to town. Then if you decide to make something useful you have a new capability. Real moldmaker machinists bring in $$$.
If you want to play with fire in more challenging ways that can improve your life you can braze, weld, torch bend, solder, and of course melt for casting using a common oxy-acteylene torch with a variety of tips. You can also weld plate into ingot molds taking draft into account and of course weld steel crucibles.
You can skip steel molds and sand cast ingots for dirt cheap in whatever shape you want. You can pour molten aluminum into ant colonies for interesting art. You can do lost wax casting by hand carving, silicon molding or 3D printing.
Every hobby that does not increase your control over your environment and enable you to save or make money is basically a waste of time given that equally or more mentally engaging alternatives exist. All my metalworking interests (welding, machining, torch work etc) complement everything else I do and have saved me tens of thousands of dollars while having fun. I don't make ingots having no need to make anything FROM ingots which are a transitional form.
>wrote all that shit
>calls others autistic
amazing
>excitement isnt melting, its possessing a self made and designed metal casting
I can't honestly tell where satire starts and ends with you people
>someone makes statement that is obviously true
>I DoNt kNoW whAts ReaL aNymOre
that gold isn't molded, it's deposited using electrolysis, and stamped.
Everyone has already given good answers.
But if you get it "close enough" with a slight overshoot, remember that you can shave down a little weight off the edges with a file. Just remember to work on a clean surface and collect all the shavings.