Casting the Harlequin Trigger

As the title suggests I've been casting things between heartbeats during the holidays.

This story is about a component for a trigger I'm building for a friend. The trigger assembly itself is one of a set of prototypes I've been working on for my upcoming production line of triggers to order, which will be sent out to select few builders for the final testing. So, sorry guys, I'll be keeping a lid on those for now and we'll focus on the cool *little* bits of the puzzle.

Everything begins with a wax pattern. Be it a prosthetic crown I'm making, a ring for a girl, or a trigger for a crossbow - this is where things begin if you want to get crazy with detail.




Next things get sprued up(sprues are added) basically creating passages for the molten metal to enter and fill the mold.




I'm using the *ringless* system as opposed to the commonly employed
ringed system where a metal ring(well actually tube) is used to house
the invested pattern throughout the casting process. Ringless...hence
the plastic mold ring, which is removed once the investment hardens.

So the investment...

I use the best stuff I can get because normally I cast prosthetics which are supposed to be of an amazingly precise fit - cast quality is only going to be as good as the mold, and the mold is good.(if you're interested I can go into more detail on what materials I use and can explain the tricks of working with them).



some older pictures since I didn't have an assistant this time...



Bench set the little guy for 20 minutes (as instructions recommend...no more...no less)



And once ready - remove the plastic ring and place in the burnout oven for another specific time period at a specific temperature.





And then we cast.



Once the hot metal is in the mold...




I set the mold aside to cool for about 30 minutes (common practice is to just drop it in the tank of water, as seen with the ringed casting methods which is the only way of getting the cast part out....>>> ringless method doesn't need any dipping since there is no metal ring to interfere with de-vesting and thus allows for the mold to cool peacefully - resulting in better quality of cast)

All that's left is...turn off the furnace, shut off the gas valves, yata yata yata...the thing is cool and...

I crack it open with a little hammer or whatever is on hand ...
...again old pictures because I didn't have an assistant.



Result - a nice little casting that gets further cleaned off in the sand blaster till all or most of the investment is gone (depending on alloy and whether I will be reusing the button - this time it's just stainless steel, so no bother)




Next on the list is cutting off the sprues and we have a nice raw casting.

While it still looks very rough and needs to be cleaned up, you can see how detailed the damn thing can be if everything is done right.





I even managed to captured the eye sockets/nose/&teeth on the scull that the harlequin is holding! Don't ask , just think of him as a very Shakespearean harlequin:)



You might think I'm crazy when I say this, but I think I could have done better. And I know I could, just this time my eyes were tired and I didn't have the balls to swing the head of the microscope over the workstation to tdo the face on the harlequin. ...next time. For now I'll try and see what I can get out of this little thing by engraving it.

Hope you enjoyed this episode of show and tell...and Wish me luck! ...Cz that's not all.

Ivo

Ivo, all I can say is I am impressed!!



Todd

This is exceptional Ivo. How do you finish it off after the carving stage? Paint or polish? I would genuinely be interested in buying one of these if it wasn't too cost prohibitive for my current build...and of course if you would consider selling one.

Thanks guys. A good word from you is always appreciated and puts a spark back in my day.

Blangas,

Since this is a dental Ni/Cr alloy used in fabricating things that people wear in their mouth (great corrosion resistance/bio-compatibility), I'll be polishing this baby, but I do have a few more triggers still in wax that I plan to coat with some h-gloss black bake-on guncoat finish.

I'd love to do one for you, but as always there are a few things worth mentioning.

One, this is somewhat new to me and I'm still working out ways of mount these castings on both the fresh built and existing triggers. As we can see...There isn't much room for set screws, commonly used in mounting trigger shoes. So, that's something worth discussing first I guess. I'll probably be seeing you and the guys in a new topic touching that bit of detail.[future topic link]

Second, this is a hobby for me so, again, I'm not certain of the delivery times. A week of work perhaps. (like I said - did this one between heart beats since I'm at work, and it's still only half way done)

Third, not really a problem, but it is going to be a custom piece. I won't be making copies of the patter(even if I wanted to, just not possible) and the mold is destroyed after casting(so again, one way path). So, we'll be in touch on the design when and if we decide to go forward with this. As with prosthetics, I'm always in touch with the clients to see if they are happy with how things are going, so same here.

Think I covered the few things I had on my mind, and as for the price...well, lets see if you like it on paper and then in *wax > metal*, ok? And this is all good fun for me too, so I keep that in mind first and the profit margin calculation mambo-jumbo second. Lets talk about it over PM when it gets to that...there is still that mounting issue to sort out.

Regards,

Ivo

All I can say is I am way impressed. My only experience with one of these things was a silversmithing class I took when I was in the Army, at Ft. Lewis, learning to cast silver rings. This was a long time ago, during the frontier days I will be looking forward to seeing this discussion continue. Dane

Watch it shine!.



Assembled and shipped.

I'll miss you little guy!

...Blangas...now on with yours. Sorry for the delays...I'm like a frog on a frying pan here.

Ivo

Blangas is a lucky guy. that looks like one nice little piece.

That is really, really good work! It screams quality!

Thanks...Wait till you see my next one.

Had a little mishap a few days ago - dropped and broke the pattern...now starting over. Then again, anything that happens is for the best - had a professional jeweler stop by who gave me a couple of tips as well as my brother who commented on really bringing out the anatomy in this one. So yeh, it'll be better than the last for sure...sorry no pics for now, didn't get a chance to take any before it broke.

Eeeh, I'll be back on track real soon.

Ivo

is it "soon" yet??? Jones'in for some more of this!

Yeh, it's coming up any minute now.

I've been working on it, just never expected to get so slumped with work, but yeh, I've been on it. I've got the wax done...lol, tried to work on the face, but it's just not working out - it's sooo tiny a surface to work on. I'll try to get home today and take some pictures. It's really something, I'm afraid to touch it actually - try to hold it the wrong way and there go the arms/legs/horns/wings/scythe...the world will never know how many times I had to remake each.

Anyway, you'll see...oh and welcome to the forum.

Ivo

Thanks for the kind welcome Ivo...I am really fascinated by this topic/process. I understand work & priorities, just wanted you to know there was some interest in this topic/thread. Thanks again.

Lee

Ivo,

Of course, Over The Top .............. no doubt you are very talented and have the patience for such detail along wirh very wonderful knowledge as to what you are doing !

Awesome!

Chaz