Catching Up Part 10: Welding and the Return Home.

Initially I assumed that I would get the casting done in Colorado and return home with the Waterbearer in many pieces. My welder friend in Lynchburg is excellent, quite possibly the best I've ever known. At some point during my first weeks in Colorado I became convinced that I could find someone there to do at least the initial welding of the base to make the future mountings "industry standard" and began my quest to find someone available that could work fast. My search led me around in circles for a while until I ended up back where I had started, back at Madd. I was out in the parking lot admiring an old '66 Chevy Nova one day when a gentlemen approached me and we began talking about his car. His name was Bryan and he was ambitious enough to get the job.

Transporting the cast bronze to his shop was as easy as forklifting it across the parking lot and through an open bay door, he was that close. Once he got started I gave him three days to have it rough welded. By the end of the first day I began to push harder and urged him in my kindest manner to take it through as far as he could. I had to have the van back in Lynchburg by the coming Sunday and the clock was ticking.

And so it begins.

Adjusting her posture and "attitude" took a lot of guidance.

"Stay out of the light! Don't look at the light!" Well, so
long retinas.

Closer and closer.

Almost there. Faster, Bryan! Faster!!

The moment of truth! I'm a very proud papa.

Back in the van and ready to make the long drive home.

In the end, he was still defect welding when we brought the dolly around and started pushing her towards the open van. A lot of manly grunting later and she was in the back and secured for the drive ahead.

All in all, I was in Colorado for nearly seven weeks (including travel time). I saw many amazing sights, re-connected with a lot of old and dear friends and even made a few new ones (hey, Vanessa!). I've always considered it my second home and while I don't miss the winters in the slightest, I do miss the artistic camaraderie and sense of belonging to a community of like-minded misfits.

The journey home was thankfully uneventful. I left CO on Thursday afternoon and was back home in VA by Saturday evening, exhausted but elated that it all went so smoothly. Time to relax for a few hours. I think my cat missed me.

Now that we're all completely caught up here, what's next? Next week I begin the long, physical process of metal chasing the Waterbearer. It will be tiring. It will be sticky. It will be itchy. Mostly it will be rewarding. I'm starting to think I was made for this stuff.

Stay tuned!

Catching Up Part 9: Sweet Bronzey Goodness!

The cast bronze shells have to cool for a few hours (which felt like an eternity to me as I paced about chain smoking) until they can be "knocked-off". A sledge hammer and air ratchet are carefully used on the sprue bars until the shell begins to crack and fall away revealing the rough bronze casting inside.

The rough casting revealed. So far, so good. Note the pile of broken
shell in which she rests.

Once the shell is busted away the castings have their sprue bars cut off with a plasma cutter. Once this is done they are placed in the sand blaster and the remaining shell is blasted off.

The remaining shell is blasted away to reveal the casting.

When the pieces were finally brought out for my inspection I must admit that I got a bit weepy. So much work, so many countless hours, so many things could go wrong... But they didn't! The castings were absolutely beautiful.

If I had had a box of cigars I would have been
handing them out at this point.

The insane amount of hours it took to rebuild this in wax
finally paid off.

Wow. Nearly defect free. I was wiping tears of joy from my eyes.

Incredible. Hugs all around.

I'd like to thank the entire crew at Madd Castings for an absolutely amazing job all around: Moose, Chris, Kim, Bonnie, Brad, Tiffany, Gayle, Jason, Peter, Derrick and all the names that I'm forgetting: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!! I was told when I started this project that it would be "impossible" and a foolish waste of my time. I never stopped believing and neither did you guys. Thanks for making the impossible so very possible. I couldn't have done it without you all.

Next up: welding and the long drive home. Stay tuned!

Catching Up Part 8: Pouring the Bronze!

Once the shells are completely dry they are moved onto the pour floor. The shell that has formed on top of the wax circles (remember back to spruing?) and top of the sprue bars are cut off with a saw to expose the wax inside. They are now inverted in the de-wax oven (autoclave) and are heated to approximately 900 degrees. The wax now melts and pours through the metal screen that the shells sit on and into the waiting container below. This way most of the wax can be reclaimed; when it cools it will be put back into use elsewhere in the foundry.

Please note the trough below the de-waxing oven; when the wax
is "lost" from the shells, it is collected here. The shells are glowing hot
at this point and will soon be inverted into beds of sand and ready to cast.

The furnace that Madd uses is an electric induction furnace, much faster and more efficient than the cheaper gas powered models. It sucks so much electricity that it can only be operated during "non-peak" hours or the energy usage alone would make casting cost prohibitive.

The bronze ingots are heated to 2,100 degrees then decanted
into a crucible.

 

You have to be a pretty good dancer to work on the pour floor. It's a three person job and the "dance" steps are carefully coordinated so that everything goes smoothly. It's a ridiculously dangerous job and you have to be completely alert as to your surroundings at all times. One slight misstep can be disastrous (oh the unspeakable horror I once witnessed many years ago; I try not to think about it). During one of my stints working a pour floor the interns sole job was to run along behind me and douse me with water or sand whenever my pants caught on fire. No kidding.

And. Here. We. Go.

 

The heat from the molten bronze is nearly unbearable and only the giant twin swamp coolers keep the room habitable. I had a pretty bad case of the nerves this day as so many things can go wrong at this step. If there is a major problem, that wax needs to be poured, chased, sprued and shelled all over again which is generally considered to be "a complete disaster". I was sweating bullets at this point but determined to keep my poker face on so the guys wouldn't be distracted.

In goes the bronze, out come the gasses. When the shell
is topped off, they move on to the next one.
 

The crucible is suspended by a steel bar so that both
men can better control the bronze flow.

Held vertically in place by the sand, the shells will need to cool down
now that the bronze is cast.
 

Note the bronze glowing as it cools down.

So far so good! Incredible job, guys!!

I must admit that I knew in my heart that everything was going to turn out great; there was no way that I could have gone through so much to get to this point to only have disaster strike. Still, the mind is a bag of snakes and I was pacing nervously like an expectant father.

Next up: we begin the knock-off and sandblasting to reveal the bronze Waterbearer. Stay tuned!

Catching Up Part 7: The Shell Room

Ssshhh. What I'm about to show you next is top secret, folks. My camera was the first to be allowed to film the process.

While lost wax casting has been around forever, every foundry has their own process and protocol. In a nutshell, the sprued waxes are dipped into a tank of colloidal silica binder which wets the surface. The wax is then dipped into a layer of zircon so fine that it can capture the finest detail. This process is repeated using varying solutions and grades of sand until the wax is completely covered in seven to ten heavy coats of the stuff.

Remember back when I said this would all make sense later? Well, once all of the layers of shell are dry (the whole process takes over a week), the entire piece is inverted and placed into the de-waxing oven which will reach temperatures exceeding 900 degrees. Here's why it's called lost wax casting: all of the wax from the sculpture turns to liquid and pours out through the sprues leaving a perfectly clean negative space inside which has hopefully captured all of the detail perfectly. When this process is complete, bronze can be poured inside and will fill all of the voids of the original wax model.

Here are some photos to better illustrate the shell process:

The first dip into the colloidal binder.

My buddy Brad makes sure that every detail is captured.

Letting the colloidal drain.

The first dip into the zircon.

Looking good! Great job, Brad!

You can see the zircon pouring off like sand.

Heavier silica is eventually applied, replacing the ultra fine zircon.

The base gets the same treatment. In the background you can
see the other pieces going through the process as well.

Attention to every detail is very crucial.

The eighth and final coat.

Now it's time for everything to dry before the de-waxing
process can begin.

I hope this has illustrated the basics of the shell process. After a few days of drying (aided by forced air blown through tubes into the shells), the shells will be de-waxed and the pouring of the bronze can begin. Stay tuned!

Catching Up Part 6: I Get a Little Time Off

It was right around the end of my third week in Colorado that I got to finally have a few days off. Maybe it was the crazy glint in my eye; maybe it was the coffee fueled gibberish. Whatever it was, the manager of the foundry put his arm gently around me and said, "See you in a few days, Ken!" You didn't have to tell me twice. I was about to take my first days off since March 3rd.

Heidi and I piled into her Subaru and headed West from her home in Loveland ("Gateway to the Rockies!"), up highway 34 and into the sleepy little tourist town of Estes Park. The views were outstanding.

The town of Estes Park, Colorado.

Glorious views everywhere you looked.

Once upon a time, this was my backyard.

This babbling brook cuts straight through town.

Once a beautiful foundation, now only its stony bones remain.

Just a mile or so from the Stanley Hotel, where Stephen King
wrote The Shining.

While we were relaxing next to an alpine meadow, this
little fella popped up to say hello.

The next day I decided to go and re-visit Benson Sculpture Park (in Loveland) and check out some of the amazing sculpture to be found there. I would love to help set something like this up in Lynchburg someday.

One of my friend Jane DeDecker's wonderful pieces.

I've always loved the composition on this one. It's perfect.

I remember when this first came through the foundry back in the day.
I was too busy to work on it and was sad. Gorgeous work.

My old buddy and mentor Bill Bond's whimsical work. Love it.

There are a lot of Native American sculptures throughout the park. This
is a personal favorite.

Well, that's just a taste of the hundreds of amazing bronze sculptures to be found in Benson Sculpture Park in Loveland, Colorado. It's easy to see why I flourished in the years that I lived nearby. I hope you enjoyed your visit.

Next up, back to the foundry and into the Shell Department. Stay tuned!

Catching Up Part 5: Spruing

The World English Dictionary states that "Sprue" means:

— n
1.	a vertical channel in a mould through which plastic or molten metal is introduced or out of which it flows when the mould is filled. Also of interest, there is an alternate meaning of which I had no idea: — n a chronic disease, esp of tropical climates, characterized by flatulence, diarrhoea, frothy foul-smelling stools, and emaciation. Having spent a lot of time in various Spruing Departments I can safely say that both definitions are spot on. All sprued up and ready for shell.   In the photo above, the head has been inverted and the crown of her headdress removed. The circle on the bottom is pure wax as are the various 1" bars that are attached to her. These bars will provide both a way for the molten bronze to enter the ceramic shell and also a way for the gasses to escape once they are melted out. If this doesn't make much sense yet, hang on, all will be explained. I hope. Need a hand?   Wax cross bars have been added to the base. Jason starts on the torso. Prepping the urn. Note the "plug" taken out of the top of her hand. All of the wax bars are "welded" in place with a soldering iron, fusing both waxes for a bond that will hold up to the rigors of the Shell Department. If you notice in some of the photos that there are pieces missing (see the hand above for an example), these are called "plugs" and they are removed so that the ceramic shell can dry more quickly before they are melted out and the bronze is poured. All of the plugs are sprued and cast separately, to be welded back into place during the final bronze fit up. All in all, I believe the Spruing Department at Madd had four people working on her for a little over a week to meet my deadline. A big thanks to Tiffany, Gayle, Derrick, Jason and their tireless leader Bonnie for doing such an excellent job. You guys rock. In my next update, I actually got to take a few days off and have the photos to prove it. Stay tuned!