Quote Originally Posted by Planopiper
Ok, you've got my attention. Is this as easy as it looks? It looks like you get some kind of malleable plastic for a pattern, mold it around a form, remove the form, add a hole for air to escape, and pour in some molten pewter. How do you melt the pewter? Can you do it on a stovetop? Where do you get the pewter and the plastic for the mold? This could be an easy and fun home craft. I cast something in aluminum with a sand pattern once for school a long time ago, so I’ve been introduced to the concepts, but didn’t know there was something I could do at home without special equipment.
I spent some time researching and acquiring the materials. It's not as easy as it looks, yet it is not rocket science. Remember pewter was a material people worked with around campfires to make adornments. I won't give information on how to do it as it can be very dangerous if you don't know how to handle the materials. The mold impression material is a proprietary elastomer that I have devised that is heat resistant enough for repeated detailed pours of pewter. It is not plastic that would just melt and catch on fire. The mold you see here turned out 10 identical pins w/o degradation. Remember that molten metal is very dangerous so make sure you're using the correct safety equipment. Pewter can be melted at about 500-600 degrees depending on the alloy. If it wasn't for the liability I'd get my polymer out for use, but there are commercial (expensive) ones available from jewelry supply houses. The pewter ingots are available from many sources also. O'Neille