quote:
Originally posted by Toady One:
<STRONG>I'm all for molds. Lots of tools and things and stuff, as long as it doesn't take a million years to get started on anything.</STRONG>
Ill type it out again, this time with more detail.
Hmm, well what if molds were simply a quicker and more convenient method of producion for only some items?
Coins for example, forging 500 coins with a hammer IS doable. You simply hammer each blank into shape. Or use a coin punch to shape both sides of the blank at once and clip off the extra.
But pouring molten metal into a mold with 500 coin shaped spaces then stamping them cold with whatever symbols (date, rulers face ect) would take far less time.
Coins do not *need* to be perfect so mass production is okay, although they need to have the same amount of metal in them to ensure value.
The thing is though, when using a mold, the mold itself greatly affects the quality of the finished piece for good or bad. But then again, a masterwork mold for a statue will go far towards helping the statue be a masterwork also.
So in practice there really is no bottleneck. All the common items and furniture can be made by forging.
A mold will speed the process, but is not needed. A mold will also add some value to items produced with it if it has a good enough quality. A bad mold will lead to more work needed by the smith, but it is still much faster.
A masterwork mold used to make a platinum statue will make a very valuable piece of art 
)
Sand:
Sand molds are fickle. They can store a lot of detail in them. All you need to make one is a form, a non-wood bin and some special sand.
Im not sure what kind of sand they use, regular sand would just turn to glass upon contact with molten metal. But anyway, you would need a couple bags of the improved sand and the bin. You also need a form which is explained later.
When you make a mold, you combine the bin, form and sand together. When you use the mold it is effectively broken. The bin can be reused, but some sand is lost. In practice if the mold requires more then one bag of sand then one bags worth of sand is used up in the casting process.
Sand molds are second only to plaster molds, but unlike plaster they can be used for very large items.
Plaster:
Plaster molds are the very best in terms of adding quality. But they are fragile and can only be used for relatively small items. Im not sure who whould MAKE the plaster but i suppose it would start with gypsum and finish as a bag of plaster ready to be used. Im not sure if you need to bake plaster in a kiln, but that would be an easy extra step.
Anyhow, bin + plaster + form = mold, just like sand. Plaster molds are good for coinage, jewlery and other items.
Metal molds:
Im not sure if these would even work. A pure metal mold would be hard to take apart and would probably stick to glass or metal unless you grease or line it with something. Anyhow they are not really needed here.
Make sense? now for forms.
Forms are the model with which you base the molds off of. They are not needed for stone molds because those are carved. Clay molds can be made without forms but a good form will add some quality. Sand and plaster molds depend entirely on the form.
Forms can be made of pretty much anything solid. Materials that can hold more detail are better. Stone is quick but rough. Glass is a bit better, same with wood. Metal is probably the best.
Forms are reusable and pretty much never break, but like all tools you will want to replace them regularily with improved versions.
There is one last option for forms that only works with plaster molds. Lost wax casting was created quite a long time ago, most often used for bronze as far as i know.
Im not sure where the dwarves would get wax and who would shape it. Anyway a good wax form makes a great plaster mold. The wax is carved into a form, the form makes the mold and is melted out of the finished mold using the kiln. The wax is then gathered and can be used again.
hmm.... did i forget anything?
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Topic: Molds and other tools in metalcrafting (Read 5862 times)