How to Build a Kiln for Lost Wax
- 1). Locate a hotplate that has a ceramic stove plate with the heating coil exposed. It's essential that this type of hotplate be used to ensure the kiln will reach a high enough temperature to burn out the wax, according to Don Norris of the molding and casting online resource, My Heap.
- 2). Measure the diameter of the burner, most are usually 6 or 8 inches in diameter.
- 3). Take heavy-duty aluminum foil and wrap an unglazed, red clay flower pot. The diameter of the flower pot must match the diameter of the ceramic burner of the hotplate. Wrap the outside only in foil and crimp up to 1 inch of foil around the rim on the inside of the flower pot.
- 4). Make a handle for the flower pot for moving it on and off the hotplate. Cut a standard, wire coat hanger just below the twisted wires. Straighten out the coat hanger. Line up the two ends and bend the wire in half. Then bend it in half one more time.
- 5). Use a pliers to make two 90-degree angle bends, 3 inches in from each end of the coat hanger. Bend them outwards.
- 6). Make another bend 2 inches in from each end. Using a pliers, first bend each of the wire ends down and then back towards the center.
- 7). Bend a 90-degree angle at each end of the wire, 1 inch in from each end. The wire ends are now pointing straight down.
- 8). Set the foil wrapped flower pot on its rim. Stick the wire ends of the handle through the foil and into the hole in the bottom of the clay flower pot. Reach into the pot and bend the wires in opposite directions so they're laying flat against the inside, bottom face of the flower pot. On the outside, pull the two long vertical lengths of wire apart so the handle will sit upright on its own.
- 9). Set a mold encasing a jeweler's wax form on the burner of the hotplate, set the foil wrapped flower pot over the burner and turn on the hotplate.
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