Question: I am buying AS casting grain and will use it for vacumn casting wax models as well as ingot casting rough plate to mill into sheet metal. Do you have any cautions about casting and then milling the plate? What temperature do you have the flask at when you are ready to take it out of the kiln?
Cynthia Eid's article on Argentium® http://www.cynthiaeid.com/argentium_4-8.html should be very helpful to you. She recommends a flask temperature of below 1250F. I would recommend letting the crucible cool completely before removing the piece. Your casting will be very hard and you may see no need to precipitation harden it.
I haven't been able to afford a roller mill so I won't be much help there. Once you get comfortable with Argentium® Sterling you may want to try "super annealing". First dim the lights, then heat the Argentium® Sterling up to a slight red glow for a few seconds. Be very careful not to overheat the Argentium® Sterling. If you heat it as much as you would regular Sterling Silver it will be too hot. The trick is to quench the alloy just at the right time. Too late, it will only anneal as normal. Too soon, it will develop stress cracks. The time that is right is just after the red glow is gone when seen from a darkened room.
Cynthia Eid's article on Argentium® http://www.cynthiaeid.com/argentium_4-8.html should be very helpful to you. She recommends a flask temperature of below 1250F. I would recommend letting the crucible cool completely before removing the piece. Your casting will be very hard and you may see no need to precipitation harden it.
I haven't been able to afford a roller mill so I won't be much help there. Once you get comfortable with Argentium® Sterling you may want to try "super annealing". First dim the lights, then heat the Argentium® Sterling up to a slight red glow for a few seconds. Be very careful not to overheat the Argentium® Sterling. If you heat it as much as you would regular Sterling Silver it will be too hot. The trick is to quench the alloy just at the right time. Too late, it will only anneal as normal. Too soon, it will develop stress cracks. The time that is right is just after the red glow is gone when seen from a darkened room.
