Iron+Pour

The [|Georgia State University] holds an annual iron pour in the month of December. It is a large project and allows other school's students to not only observe the pour, but also bring in their own sand molds to get poured. Outside observers are welcome to come and watch the pouring of the metal. The process of making molds and pouring the molten metal, then finishing the piece is a long and demanding process.

As all art projects go, it starts with an idea, an idea that excites and motivates, then creating that which you envisioned. Next you must make the molds for the vision. This process alone can take up to a week to finish because of filing and grooving the plaster so that the next process is easier. The next task is to make a wax positive, that is to fill the plaster mold with wax to pull a replica of the vision you took a mold of. Of course you can't just pour one, because the first wax pull is just the cleaning pull to get any loose plaster or other debris left in the mold. The next step is to clean any small imperfections in the wax, and then to add sprus, or air and metal runways in the form of wax bars of various sizes. Then depending upon what form of sand mold you use for your wax positive (which will most likly include a catalyst and resin mixed with very pure and dry sand) you will need to melt the wax out of the mold to create a hollow cavity for the metal to fill. Assuming that the mold was made right, the only thing left to do is melt the metal of choice (all metals melt at a different temperature, so the crucible, or the pot to melt the metal in is a metal of a very high melting point), and pour it into the molds. It usually takes about three people to do the pour.

It seams as though the hard part is done and out of the way, but that was just the beginning. once the metal cools for a bit, the molds are broken open to reveal the metal sculpture. Almost all molds will get a hole in it which must be filled in and then ground down to the correct texture as the rest of the peice. the sprus must be filed down and also taken to the same texture as the rest of the peice. There are then many different ways to finish the piece. The hardest and longest process to do is to bring the metal to a fine finish that reflects like a mirror.