Author Topic: How to make a wax carving for a Fleeger style trigger guard  (Read 1920 times)

Offline Rolf

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How to make a wax carving for a Fleeger style trigger guard
« on: August 14, 2023, 03:52:45 PM »
I drew the trigger guard pattern based pictures from the book “The American longrifle, its art and evolution” and measurements from a brass casting from an original Fleeger trigger guard made by Goering.
The biggest blocks of carving wax I could find are 3-5/8” x 6”x 1-½" which is not long enough for the guard. I therefore decided to cut off a piece and weld the blocks together.


I chose blue wax for the trigger guard since is supposed to be easier to weld than purple or green wax. It’s also more elastic and less prone to break, since the guard has portions that are long and skinny. The welding was done with a cheap wax pen set (30$) bought on ebay.


Wax welding.
You can’t join hot wax to cold wax. The surfaces on both parts to be joined have to be melted at the same time. I glued both blocks to a piece of paper so them would not shift during the process. First, I used the large spoon tip to melt out a channel between the blocks that goes 2/3 through them and filled it with melted wax.


The weld was then filed flat, the paper removed, and the process repeated from the other side. The wax pens proved to be inadequate for joining such large blocks. Wax solidifies in a few seconds after removing the heat source and won’t bind to molten wax, so I could only add a few drops at a time. As result, I got a lot of cold shunts and air bubbles in the weld that had to be repeatedly repair during the rest of the carving process. It took me about 6 days to carve the guard and estimated half the time was used repairing flaws. Next, I time I try something like this, I’ll use a soldering iron (for tin solder).

Carving the block.
I “milled” the block down to the required thickness using a rotary rasp and a drill press. The profile pattern was glued on to the block.


The next step was to saw out the side profile of rear tang on the band saw. Sawing out the whole profile in one go, would make the blank more prone to breakage and harder to hold onto. Then glue the top pattern to the blank. I started in the rear because this is the thinnest section. I tried to finish each section completely before moving to the next. The wax is weak and wobbly and has to be supported while shaping. This impairs presession work because you can only file one handed.


The next picture shows the first attempt to repair the weld. The next shows sawing out the rear half of the bow. If you look closely at the tang, you see another repair of the weld.


Next picture shows another repair of the weld after finishing the rear tang.


I then sawed out the rest of the side profile og the bow and finished the carving of the rear portion of the bow.


 A rotary file in a fordom was used to take out the top profile of the rest of the bow. Look closely and you will see more repairs to the rear tang.


After shaping the bow, I had to do more repairs to the weld. Because of all the repairs the tang was now too thin, and I had to add wax to the top of the tang to thicken it. This introduced a lot of small air bubbles. When filed though they appear as pores in the surface of the wax and have to be filled with more wax or they will show up in the final casting. I filled the largest, but it’s impossible to get all the small ones.  I think I can file them out in the silver casting.


The last steps were to saw out and carve the front tang and weld tabs to the tangs (to pin the guard to the stock). I forgot to take pictures.
The last pictures show the finished guard. Notice the finish is a lot rougher that what I was able to do than on the butt plate.  Blue wax is very soft clogs sandpaper a lot more than purple wax. It also dings and scratches very easy. It’s better to accept a rougher finish (400 grit) than risk having to do more repairs.


 Next time I carve a trigger guard I will use purple wax. Purple wax melts at 225 Fahrenheit. I’ll make a plywood mold in the need shape and line it with tin foil.  The mold with a piece of solid wax will be place in oven and heated to melting point.  The wax should slump down into the mold avoiding air bubbles and the need for welding. After casting the block needs to rest for 48 hours to recrystalize completely and regain its carving properties.

Best regards
Rolf

The casting went great. I've added pictures of the finished sterling silver trigger guard.




« Last Edit: September 08, 2023, 09:15:59 PM by Dennis Glazener »

Offline helwood

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Re: Wax carving a Fleeger style trigger guard.
« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2023, 02:13:04 AM »
Greetings Rolf,
Your Trigger Guard looks good.  Back when I carved the Receiver and Furniture for the Lukens Air Rifle and later the Girardoni.  Touched base with Rio Grande Jewlery Supply and they recommended using the Blue Wax because it didn't Shrink as much as the others.  So that's what I went with.  The other thing I learned in a Lost Wax Jewlery Class in late 70s, was to use "Pantyhose" to finish the surface of the Wax.  It works great and have used it on all of my wax carvings since.            Later, Hank

Offline Jim Kibler

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Re: Wax carving a Fleeger style trigger guard.
« Reply #2 on: August 15, 2023, 02:56:08 AM »
If you’re not already planning it, you might want to consider pouring a silicone mold from your wax.  This mold can then be used to make multiple waxes with a simple pressure pot wax injector. It’s kind of scary to think you only have one shot with casting your wax.  Plus, with a silicone mold, you can save your design for future use.

Regardless,  your work looks really nice!

Offline Rolf

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Re: Wax carving a Fleeger style trigger guard.
« Reply #3 on: August 15, 2023, 03:47:33 PM »
If you’re not already planning it, you might want to consider pouring a silicone mold from your wax.  This mold can then be used to make multiple waxes with a simple pressure pot wax injector. It’s kind of scary to think you only have one shot with casting your wax.  Plus, with a silicone mold, you can save your design for future use.

Regardless,  your work looks really nice!

Thank you for your kind comments. A silicone mold would be nice, but the problem is cost.
This the only silicone for making molds I can find in Norway
https://www.ravstedhus.no/pi/Silikongummi-RTV-250-A-plus-B-supertransparent_2185524_430097.aspx
It's 1kg(2lb) and costs 150$ + 30$ shipping. To make the silicone mold I would have make a vacuum chamber to get rid of air bubbles in the silicone. I would also need a pressure pot wax injector.
The cheapest I can find in Norway is this one: 
https://www.ravstedhus.no/pi/Vokskoker-Bailo-1-5-kg-95W-max-100%C2%B0C-h%C3%A5ndpumpe-16-x-16-x-45-cm_4026750_430095.aspx

Which costs about 800$. In total I'd have to invest 1500- 2000$ in equipment to cast my own waxes.

Is there a cheaper way to do this?

Best regards
Rolf

Offline 44-henry

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Re: Wax carving a Fleeger style trigger guard.
« Reply #4 on: August 15, 2023, 04:25:09 PM »
Beautiful job on your wax carving. I have a pretty nice setup for investment casting that I have put together at the University where I work at, most of it was from Rio Grande, and it was pricey. That being said, you can make the equipment yourself and you obviously have the skills for it. I will put a link below to a simple injector that can be made with little more than a metal syringe and a crockpot.



Not all silicon materials need to be vacuumed, Smooth-On has a low-viscosity formula that I have used and it seems to work well. If you do want to go the vacuuming route you can save money by building your own as was done in the next video.



You would still need a vacuum pump of some sort of course.


Offline Jim Kibler

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Re: Wax carving a Fleeger style trigger guard.
« Reply #5 on: August 15, 2023, 04:28:50 PM »
Yeah, I hear you.  Money seems to get in the way of all good ideas!  There's quite a bit of used stuff available here, but I would guess this is more of a problem finding in Norway.  We've always used a vacuum to degas silicone, but I think I recall seeing some material that didn't require a vacuum.  Again, this may be difficult to source in Norway. 

You could pour a mold without a vacuum and it would still work, but will have a bunch of small bubbles in it.  This translates to bumps or "warts" in the wax.  The good news is that these could be pretty easily filed off. 

You could still use your original wax model for casting and then have the mold as a backup in case the first casting didn't work out.

Jim

Offline flatsguide

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Re: Wax carving a Fleeger style trigger guard.
« Reply #6 on: August 15, 2023, 06:01:50 PM »
I have not tried it ( I have a vacuum chamber) but I have be been told that if you pour the silicone in a very thin stream most all of the small bubbles will be eliminated.
Good luck and nice looking work.
Richard

Offline Bsharp

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Re: Wax carving a Fleeger style trigger guard.
« Reply #7 on: August 16, 2023, 11:48:26 PM »
Search for:

Moldmaking Latex and Rubber

Many types of rubber can be used and they also make some forms of Laytex.

Forget the vacuum chamber, the small number of bubbles can easily be filed off. The big saving is having the ease of making more that require a little clean up.
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Offline Rolf

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Re: Wax carving a Fleeger style trigger guard.
« Reply #8 on: August 17, 2023, 01:17:15 PM »
Search for:

Moldmaking Latex and Rubber

Many types of rubber can be used and they also make some forms of Laytex.

Forget the vacuum chamber, the small number of bubbles can easily be filed off. The big saving is having the ease of making more that require a little clean up.

Did a search. Can't find any of the options in Norway. Importing latex or silicone for a mold would cost 150-250 $ including shipping + VAT + custom fees. Then you have add the cost of materials and equipment wax injecting.
I'm only making one trigger guard. Makes more sense to carve another wax, if needed.

Best regards
Rolf

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Offline Rolf

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Re: Wax carving a Fleeger style trigger guard. Added pictures of the cast guard
« Reply #10 on: September 02, 2023, 06:55:11 PM »
The casting went great. Here are pictures of the finished guard.

Best regards
Rolf