Ok this is just wild. I was researching silver casting and came across this article and it's definatley worthy of a read or 2.
Microwave melting
some brief quotes from it.
Quote:
The Method in Brief
A wax object is prepared, attached to a hemispherical wax cup.
A second blank wax cup is prepared.
Both waxes are coated with a patent ceramic shell slurry containing some graphite.
These are then stuccoed with a magnetite sand.
Further layers of normal ceramic shell slurry are applied and stuccoed with molochite grain to build up the shells.
Both shells are dewaxed, by rapid heating in a flame.
The shell cup, containing enough metal to fill the mould cavity, and a lump of carbon, is glued with ceramic paste to the mould.
An insulating, but microwave transparent, ceramic fibre block is placed around the cup area of the mould.
The assembly is placed in the oven chamber, and the timer set for a specified time. The firing time depends on the type and mass of metal to be melted e.g. 330g of sterling silver would need 17 minutes in an 850 watt microwave.
When the beeper sounds, the mould together with the insulation, is removed from the chamber and inverted, allowing the metal to run into the casting cavity without loss of temperature.
When the mould has cooled, the shell is removed to reveal the casting.
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Seems the biggest problem so far is the material to hold everything.
Ed