+bons Posted February 5, 2004 Share Posted February 5, 2004 (edited) We've worked with the silver clay before but if I recall it was very expensive. Is it still expensive? How much is it for a block today? It's been about a year since I used any and I don't believe it was Fimo. The stuff I used was cured by using a torch, not baking. Then after the items were heated and the polymer base was basically burned away, you are left with an almost pure silver piece. Are those baked or torched? .Still expensive. I was checking prices at http://www.silver-clay.com/ and it's still not a cheap hobby. But I did discover they now have fire-on-your-stove methods and PMC Paper which can apparently be folded oragami style and then fired. Now that would be cool. At 9 bucks a pop, that's way too expensive for a sig item but you could make some really cool FTF or event prizes that way. Edited February 5, 2004 by bons Quote Link to comment
+Tiwica Posted February 5, 2004 Share Posted February 5, 2004 Thanks bons. I was hoping I would get an answer, but it got locked real fast. I guess I got my answer. Thanks for the link. It would make nice FTF prizes, thanks for that idea too. Quote Link to comment
martmann Posted February 5, 2004 Share Posted February 5, 2004 My niece does a lot of cool things with that stuff, (she also got a Kiln for her Birthday). It's amazing stuff. The gold is cool too, but man $$. Quote Link to comment
+ohgr Posted February 6, 2004 Share Posted February 6, 2004 I've been working on a new sig piece, here's what I did... I made a mold out of Red Oak, then melted up some NO-LEAD silver solder (Contains very little actual silver) and poured it into the mold, and then squashed another piece of wood on top of that, the second piece of wood helps push the solder into the carving, and leaves the back side flat. Once I take it out of the mold I trimmed the edges and buffed the coin. Once the mold is made, making a coin from start to finish only takes about 5 minutes from pouring to finished coin. I'm now designing a 2-sided coin, I will be using alignment pins so that the top piece of wood lines up when pushed down into the hot solder. The solder is really quite hard once cooled, I couldn't bend the coin at all and it's fairly heavy. Price for a 1lb spool is about $9.00, I'm still sourcing bricks of the stuff. The stuff I use is made by Oatey. Available at Home Depot. I think the U.S. & Candian mints do a WAY better job, but theirs dosn't look like pirate treasure like mine does. Ohgr Quote Link to comment
+bons Posted February 6, 2004 Author Share Posted February 6, 2004 (edited) photo? please? Of the coin and the red oak mold? Edited February 6, 2004 by bons Quote Link to comment
+Fritz_Monroe Posted February 6, 2004 Share Posted February 6, 2004 How about posting a picture of one of your coins. Never thought of this. F_M Quote Link to comment
+CacheCreatures Posted February 6, 2004 Share Posted February 6, 2004 Yes please! That's a great idea. Post them pics... Quote Link to comment
+ohgr Posted February 6, 2004 Share Posted February 6, 2004 The ones I made (3 of them) are fairly rough, although 1 turned out pretty good, I have a clean 30k picture of all three, The mold however is no longer, I revamped it for a skull and crossbones design which didn't turn out so hot.... This weekend I'll be doing the design for the two sided coin, Wish me luck.... I would be glad to post up the Photo, problem is, I don't have the webspace, If you really want to see it, mail me with a subject line of "COINS", and I'll e-mail the pic back to you. And if you would like to share the pic with the rest of the group, feel free to post the picture back into this thread.... These coins can no way compete with the State geocoins, as they look more like pirate treasure coins, but I've only made three, so cut me some slack if and or when the picture gets posted. Ohgr Quote Link to comment
+rusty_tlc Posted February 6, 2004 Share Posted February 6, 2004 Tin/Silver ingots are available from Kester, Qualitek, and a lot of other electronics supply sources. The alloy I use is 95.6 Tin (Sn) 3.4 silver (Ag), which has a very high melting point. The liquid point drops if you add a little copper, I think about 1 or 2 percent. Quote Link to comment
+CacheCreatures Posted February 7, 2004 Share Posted February 7, 2004 These are Ohgr's coins: I like the look of these more than the minted coins. Something very treasure looking about them. Perfect for caching. Nicely done! Quote Link to comment
+Fritz_Monroe Posted February 7, 2004 Share Posted February 7, 2004 Now these are made in a mold carved in a block of wood? Very nice. I like the burried treasure aspect of them as well. F_M Quote Link to comment
Lesbaru Posted February 7, 2004 Share Posted February 7, 2004 I'd love to find one of Ohgr's treasure coins in a cache. Nice job! Quote Link to comment
+ohgr Posted February 7, 2004 Share Posted February 7, 2004 Thanks CacheCreatures for posting the pic for me..... And thanks all for the compliments. I'm hoping to get the compass design a little cleaner in the next version, and to get it double sided, compass on one side, and our names on the reverse. I'm down in SoCal, and will hopefully get some done this weekend. And to answer Fritz_Monroe, Yes, they were poured into a mold carved into a piece of Red Oak.... I don't know how long the mold will last, it seemed to be doing fine with the first five or six trys, but then when I started using a small propane torch to heat the solder (Be sure and get the NO-LEAD kind) instead of the stove top, I noticed that the wood was blackening a bit. I think I'll go back to the stove top, or maybe move on to soapstone as has been reccomended by a co-worker. Good Luck if you try it.... And wish me luck with the double sided one.... Ohgr Quote Link to comment
+Fritz_Monroe Posted February 7, 2004 Share Posted February 7, 2004 Soap stone is a pretty good idea. I've seen many very intricate carvings made out of the stuff. Not sure how it would hold up under constant use, but I recall that you can fire it to make it much more durable. F_M Quote Link to comment
Dizzy D Posted February 8, 2004 Share Posted February 8, 2004 Ohgr, those are really cool. I like that idea and can't wait to see the double sided version. PLease have pics posted of those as well. Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.