Small Metal Building Kits
Small Metal Building Kits
What is that metal melting kit for kids?
I saw it on a toy tv comercial along Time ago, it's a building toy were you can melt what I think was foil like metal and make shapes out of it, there were a set of cast and you take the melted metal and pour it into the cast let it cool and you have the shape of whatever cast you needed, what I need is a metal ( such as sodder that is used with a sodder iron ) that can melt at low tempetures like 700 to 900 degress and not turn red hot, just melt and be able to be poured into a mold and cooled, what I plan on doing is getting clay - creating a mold and baking it in my moms oven - melting the metal and pouring it into the mold - and using the metal shape for something I am building, the metal shapes create will be no bigger that 4" by 2" by 4" so they are small shapes and I don't think they require a huge proceed to create, just some meltable metal some molds and my moms oven : ) any suggestions or ideas?? Thanx all!
Those metal melting kits may not longer be considered safe in the U.S.(perhaps contained lead or just were too hot for non-adults?), and no longer sold. Not sure though. You might want to ask at a hobby shop (the kind that sells supplies for model railroaders, etc.), or look online, perhaps at miniature sites dealing with war stuff?
As for the molds though, I wanted to mention that if you plan on "getting clay - creating a mold and baking it in my moms oven - melting the metal and pouring it into the mold," you may be thinking of polymer clay which must be cured at a low temp (usually in a home oven) to harden (brands like Fimo, Premo, Sculpey, Kato Polyclay, Cernit). If so, you should be aware that polymer clays will actually *burn* if they're heated too high, around 385 F (or have contact with materials which are that hot) , which will create extremely irritating and unhealthful black stinky smoke.
If you used an "earth clay" that comes from the ground like perhaps "Mexican Pottery Clay by Amaco or regular ceramic clay, etc, that type of clay can take much higher heat (and must be fired in a well-over-a-thousand-degrees kiln to make it stronger), so perhaps that could work for real molten metal (even at your "low" temp of 700-800 F).
There are many other materials that can be poured or pressed into molds though that you might be able to use.
Some will stay flexible like those plastic "gummy" fishing worm lures, but many will harden much more. Plastics that harden would be the most common of those... the "thermoplastic" plastics like toy army men, prescription bottles, clear plastic craft beads, and products like ShapeLock (aka Polymorph) and Friendly Plastic, etc.... and "thermosetting" plastics like polymer clay.
Polymer clays can't be melted, however (will only burn if too hot), and can't be reused over and over like the thermoplastic plastics, but they can definitely be used in molds (as well as being made into molds themselves).
And there are even several brands of liquid polymer clay which can be cast into molds like silicone molds (which you can make yourself from 2-part silicone putties like Miracle Mold or Alley Goop, or Amazing Mold Putty which isn't quite as good, etc).
And btw, polymer clays can be made to look just like metal in various ways too.
If you're interested in any of those things, check out these pages at my site:
http://glassattic.com/polymer/molds.htm > Polymer Clay Molds... or > Silicone Putties... or others
http://glassattic.com/polymer/MISC.htm > *Melting, Softening, or Shrinking Plastics*
http://glassattic.com/polymer/other_materials.htm > *Other Meltable, Castable Plastics*
http://glassattic.com/polymer/powders_metallicwaxes.htm
http://glassattic.com/polymer/Faux--many.htm > Metals
http://glassattic.com/polymer/Characteristics.htm (brands & types of clay)
http://glassattic.com/polymer/LiquidSculpey.htm (liquid polymer clays)
(You could always use various other materials for your molds too, some of which will take fairly high temps but maybe not as high as molten metals require?
Or metal molds should work, I guess, but don't know what kinds of releases are necessary, if any.
This may not be relevant since you didn't say what kind of things you're building, but have you seen the building bricks and other parts that can be made with plaster/etc, like at the Hirst Arts site?:
http://www.hirstarts.com/casting/casting.html)
HTH,
Diane B.
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