How do I mould and make metal things? Like models and large jewellery?

A welding class would be a good start

What you are talking about is foundry work and most of it is larger in scale than covered in jewelry texts and smaller than in sculpture texts. Having said that, looking at recent books in those areas will give you some good clues. Jewelery casting materials are more widely available than sculpture casting (for example, the nearest place for the latter to Dallas is in Ft. Worth, while several jewelry supply places are here.) If you want some rough ideas, look here http://users.ticnet.com/mikefirth/castgobl.htm and related pages off the metalctr.htm page. However, there is virtually no chance you will be casting "titanium or niobium or stainless steel" any time soon as these are VERY high temperature and tricky to handle. Aluminum or brass casting is certainly possible and if you insist on steel, you probably need to look at forging and thin metal working.

Hi, m/34/NY (just cuz I'm on my wife's account.) I just purchased a book from the UK by Colin Peck. It covers building a waste oil casting furnace. If your looking into melting metals you need a foundry. I was so happy to find this book because it eliminates the cost of fuel and it uses used vegetable oil which is much a cleaner fuel. I am still reading the book and am new to this process myself. I have been buying books on sculpting, casting and molds on ebay for cheap. I also decided to start with some easier projects to get my feet wet in molds and casting in general. I am using *sculptamold to make pieces then making rubber molds from them to produce plaster copy's. I obviously read yahoo answers because I like to read what problems others have had in case I run into the same thing. Melting metals most likely you would want to cast in sand or lost wax instead of rubber. If this is what you want to do you should take an art class or just drop the criminal justice thing and become an art student (you don't come off as the CJ type, you have the mind and passion of an artist). Cops don't care about sea monkeys and there's no such thing as god, we are all just a bunch of monkeys laughing at each other as we stumble through life. Best of luck, ask me any questions if you need to, link to The artful Bodger's waste oil furnace.... http://www.artfulbodgermetalcasting.com/ here is another good one http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/

hello, as an alternative allow me to recomend sheet metal for the hand thingy you want to make,(i usually make my own armour, kinda sounds like armour to me,) you can use just a round hammer not too pointy, metal sheers, the metal usually a 22 up to a 16 gauge and a block of wood shaped whith a "bowl" indentation called a dishing bowl and maybe a sledge hammer as an anvil but it takes practice and can be somewhat costly as a college student i can still afford it but still stings to fork up the money and is labor intensive. (look for sca armour online and how to make it thats how i learned.) about making your own fantasy swords i tryed but failed hard, again for expenses. for the models and jewlery you can start w some silver or gold is kinda expensive, but probably your best bet for a low melting temp and a good quality use old jewlwry for other materials and make ur own conbinations, i bought a small metal couldron from a local magic store as a crucible is small and well suited for jewlery making, then i just melt my metals w a disposable gas torch you can probably get one at your local hardware store about 20 bucks for a cheapie and a refill and youll also need thick good quality welders gloves and for the molds you can use plaster but you have to make sure they are cured or theyll crack before the metal asumes the shape, you should practice w cold casting before u use metals even in smal qtty is dangerose, and somewhat complicated, good luck, hope this helps, be cautious, have fun. ho as a sidenote for the jewlery you can use other metals, and just cover them w a lamination of silver, i barely start experimenting w something like this but if u want an update just let me know... and youll need alot more heat for those metals you mentioned alot.

sounds like your boyfriend used pewter, that's about the only metal you can cast in rubber molds and it has a pretty low melting point. Don't even think of working in titanium or stainless steel, it's definitely nothing to begin with. If you need convincing, try to drill through a bit of mild steel and a bit of stainless steel (get a butter knife from the thrift store). Even using extra drillbits for stainless steels it's a pain, trust me, I've tried it. It's not that it's impossible, but it makes everything much harder. Generally if you want to learn metal casting I recommend a class, certainly a paragraph here can't even start to let you know what you need to to work successfully and safely. In addition you could consider a metalsmithing for learning about working with steel. I'd also recommend a welding class. And jewelry classes for small scale fabrication and casting processes. How old are you? If you happen to be studying at any university I would check what classes they offer and try to take one metal working class each semester. Otherwise I'd check out community colleges and local art centers. Your yellow pages may also be helpful. Also go to your library and read up on metal working in every book you can find.