Ramblin' Dan's Workshop

This is a Christmas present for my 6 year old granddaughter. She has been watching me carve wax and casting silver. Of course she melted my heart when she asked when was I going to make something for her...

So this is the result. Don't spoil the surprize.

I am not showing so much of the "how to" as the process is now repetitive, always the same process again and again. It's the designs that change.  I will show some of the casting process when I can corall a photographer.

I first sketched the heart by hand, then built the model in Vectric Aspire Software. Then it was CNC cutting on the Taig micro-mill.	I use the independent four jaw chuck as my wax holder. It works very nicely if I pay attention not to be cutting where the wax sets on a chuck jaw. No problem here.
The result is a very clean carving of what I envisioned. The better the carving finish, the less work required on the silver	This is probably a bit overkill on the spruing. The rose is very thin and I wanted to be sure it would fill.
As you can see, no problems. The heart is 1-1/8 inch across.	The finished product with bail and sterling chain.

The only problem with this little project is I think the other women in the family will want one too...