About 13 years ago i was contacted by a foundry in Hampshire who asked if i could help them out.
The company casts the "Spirit of Ecstasy" figures, in stainless steel which famously are found on the front of Rolls Royce cars.
At the time BMW had just bought RR. They had started production at Goodwood and were keen to turn the companies fortunes around, which all credit to them, they have done.
Any way back to the story children.
In order to cast the winged lady,(using the lost wax process) you have to make a wax model first. This is done by squirting molten wax, under pressure into a precision made tool or die.
BMW had spent a huge sum of money on the tool/die, and the wax lady was not coming out to the standard they had hoped for. The poor thing had no hair, toes or hands!
That`s were muggins here was asked to help.
"Would it be possible to "chase/engrave some detail inside the Aluminium tool" the man asked, "I would think so" was my kind reply, so off i went, hammer in hand, down to the foundry to see what i could do!
Needless to say, it was not as straightforward as i had imagined. The tool came apart in 5 pieces, also i would be working in reverse or negative. Imagine trying to make hair and a pony tail inside half a malteeser, with 5 of the top brass from RR breathing down my neck. No pressure then!
The biggest problem was, if i cocked it up, there was no going back and 30 grands worth of aluminium die would be going in the bin.
After many hours work and test waxes, she was back to her former glory! The bosses were so pleased with what i had done, they let me engrave my name and phone number on the die, for future reference.
Fast forward 13 years, and the buggers got my number again!!!!
Only this time it was worse!
As you may know, i retired from the Art Bronze game about 4 years ago, due to losing our business in a fire. So i am a bit rusty in the hammer and chisel department, plus i had lost all my tools that i had made over the previous 30 years.
So yesterday found me frantically making Diamond chisels, punches and assorted tools which all needed to be hardened and tempered. I packed up a tool box and went to bed thinking what have i done!
It appears that the old die had worn out and they wanted me to fix the new die which had the same problems as before ie missing details.
The first several hits with the hammer were nerve racking especially as there were three RR people literally leaning over my shoulder, to say i was nervous was an understatement. Thankfully the old brain cells had retained some knowledge and 6 hours later she was as good as new but i had aged 10 years, i shall never complain about making slip joints ever again!!
I left without engraving my phone number this time!
Some photos of the process.
:thumbup:
Thanks for sharing it here :thumbup:
You sir are a very talented man. :thumbup::thumbup: