The Casting Process                                  Back to Signature Diamonds & Gems

Step One: The Model
 
  Everything that will be cast starts with a Model.
 
The model can be made out of many different materials. The model can be an item that has already been produced in metal, a wax carving, a plastic carving, or just about anything that will not react to the mold rubber negatively.  If you have an idea for an item that you would like cast but cannot carve wax or shape metal, we can help. We have model makers that can take your idea and turn it into a work of art. Model making is often done on computer and then the model is produced with a Rapid Prototype Machine. This method is not the cheapest but generally produces the best results if carving or fabricating your own model is not an option.   

Step Two: The Mold
 
   Molds are used to produce wax replicas of your model. There are two kinds of molds that we produce.
The first type of mold is the Rubber Vulcanized mold and is used, generally for metal models that can with stand heat to approximately 350 degrees.  The second type of mold is the Room Temperature Vulcanized mold and is usually used for wax or plastic models. Both types of molds reproduce your models accurately.                 

Step Three: The Waxes
 
   By injecting molten wax into the mold, waxes replicas of your item will be produced.  Waxes can be injected into molds about once every two to three minutes. This allows for mold cooling and wax hardening.  Once we have the wax replica of your item we then put them on wax trees. The wax trees will often contain as many as one hundred or more items or as few as one.           

Step Four: Flasks and Investment
 
   Once the wax trees are finished, they are placed in a metal flask. The flask will then be filled with a plaster investment that covers the wax tree. The plaster Investment dries and is then ready for the casting burn out ovens.               

Step Five: Burning out the Wax
 
   After the Investment has completely dried, the flasks are place into the burn out ovens and a 12 to 16 hour burn out cycle begins. This is where the Lost Wax Casting name comes from. The wax is slowly burned out to leave a plaster Investment mold that will be used to pour the casting metal into.               

Step Six: The Casting
 
   The casting is done by placing the flasks in a centrifuge or a vacuum casting machines and then heating the metal and pouring the metal into the flasks. So that we can handle large capacity orders, we use large induction heaters to melt the metal for pouring.      

Step Seven: Cutting the Cast Tree
 
   The result of the casting is a metal tree of your items. When the metal trees come out of casting they must be cleaned and prepared for cutting from the tree. Each cast item must be cut from the tree.        

Step Eight: Desprueing
 
   Desprueing is the process of grinding the sprue off of the item so that evidence of the casting process is removed.  We have a number of ways to despure items from rotary tools to grinding wheels.  Because much of the metal from desprueing is unrecoverable and must be refined, desprueing is about 60% of the total cost of finishing or more if it is gold.            

Step Nine: Finishing
 
There are numerous ways in which your products can be finished such as; Hand polishing, tumble polishing, satin wheel finishing, sand blasting and the list goes on. Once removed from the casting tree, the pieces of jewelry, while starting to take shape, have a while to go.. Our jewelers carefully prepare and assemble the jewelry components ready for gem setting. . As with all stages involved in handcrafting jewelry, an imbedded quality control team approves every handcrafted piece before they are transferred to the next stage.

Step Ten: Gem Setting
 
The gem setting team employs carefully selected gem-setters with abilities in both quality and quantity setting;. of 150 gemstones per. Having a proven record with gemstone setting, we continuously ensure that the highest quality standards are met, while breaking ground in both the types of setting and the gems within them.

Step Eleven: Polishing & Plating
 
At the polishing stage, we ensure that the best shine and finish are achieved but not at the expense of essential design details. This is done by careful separating individual polishing needs. When plating is required, plating specialists apply a carefully calculated formula of rhodium with an emphasis on both color and brightness.

 
Step Twelve: Quality Assurance
 
Quality assurance at encompasses two areas. The first being quality control teams that check each step of the handcrafting process and secondly, the final quality assurance after polishing. The successful implementation of quality control teams has helped minimize and eliminate problems downstream, and plays a key role in maximizing the quality of our handcrafted jewelry. The final product approval is done by quality assurance professionals with years of experience in the creation of high quality handcrafted jewelry This method ensures that suggestions and improvements are easily implemented throughout the creation of our handcrafted jewelry, where and whenever required.