Casting Trumpet Parts?

[GideonT]

I want to see if anyone has ever tried or heard of someone trying to cast trumpet parts, specifically a valve block and maybe slides. I was thinking of buying an old beater horn and trying it out for fun on every part including the bell (disassembled completely obviously) just to see what happens. I think I can even cast the valve pistons themselves excluding the Springs and see what kind of level of detail I can get out of it, but I don’t have much experience casting yet. The slides are so thin I’m not sure they’d come out right though.
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Mini rotary

[stumac]

As a retired engineer having spent a lot of time working in foundries and manufacturing jewellers on furnaces and casting machines, in my opinion the only items that casting would be successful are water keys, pinkie hooks, braces and perhaps mouthpiece receivers.

Using the lost wax process which can give the most accurate castings there will be extra machining and finishing required. You cannot use existing parts as patterns because of the shrinkage of the metal as it cools, they must be built up to allow for.

Several years ago I had some mouthpiece blanks made by this method, the cost was $600, I got 6 mouthpieces, the amount of material in one charge of the furnace, this included the cost of making the mold for the wax model, subsequent runs would be only the cost of the metal and casting mold.

Regards, Stuart.

[GideonT]

Ah, I’ve heard and seen videos of wax casting, I know a place in Britain (through the internet) that is a small shop specializing in wax casting. I was tempted to email them about casting a mouthpiece for fun a few months ago but never did. I didnt think about the shrinking, thanks for the insightful reply
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Mini rotary