Post : Make your own machinable wax
URL : http://hackaday.com/2012/12/29/make-your-own-machinable-wax/
Posted : December 29, 2012 at 6:00 am
Author : Brian Benchoff
Tags : machinable wax, Paraffin, parafin, wax
Categories : misc hacks

http://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/wax.jpg

No matter how easy it is to throw a piece of metal or plastic onto a tool and start making chips, the price of materials does add up. [David] has been using machinable wax - a very hard wax that is up to the task of being cut with tools spinning at thousands of RPM - to reduce his material cost, simply remelting every part with a mistake. This wax can be made at home (http://www.instructables.com/id/Machinable-Wax/?ALLSTEPS) , it turns out, and [David] is glad to walk us through the process.

The creation of machinable wax begins by melting a few pounds of paraffin wax in a home deep fryer. Machining pure paraffin would gum up the works of just about any machine, so [David] throws a few plastic polyethylene bags into the already melted wax.

After casting and cooling, these blocks of wax are ready to be surfaced with a tool and milled into any part [David]'s workshop is capable of. As a bonus, all of the chips produced from this wax can be recycled and melted down again making for a somewhat renewable material that is perfect for prototyping or casting.

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