Mr. Clear Precision. Updated and expanded.
Took the Wironium course. Could not afford it (I'm in CA) . HATED the fact I had to go 2500 miles X2.I accidentally did a brilliant thing and went.
Did it anyway after casting sample of Wironium - clasps can be bent 180 degrees but are still springy.Put my eyes back in head.Casts perfect with a torch....a small torch up to 6 ingots weight. Note: 6 ingots default weight works for anything.Including full palates. Bego's high tech casting
$30K machine uses only 2 sprues.Does not work consistently with centrifigal; go with 4-6 sprues of 6 gauge or 4 sprues of 6 guage and 2 of 8 guage.Connect the tips of free clasps to the nearest frame member. Keep sprues long or you will get a pit. ALWAYS works...but of course you will always get some trash or something in the casting. Solution:
Casting defects: I will write more on welding later...like a book's worth of how-not-tos but because we are talking partials a TIG is something you need to save for...
I did a LOT iof research on partial welding and found theSchutz TIG welder is fantastic and among the hardest things I have ever learned to do.Terrible and misleading instruction book.Fantastic machine.Main people at Schutz are not techs. Ask for the Germans.About 3 weekends of sheer misery determining settings, overcoming 3500 degree cracking, avoiding warps, rewriting their instruction book. At least 3 months of use for full proficiency. NP or chrome soldering machines were invented by the same person who invented the boomerang to seduce you with a cheap price and later hit you with poor fusion and weak joints.I REGULARLY weld tee-nincey clasps of the same or disimilar metals, Hawley retainer wires, retention as well as broken-in-two major connectors - YES - I mean upper partial wide palates - but you an really re-weld a cut sewing needle.Stainless steel wire to chrome -perfect.Lasers are the most versatile but $, many breakable parts, complicated and completely unneccessary for 99%usual lab work. When the dentists-from-hell wants a design change after casting the frame just cut, recast new part and weld - or use stock stainless steel.You still get to call them bad names but now you don't have to stay up night redoing the whole thing. The sheer energy of a TIG welder on a partial frame covers ground fast....and also about a 1/3 the price of a laser - real world cost about $10K including tanks, regulator and a stock of welding wire - you use a LOT of wire/gas learning. Very little afterward....and as a bonus I weld 99% of my C&B frames - no special oval rings, no weird spruing, no cut and reassemble. Passive fits to die for.I also just paid for the unit in outsource repairs to a neighbor removable only labs over about 3 years.New Schutz welder now has twice the power of mine....car fenders? Major consumable = tungston welding tips @ about $12.50 each. W/ experience one lasts about a month. One day to start. Also I didn't tell you this but in the Rio Grande Jewelry catalog the "Orion" (competitor TIG) 1mm tungsten tips are $30 for 15 and work better.Tank of argon post learn-how lasts 6 months- year. Beware TIG welders whose tips move on their own to make the spark. ONE MOVING TARGET IS ENOUGH. Be a big boy and stick the tip to your work until you don't (harmless if you do, just grind off in 1 second). If you forget the ground clip you will get shocked - feels like carpet static shock (not for pacemaker users). Scares the padookie out of you the first time ( makes your muscles in your hands jerk slightly)but we respond wonderfully well to pain and you decide almost immediately not to forget any more.But I digress. more later on weld joint design, etc.
Wiroplus S is their best for partials. See my partial suggestion for rapid fire w/out blowout.Balance arm carefully.
Before I went to BEGO school I was the best partial tech I ever knew in 35 years. Schmidt is better.He is also patient and not an ubermenchen.
hard about that 2 degree survey tool. Make your own.
Previously used Wironit and it is in the brittle Vitallium family and WILL break easily. After using Wironium you will throw rocks at Wironit. Also welds well with a TIG.Also dentists don't break it when adjusting.
Bego people are VERY hospitable albeit in the middle of nowhere.Nice lab facility at warehouse..They were giving you a free kilo of Wironium with the course. Ask before you go...take that off your net cost.Also they know cheaper hotels close other than the upscale ones they first suggest. Take the airbus(taxi) from the airport.Loooong way from airport but cheap. No need to rent a car.Bego will pick you up at the hotel.
Bon Voyage. You are about to do a very smart thing that will halve your hassles.
