How to get Wax Discs for under $1 each

  • Thread starter Thread starter S.A.Collins
  • Start date Start date
For single units I have a method in 3shape where I trick the software into thinking its a full arch, you just stick up to 16 units on the plate in rows, number them 1-16 left to right and say that there is no antagonist model, that way you can design/scan/nest all the copings at the same time. With most of our lovely doctors we barely ever get any room so support isn't as big of a deal. I put all the wax copings on the dies first to sprue so if they need some support I'll just manually add with electric waxer.

I have to give you credit for thinking outside the box.

That's a good idea for being productive without cutting corners .:Congrats:
 
For single units I have a method in 3shape where I trick the software into thinking its a full arch, you just stick up to 16 units on the plate in rows, number them 1-16 left to right and say that there is no antagonist model, that way you can design/scan/nest all the copings at the same time. With most of our lovely doctors we barely ever get any room so support isn't as big of a deal. I put all the wax copings on the dies first to sprue so if they need some support I'll just manually add with electric waxer.
<Snagglepus>Superhero like even!<\Snagglepus>
 
just one problem with that solution that has bit me in the butt more than once. remakes. if youre slamming 10 different cases into a single scan, you can't label them uniquely. you cant dig one out for remake (easily) without marking up the dies.

its quick, sure, but its not convenient come time to cross reference to past work.
 
No hay problema. Solo hay un par de cosas que quizás quieras considerar. No necesitas reutilizar las piezas viejas como yo, simplemente podrías derretir cera nueva a granel cada vez en forma de pellet y aún así te costaría menos de $2.
Además, piensa en cuando todos solíamos (y todavía lo hacemos de vez en cuando) usar ollas de cera y cera de inmersión. Venía en forma de bolitas a granel, como la cera naranja que uso, y también está plastificada en comparación con otras ceras. Ahora, suponiendo que no usaras toda esa cantidad de cera de inmersión en bolitas que pusiste en la olla de cera en un solo día, apagabas la olla al irte a casa y cuando llegabas a la mañana siguiente para encenderla estaba completamente fría y sólida, luego se volvía a fundir y la usabas al día siguiente sin ningún efecto secundario negativo y sin preguntarte si alguna de sus propiedades había cambiado. La forma en que lo veo es que la taza de cobre en la que la fundo durante ese corto período de tiempo es como una olla de cera recalentando la cera de inmersión. La temperatura es lo suficientemente alta como para que se derrita.

Además, si alguien quiere, con gusto le enviaré un modelo de piedra maestra que usé para hacer mi molde de silicona. Así, ya hice todas las conjeturas y solo queda hacer un molde con el disco de piedra. Mi padre me criticó mucho cuando me vio manipulando el molde, y ahora le parece genial cuando ve cuánto dinero se ahorra con tan poco tiempo y esfuerzo. Para quienes no usan tantos discos de cera como nosotros, creo que no les resultará muy atractivo hacer el suyo propio. Gracias a todos por las respuestas.
Me encanta tu creatividad y me siento muy identificada contigo. Gracias por tu generosidad, incluso compartiendo fotos de todo el proceso. Estoy en Colombia (Sudamérica), pero tengo un buzón en Orlando, Florida. Me encantaría tener el modelo Master Stone. ¿Puedo pagar el envío por PayPal?
Atentamente
Juan Carlos Londoño
 
First off, Ive been coming to this site for a while now, it's an amazing source of info for our line of work. Ive been meaning to make this post for about a year now but just never got around to doing it. Ive shared the info with a few friends that have labs and they have been happy with the results. I hope I don't offend/piss anyone off on here that sells wax discs, that's not my intention…I'm just trying to help out the other little guys like myself. I'm 32 years old and part of a small Lab in FL that my dad started almost 40 years ago. We do around 20 PFM units a day and a handful of Zirconia, full gold, and emax. For years we were 1 delivery guy, 1 model person, 1 metal finisher, 1 waxer, and 2 ceramists. 3 years ago our waxer retired so the metal finisher started doing both jobs. During the next year we realized the waxer/metal finisher had been stealing huge amounts of gold so we obviously fired him. This left me doing model work, then waxing a crap ton of units and investing/casting metal finishing every day for months, it was hell. I'm pretty sure my son at the time thought I was just a part of his extended family for how little I was home. Finding a dependable experienced employee was also hell. Long story short, we bought the AG Ceramill Motion 2 with the main purpose being milling wax for copings, frameworks, full cast, and emax and milling in house the handful of abutments we were sending out. We were paying 60k a year to the waxer and to the metal finisher so the way I looked at it was that the equipment would be payed off in 1 year…(60k for the mill, 40k for the scanner-d2000, and 10k for the sintering furnace for the zirconia we would start doing). Now you still have to obviously sprue and finish the metal and what not, but after dialing in the settings metal finishing is a joke with milled copings. You basically are just roughing up the surface and finishing the margins, takes no time at all for those wondering. I can scan and design 20 copings in under a half hour and have them in the mill. I takes 2+ hours to mill so if you are looking to cut length of time down, some fast waxers could probably wax by hand a lot faster, but while it is in the mill you can be doing other work so the actual time spent on each unit is greatly reduced. Blah blah blah, what about the wax discs you say?? Ok so one thing I didn't take into account was the price of the wax pucks, we were using between 1.5 and 2 wax pucks a day. Sometimes big frames take almost a whole disc, and sometimes on big zirc cases I like to mill out of wax first to check in my hand before burning through and expensive zirc disc. Now the cheapest wax discs I've found are $10, more expensive are $30, and most of the places that sell them are closer to $20. We were spending between $400 and $800 a month on wax discs before I knew any better and I was determined to cut that down. So I made a Silicone mold of one of the wax discs and melted what was left of old discs and poured it in the mold. When it cooled it looked perfect, but my joy was short-lived when I realized that I didn't take into account the shrinkage of the wax and it was too small to fit into the blank holder. But I didn't give up, I ordered a slightly larger disc (100mm without the step) online. I took the plastic step from an old zirconia disc and I waxed it to the100mm disc in 3 places, and slightly shaved it where the steps were to make room for it to connect to the blank holder. I made another silicone mold and Voila! Fits perfect after shrinkage. So my next goal was finding bulk wax cheap enough to make it worth making my own. I looked online and right off the bat found the site machinablewax.com, Ive seen it brought up on here a few times but I have absolutely no affiliation with them. I had him send me a couple samples and then eventually ordered a 10 pound box of the orange wax. So with shipping it cost me around $60 for the wax, and I got more than 60 20mm discs out of one order of wax so my VERY basic math skills tells me that is under $1 per disc after the initial price of that silicone I used and the single 100mm disc I bought. So instead of $1200 plus on 60 discs, its less than $60. And if you were doing smaller thickness discs the savings are even greater. The best part is that I actually love the wax more than any dental supply wax that Ive got with the exception of Jensen Wax discs(because its very similar to this orange wax) The blue and brown waxes that I always ordered from dental companies was very brittle and a lot of time would break and snap when cutting them out of the discs after milling, especially the very thin copings, but this orange wax is way more forgiving like the jensen wax. I use it for copings, frameworks, full gold and emax and it burns out clean and Ive never had a problem with it. I used to be very careful and clean the old discs that I was recycling and mix half new wax with it every time but honestly Ive been in a hurry and not done either of those things and still never had a problem. I put the wax in the burnout oven at 200C for 30 minutes in a copper mug then pour it right into the mold and just do that for a few hours every time I need discs, It takes less time than getting on the phone and ordering.

If anyone has any questions I would be more than happy to help you in anyway that I can. Like I said before, I'm Just trying to share what Ive found to be very helpful for us and saves us a ton of $$

100mm puck
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I made a stone duplicate of this just in case something happened to the wax master mold.
Put a piece of utility wax in the center and try to make as level as possible then put in a small flat dish slightly bigger than the disc, I used tupperware.

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That's A LOT of PFM copings there. You need to get your doc's into pressed ceramics or zirconia. Saving you a bunch of bench time while still delivering quality restorations.
 
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