Cane Handle

thingiverse

For use on cane with 22mm dia shaft. I designed this to replace the one that broke on my cane, and print in PLA to cast in bronze. Instructions For those of you who don't know, you can do Lost PLA casting, much the same way as lost wax. This process involved first printing the file, then spruing it with wax, pouring investment and letting it cure, then burning out the wax and PLA to leave a void in the shape of the cane head. Molten metal is poured into the mould, and because this particular piece is a larger bronze cast (about 1 troy pound) it was left to cool instead of directly quenching it in order to avoid fractures. The pictures you see where it is dark are from right after it was removed from the mould, and I began to remove the sprue, and grind the hard edges soft. Some of the PLA didn't completely burn out and there were gaps which I filled by hammering bronze into them and soldering it into place. Once it was cleaned and polished, I coated it in paint, then scratched the texture into the paint. I followed this by immersing the piece into ferric chloride which is an etchant. 2 hours or so later, I decided that the etch was deep enough, and removed it. The final product you see there is after a sandblast and a final polish.