Make: Volume 75

CASTING WITCHER COINS

Each mold is made of a sandwich, or billet, of 3 or

more layers. Figure

G

shows a simple coin mold.

In this case, 5 layers are used: (from left to right)

a blank front plate, the front etched surface plate

with a pouring cup, the welting with pouring cup

and downsprue, the back etched surface plate

with pouring cup, and a blank back plate.

Let’s look at these layers from the inside out.

The center layer is called a welting. It provides

the profile of the cast piece and also determines

its thickness. In this case, we wanted a very thin

coin, so we used cardstock (Figure

H

).

On each side of the welting is an etched plate ...