My thanks to Addie Kidd for the link. Not having finances to afford a kiln yet, with the lessons in the link I was able to build myself a charcoal kiln from his flower pot kiln method, A diy store bbq and an oldhair drier attached for a forced air flow. for my next firing I will need something more robust than a £9.99p kettle bbq, the heat generated has seriously deformed the base, but I have my eye on an old wheel if I can get the tyre off

I guess I'm going to die. I have a full beard and even though I wear a dust mask my moustache is always a little white. The penalty of fashion. I mix out side and yes you can develop lung problems from inhaling the dust but it takes a while when only doing a ring or two a month. When I was doing large sculpture at two a day you can have a problem. Your ring looks much smoother now. I have found that injector wax doesn't make good pouring wax as you need something less viscous. I use a mix of scrap green and purple carving wax and a touch of brown. I use rubber gloves to mix my investment not because it is dangerous but because it dries my skin out. Some I know suit up like they are in chemistry class, rubber apron, gloves, face shield and respirator. My suggestion is to follow the manufactures guidelines. Here is the site that has the instructions for a DIY wax injector http://www.ganoksin.com/index.htm plus other helpful articles on jewelry tool making and modifications.

 Ok so I have my ring model but now its time for sprueing and here I need some advice. First of all, what method is better for casting rings? Steam or directly pouring metal into mould? For direct casting I need a large sprue I think. But for steam casting few small sprues are needed, right? I have read in Tim McCreight book "Practical Casting" that those sprues have to be 14 B&S gauge. But I cant find how much is it in metric. And those sprues have to be round or can be square? Is there any difference? And another thing about steam casting I would like to know is making the sprue gate. I have found a picture about making it from light bulb, but I think investment would stick to it, am I right?

here's this pic

And sprues used here are 1/32" so its about 0.8mm, is it good size? How much is 14 B&S?

Cheers, Mark

Btw. I have made a 2nd wax ring. Heres a photo of it

I like your new ring. If you feel comfortable using steam casting go for it. It works and works well. Steam will give you a denser casting. If you have that size of sprue on hand use it. Anything around the the 1mm size should be OK and if you want to use two of them together that is fine too. It is better to be on the big side then on the small. I have used both round and square in casting and have found little actual difference however in theory the round is better. In your illustration I would have one large sprue instead of all of those little ones in the sprue cup, that is just to busy. No the investment will not stick to the bulb but I would put modeling clay around it to stop the investment from leaking out around it.