Last year I completed four-part molds for the robot arms, cast some positives out of wax, sprued them up, and dipped them into slurry to create ceramic shells. This year I steamed wax out of the shells, burned them out in a kiln, and cast the first few parts.

Like many other large parts I worked on, I am having to cast these in halves so I can weld them later and polish off the welds. The two main limiting factors are my vacuum oven and kiln (each $2000, about the most I could afford) since their inside dimensions cannot fit large parts.