WHY WAX?
Print it in wax.
Cast it the way you already cast.
A WaxJet prints your CAD file as a 100% wax pattern. It goes on your tree, into your investment and through your burnout like the wax you already carve and inject. No resin to burn away, no supports to clip.
THE SHORT VERSION
Real wax. Not wax-filled resin.
The WaxJet’s red model wax is a blend of paraffin and microcrystalline wax, with ash under 0.01% of the pattern weight. It melts at 68 °C and drains early in the burnout, while castable resin stays solid until about 300 to 400 °C. The support is a second wax that dissolves in a bath, so there is nothing to clip or sand.
100%
WAX, NOT RESIN
68 °C
MELTS OUT IN THE BURNOUT
<0.01%
ASH BY PATTERN WEIGHT
0
SUPPORTS TO CLIP
SIDE BY SIDE
Printed wax or castable resin.
COMPARE
PRINTED WAX (WAXJET)
CASTABLE RESIN (DLP, LCD, SLA)
From print to casting
Pattern material
100% wax
Photopolymer, some with added wax
In the kiln
Melts at 68 °C and drains
Stays solid, then burns away
What is left
Ash under 0.01%
Char to burn off, and ash if burnout is incomplete
Investment
A good-quality wax investment
Often a high-expansion powder made for plastics
After printing
Dissolve the support, then dry
Wash in alcohol, often a UV or heat cure, clip supports, sand the marks
Safety data sheet
Model wax not classified as hazardous
Many carry H317: may cause an allergic skin reaction
Purchase price
From A$55,000 incl. GST
Desktop printers from under A$10,000 incl. GST
Strength in the hand
Fine wax features need careful handling
Tougher and easier to handle
Masters for rubber moulds
Not suitable
Suitable, with a high-temperature resin
Resin details vary by brand and product. Wax figures are Flashforge’s published specifications. Resin figures come from the makers’ instructions and safety data sheets.
IN THE KILN
Wax melts out. Resin has to burn out.
Printed wax
Lost-wax casting was built around wax. A wax pattern softens, melts and drains from the flask long before casting temperature, and the burnout clears what is left.
Castable resin
Castable resin is a cured plastic. It stays solid while the flask heats, then breaks down into gas and char that the furnace has to burn off. Resin makers publish burnout schedules that reach at least 732 °C, and investment makers sell high-expansion powders made for plastic patterns.
Resin works, and plenty of workshops cast it well with careful curing, slow ramps, good airflow and the right investment. Printing in wax takes that variable out of the job. Wax still expands as it warms, so use a good-quality investment and your maker’s ramps, and trial the WaxJet’s wax with your own burnout first. That is what the free samples are for.
THE HONEST ANSWER
When we would tell you to print resin.
Resin is the better tool for
Masters for rubber moulds. Wax will not survive vulcanising.
Fit checks and mock-ups that will never be cast
A tight budget: desktop resin printers cost a fraction to buy
Fine, fragile pieces that get handled a lot
Wax is the better tool for
Patterns that go straight into the flask
Fine detail with no support marks to clean up
A burnout that behaves like the wax you already cast
Many workshops run both: resin for mock-ups and moulds, wax for the flask
IN-HOUSE OR OUTSOURCED
Stop waiting on someone else’s printer.
Sending files to a bureau
Every job starts with an upload and a wait for approval
Printing runs on their schedule, not yours
Patterns come back by courier or pick-up
Every design tweak is a new round trip
Your design files leave your workshop
A WaxJet on your bench
Print, check, adjust and reprint without a courier in between
A revision is a reprint, not a reorder
Your designs stay in house
About A$0.24 of wax for a 3 g 18k engagement setting at our pack prices
Material is rarely what decides it. Your volume and your bureau’s price per pattern do. The file you finish this afternoon can be a wax pattern on your tree the same week, and the worksheet below shows whether that pays for your workshop.
Work out what in-house costs you
Put in what you print and what you pay a bureau today. The worksheet compares a year of outsourcing with a WaxJet on your bench, using prices excluding GST. It takes about two minutes, and nothing you type leaves the page.
See the wax before you buy.
We send free wax samples printed on a WaxJet, so you can check the detail, cast them in your own setup and judge the results for yourself. No cost, no obligation.
QUESTIONS JEWELLERS ASK
Printed wax, answered.
Will it work with my investment and burnout?
Use a good-quality investment and your maker’s ramps for wax, and trial it first. We send free printed samples so you can cast them in your own flask before you decide.
Is printed wax fragile?
Fine wax features need more care than resin when you handle and sprue them. Give delicate pieces a little more support on the tree.
Can I make masters for rubber moulds?
Not in wax: it will not survive vulcanising. Use a high-temperature resin or a metal master for moulds, and the WaxJet for the patterns you cast directly.
Do I need special software?
No. The WaxJet takes STL and SLC files from your usual CAD program and prepares them in WaxJetPrint, Flashforge’s own slicer.
Registered for GST? You can generally claim the GST on the printer back on your BAS, so the cost to your business is A$50,000, not A$55,000. At that price it goes into the small business depreciation pool rather than the A$20,000 instant asset write-off. Your accountant can confirm what applies to you.