My buddy in the pattern shop kept telling me to switch to a 2% zircon additive for our aluminum castings, and I finally tried it last month.

3 comments

3 Comments

seanh912mo agoMost Upvoted

Seems like a lot of fuss for not much gain.

schmidt.amy2mo ago

Yeah, totally. We ran a whole batch with it and honestly, the finish was maybe a tiny bit smoother? But the extra cost and the mess it made in the shop just wasn't worth it. Felt like we were just creating more work for ourselves for no real reason.

parker_bailey1mo ago

Wait, did you guys find that the cleanup was way worse than normal too? Like, was it just the extra dust in the air, or did it gum up your spray tips faster than usual? I've heard some people say the stuff gets into every little crack and is a nightmare to get off floors, but I haven't tried it myself yet. Kinda curious if it's actually that bad, or if they were just being dramatic about it.