Bronze Casting Cost Calculator

This calculator prices out the lost-wax (investment) casting process piece by piece, starting from the finished sculpture's weight. Raw metal cost applies a 20% pour-waste factor on top of finished weight -- sprues, gates, and the pour cup all consume bronze that never ends up in the final piece -- multiplied by the per-pound price of whichever alloy you choose (silicon bronze at $7.50/lb, manganese bronze at $5.50/lb, or aluminum bronze at $8.50/lb). Wax pattern cost assumes the wax weighs about one-eighth of the final bronze weight, priced at $12/lb for microcrystalline sculpture wax, and ceramic shell (investment) material is estimated at a flat $3/lb of finished bronze. Foundry labor hours scale with both weight and a complexity factor you set from 1 (simple, solid form) to 3 (highly detailed with undercuts), plus a height-based allowance for handling larger pieces, billed at $85/hour for chasing, welding seams, and sandblasting.

Kiln energy for burnout and melt runs about $1.50/lb, and mold-making cost -- a base fee that scales with height and complexity -- gets amortized across your edition size, so larger editions meaningfully lower the per-casting cost. A flat 20% foundry markup is applied to the full per-casting total, and the calculator also suggests a retail price range at 3-5x that foundry cost, the traditional artist markup for gallery pricing. These are industry rule-of-thumb estimates for budgeting a commission or edition, not a formal foundry quote -- actual foundry pricing varies by shop, region, and the specific complexity of your mold and finishing work.