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Burning-out is an important step in mould fabrication for the ceramic mould casting process to remove alcohol in the gelled ethyl silicate binder. It affects both the accuracy and stability of the ceramic mould dimensions. In this paper, results are described for length changes of ceramic mould specimens during the burning-out process after alcohol immersion or drying in air for various lengths of time. It is shown that preventing rapid evaporation/removal of alcohol from the ceramic mould specimen before burning-out by immersing the specimen in alcohol generally produces less overall length change compared to leaving the specimen to dry in air. The immersion time for the specimen in alcohol or drying in air before burning-out has a significant effect on the overall length changes in the specimen and on the characteristics of the burning-out curves. Under the conditions investigated, immersing in alcohol for 5–10 h followed by burning-out produced near zero overall length change in the specimen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]