Hello instructableers, DIYers, and Internet people everywhere! Welcome to my debut instructable!!!!
(Whooo, We love you Fenris! You rock! Give me your socks for my creepily obsessive collection of things related to you!).
Thank you, thank you! But really, I must get to the instructable, settle down please.
In this instructable, I will detail how to construct a simple, cheap, and effective foundry, capable of melting aluminum. This foundry can be built quickly, with little tools or money, and is great for beginning metal-casters.
I'm entering this in the Epilog laser cutter challenge, so if you like it (as if you couldn't), please vote.
I'll be your best friend ;)
(Whooo, We love you Fenris! You rock! Give me your socks for my creepily obsessive collection of things related to you!).
Thank you, thank you! But really, I must get to the instructable, settle down please.
In this instructable, I will detail how to construct a simple, cheap, and effective foundry, capable of melting aluminum. This foundry can be built quickly, with little tools or money, and is great for beginning metal-casters.
I'm entering this in the Epilog laser cutter challenge, so if you like it (as if you couldn't), please vote.
I'll be your best friend ;)
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Signing UpStep 1: How this is green
Before I instructify your minds, let me tell you how this project is green.
I live in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and in Hattiesburg there is no recycling center. The nearest center is in Jackson, Mississippi; which is about 80 miles away. Nobody wants to drive 2 hours just to turn in some cans they could have thrown away in 5 seconds.
That's where me and my friends come in.
Our friends, family, and even random people who just want to recycle bring us pounds of aluminum cans each week, which ordinarily would just be taking up space in a landfill.
We melt down their trash to create tools or art, which we then can either sell or give away.
And though this foundry design pollutes the air with smoke and fumes, it teaches us (and any other beginning metal-caster who wishes to learn with us) what we need to know to build greener, more efficient designs which run off of clean-burning propane or use waste-oil as the fuel (reducing the amount of toxic chemicals people would be dumping elsewhere).
As we learn how to build cleaner, more efficient foundries, I will post instructables, so people in places like Hattiesburg, MS, will be able to do their part to save our planet.
On to the legalities!
I live in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and in Hattiesburg there is no recycling center. The nearest center is in Jackson, Mississippi; which is about 80 miles away. Nobody wants to drive 2 hours just to turn in some cans they could have thrown away in 5 seconds.
That's where me and my friends come in.
Our friends, family, and even random people who just want to recycle bring us pounds of aluminum cans each week, which ordinarily would just be taking up space in a landfill.
We melt down their trash to create tools or art, which we then can either sell or give away.
And though this foundry design pollutes the air with smoke and fumes, it teaches us (and any other beginning metal-caster who wishes to learn with us) what we need to know to build greener, more efficient designs which run off of clean-burning propane or use waste-oil as the fuel (reducing the amount of toxic chemicals people would be dumping elsewhere).
As we learn how to build cleaner, more efficient foundries, I will post instructables, so people in places like Hattiesburg, MS, will be able to do their part to save our planet.
On to the legalities!
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The long answer no becuz it'll explode, or at least crack, which would waste all the aluminum.
Also, I don't think the steel alloys with the aluminum at all, but rust flakes might get in the melt if you use the same crucible more than once.
Hot air is less dense than cold air, and consequently contains less oxygen.
I know it's counter-intuitive, but colder air burns better.
They have a very thin coating of copper over the zinc cast.
If you want to melt copper, use old copper tubing or wire with the plastic removed. Just make sure it is realy copper all the way through.
And to prevent oxidation a little bit of hundred mule team borax floating on top works like a champ.
Other than that, nice instructable. It's ghetto-tastic, just the way I like it!
Read how to make casting sand here:
http://www.ehow.com/how_6065035_mix-sand-casting-aluminum.html
but hes, you could use a burnable material.... look up lost wax casting. same thing, basically, just without the sand.
==========================================================note:
sand casting wouldn't work so well with jewelry, though..... unless you have extremely fine sand, your detail level will be degraded, cuz your detail is restricted to the size of the grains of sand. if it's course, it will leave pits and bumps in the surface of your jewelry.
they would pretty much do sand casting, however they would use foam, like styrefoam, that they carved into shape, and just pour the molten metal onto the sand. i don't think they even made sprue. of course, i think they used iron sand..... may be important....
the downside to this is that the metal was kind of pitted.