Pizza Sauce Can Furnace

Melt Aluminum for $3 and some begging!

Step 1: Begging and Buying

The Sauce Can Foundry

This is a really fun project that doesnt take much time at all and once completed enables you to melt metal!

::Warning::This activity does involve fire and very high temperatures, so bring your common sense and competence along. You should engage in metal melting activities fully covered, wear leather boots, jeans, and a long sleeve shirt. Use eye protection and gloves over your hands.

Ingredients:
- 2 used Papa Johns sauce cans (just walk in and ask for a couple, early morning or early afternoon is usually when they prep sauce)
- 1 used bean can
- 4 inch diameter x 24 inch length Galvanized Oven Vent
- Blower with a power source
- A few screws or rivets
- Foundry stand (jackstands and a grate in my case)

Tools:
- Can opener
- Flathead Screwdriver
- Drill with proper bits
- Sheet metal bender (in my version)
- Tin Snips (scissors might get it done too)
- Hammer
- Sharpie
- Clamps
- Pliers

Supplies:
- Charcoal
- Cans or other forms of aluminum
- Welding Gloves
- Lighter Fluid (optional)
- Tongs or a coat hanger for holding the crucible
- Spoon with extended handle for dross Removal
- Eye Protection
- Somewhere to put the molten metal, I used a muffin tin.

If there's something in this list that you dont have or cant get then try and improvise (except on the safety stuff). The first time I made one of these furnaces the duct was made from left over rain gutters. And the blower came out of a microwave. Just give it a little thought and start building and see what you can come up with.

Comments

[cowscankill]

How do you get the ingots out of the tin? I have six that seem rather stuck.

[TALLJ29]

awesome man, i want to build one now

[The Masked Potatoe]

Awesome idea, what other types of metal can you melt?

[ticoun]

with that type of furnace, you can melt any metal that melts under 700°C but it's better for a beginner to stay with aluminum because some metals, like zinc and magnesium, can be very dangerous to melt(zinc fumes disease, magnesium fire at over 3000°C).

[Cheeseduck]

I built forge after seeing this instructable, but instead of the pizza can I used bricks, and instead of the bean can I used a crucible from http://budgetcastingsupply.com/. I also used a shop vac as some comments have suggested. I liked the construction of the duct here, and used it as a starting point for mine.

Overall, I think this instructable is a great introduction to 'forgery'

[iknowad]

What can you use melted aluminum for?

[callmeshane]

Do the alumium cakes make your fillings hurt like foil does, or do you just eat them anyway?

[me835]

I'm sorry... what? i just don't quite understand your question. you dont eat metal. it poisons you (heavy metal poisoning). and what aluminum cakes are you referring to?

[sharlston]

hes joking

[twenglish1]

nice forge, i got a suggestion you can use an air compressor instead of the blower thats what i use, it works great and higher pressure = hotter flame

[DELETED_evilfrogie]

(removed by author or community request)

[twenglish1]

yah i know what you mean, i usually keep the pressure pretty low like around 20 - 40 PSI or less

[MadBricoleur]

could you use a 12 volt plastic computer fan for the blower?

[fjr122]

I dont think it would have enough flow. But I dont know how much this A/C fan has. Give it a try and tell us if it melted the metal.

[MadBricoleur]

Alright, I'll try when I have time. :D

[Evilthingamabober]

Cool! Is it possible you could make a lantern-battery-powered carbon arc furnace?

[pyra_builder_1337]

this is similar to one i made out of a piant can and a shop vac that i reversed =]melts good

[lucek]

nice rendition. mine uses an old hair drier and some tube for air supply.

[Father Christmas]

when you melt the ingot down later, it wont be free of slag. that is the oxides forming form the extremely high temps as well as simple air exposure.

[HuggyBear]

Um first of all, you didn't really mention anything about your blower = ( sad face...
Second of all, like the guy below asked, the pizza sauce can will eventually start to melt/deteriorate from the high temperature. Correct me if im wrong, but if you have used it a couple of times you are probably noticing that. Just from my own personal experience, soup cans that i used as crucibles started to fall apart after like two uses.

[gamerguy314]

so is this good if you just want to heat up metals too, but you put them in for less time? Also... The can doesn't get melted at all does it?(the one holding the coal)

[the pro]

what happens if you heat up a cender block up to the temperature that melts aluminm? does it explode like river rocks in a fire (which is cool until you look down at arm and find shrades of rock and blood, not cool >:(

[darkanima93]

dude thanks this is a great forge and cheap too.

[Bluskys]

Another source of good crucibles and crucible related information is Budget Casting Supplies:(http://www.budgetcastingsupply.com/Crucibles.php)
And with free shipping it usually works out fairly economical!

[!Andrew_Modder!]

thats awesome :-) but, how is the can not melting, but yet the inner metal is ? even if its the same metals ( aluminum can, w aluminum can shards for melting?)

[fjr122]

The Crucible can is made of Tin (or should I say steel), and it has a hotter melting point, but it did get hot enough to glow red. The Crucible can is certainly the weak point in this setup. I'm sure the can's inner coatings contaminated the aluminum. For actually casting things (which I will get around to one day), you would need a better crucible before you needed to improve anything else.

[Tinker83]

Gingery! GINGERY! GIIIIIIINNNNGEEERRRRYYYYYYYYY!
make your own crucibles. there's also a bunch of fun kid stuff, like science project ideas, and a couple big books of all the crazy science stuff that didn't work through history. its pretty cool if you don't already know about it.

[!Andrew_Modder!]

hmm. ok, well i want to build this to melt metal, and i would be using a can probably a small coffee can or a x-large bean can, and i would be wanting to melt steel, aluminum, or mixes in the can would that work? :-\. i really dont know how to explain what im trying to say, like if you had an aluminum can you could only melt aluminum, and if you had a steel can you could melt anything up to steel (melting point) and if you had a steel can with melting steel it wouldnt melt through? Sry for all these questions, but hey if you melt metal you want to make sure it does not go through and cause a river of molten metal to spew all over your stuff :-X!

[heimo]

hello i think i can help you with that if you would like to melt aluminum you could use a steel pot or can but stuff like copper brass bronze iron needs a ceramic crucible becuse these metals would disove the can crucible and that is realy dangerous one day i would like to put an instuctable on this subject and building a propper furnace. chhers

[fjr122]

Ok, here's a little chart of melting points from lowest to highest
Metal Name Melting Temperature F°
Tin 450
Lead 621
Aluminum 1218
Magnesium 1240
Bronze Cu+Sn 1562
Brass Cu+Zn 1652
Silver 1762
Gold 1946
Copper 1981
Cast Iron 2300
Steel-High Carbon 2500
Stainless Steel 2550
Medium Carbon 2600
Nickel 2646
Low Carbon 2700
Titanium 3263
Iron 2786
Chromium 3034
Tungsten 5432
Carbon 6512

I stole it from HereHere. As you can see aluminum

melts at only 1200 degrees . (After finishing this I had to make sure that cans were made

of steel, wikipedia was ambiguous about it and several other sites so I took a magnet after

some cans we have here)

Most bean cans are made of steel with an inside tin coating (After finishing the above

chart, I had to make sure that cans were made of steel, wikipedia was ambiguous about it

and several other sites. So I took a magnet after some cans we have here, it is steel). So

its melting point is Approx. 2500 degrees (high carbon steel). So the furnace produces

somewhere between 1200 and 2500 degrees Fahrenheit, because the can doesnt melt.

To make an uncontaminated melt your gonna need a better cruciblecrucible. There are quite a few ideas for building a crucible from things laying around, all available with a quick google search. :P
Heres one for exampleHeres one for example ....

[lucek]

I have a similar set up and my steal can did melt. or to be more accurate the hot aluminum slowly leached through the can till I had holes.

[modest_mouse_fan]

hmm...i thought the melting point of aluminum was ~900.... o well. Great project, when i get the time, i will have to try this! =D

[mike153]

hi aluminum melts at 660 degrees Celsius you might be thinking of silver thats 960 degrees Celsius the chart above is in Fahrenheit

[!Andrew_Modder!]

:-) thanks

[shadymilkman]

anyone know if you can have too strong of a fan? i have an old central AC fan that puts out some major thrust. would it put out the fire or would it help?

[heimo]

yes the fan can be too strong if there is too much air then you would get what is colled an oxidizing fire kind of the same as a cutting torch you want a reducing fire {just too little air for perfect combustion} and that olsow help to reduce the oxidation of the metal

[stoobers]

If the fan blows too much air, it will melt the steel can. I use a blow drier (the kind used for hair) on low to melt metal. It doesn't take much air. :) [e-mail] stoobers.googlepages.com (my projects!)

[INSANE WAYNE]

You could regulate the speed with a variable transformer like a varistat or you could restrict the air going in the fan which would reduce the air flow. Have you thought about a scrap hair drier gun (lo-hi) ??

[ironsmiter]

It MIGHT work, but most likely, it'll blow your coals straight out of the firepot. If you're slightly less unlucky, it'll mearly bring your coals upto a temp high enough to melt/seriously soften your tin-can crucible. Adding a hole in your ductwork, and a varible cover, you can make your own "airflow gate" to use the big fan. To give you an idea, I have used a shopvac exhaust to drive a coal powered IRON furnace. yes. MOLTEN IRON! That's probably less airflow than yoiur AC fan.

[sonydude]

you can try you really dont want fire u want hot coals

[Oorspronklikheid]

Well I'm not sure but I don't think so,but a too big fan can blow away too much heat. Think of it as a heatsink,the faster the air goes,the cooler it is.

[fjr122]

Most likely, yeah. If you had a really big furnace it would work great though. :)

[Nyanman]

check out the Gingery books from lindsaybks.com. build furnaces, crucibles, blowers, etc for very low prices.their book Building a Gas-Fired crucible Furnace shows how to build a furnace, gas supply, crucible, crucible tongs, blower, etc. oh, and it melts iron.

[tinker3006]

Really nice Instructable,thanks! I think a more substantial crucible would be a used steel disposable propane bottle that's cut to size. Also I loved the suggestions by others especially about the foam/plaster mold technique. I have an old motorcycle that the sissybar/luggage rack is no longer available for,I'm going to try to make them,as used parts are rare and costly.

[heroes junkie]

Great instructable, I would recommend not using metal at all as the crucible and juat using one of those really small teracotta plant pots. Or just invest in a proper ceramic one, it's probably worth it if you are going to be using this regularly/seriously Otherwise, great use of materials and will start asap.

[john917v]

About how long does the Al take to melt?

[ichipoodle]

hmm, perhaps an alternative would be to use a dremel tool with a cutoff wheel attachment, then deburr and sand the edges, or use tin snips if you have a fine touch. i dunno though; just putting my 2 cents in

[reddeth]

This thing looks awesome! I'm going to have to start gathering parts, I've been contemplating building a furnace/forge for a while, now that I've got my lathe I might as well build it. Just one question to make sure I have the theory down, the coals provide the heat, and blower provides the air that makes the coals hotter correct? Basically what I'm getting at, it's just a system for blowing air past the hot coals? Theres no propane or any such things? Also, how much charcoal do you burn through usually?

[fjr122]

Yes, it is basically a system to blow air past hot coals making them burn hotter, and consequently faster. When I did a burn I filled the furnace the first time, then I think I filled it 1-1/2 more times, which to me seemed about the same amount of charcoal as cooking on my barbecue. :) (about half of a smaller bag) The response to this project has been more than I ever expected , but it would be really great to see someone else attempt to build it. It's really not that hard at all, just very dangerous.

[reddeth]

The whole setup seems very nice and easy to run, as well as cheap. Not as much as propane, and though a waste oil burning furnace/forge would be nice, it's more complicated than yours. Weather sucks and it's Christmas, but when everything improves I'll work on building it and post my results. Thanks for the reply and the great instructable!

[HeWantsRevenge]

sweet god...ive been looking to make cheapo arrowheads...thanx +1

[fjr122]

Wow, never thought of that. That's a perfect application of this setup. :D

[jsweeks]

Just want to emphasize what ironsmiter said about fumes. I don't recommend galvanized stuff (where it will get hot) because the coating is usually made of zinc...zinc is bad for you and it doesn't take much heat to make zinc fumes.

[buildingteen]

my friend made a pulse jet that we decided to put to good use today so we proped it up verticaly fired it up and melted up some copper first and then we tried some nickel seeing that that also worked we turned up the engine and threw in some iron from and old fence he had and we actually got it to melt it was pretty cool he said he had like a graphite crucible or something like that. were now are working on a solar melter as ive seen these reach well past the melting point of iron.

[Loveofchaos]

it seems like a pulse jet would do the trick lol i love your ingenuity lol

[pooboy]

nice 1 ::Warning::This activity does involve fire and very high temperatures, so bring your common sense and competence along. You should engage in metal melting activities fully covered, wear leather boots, jeans, and a long sleeve shirt. Use eye protection and >gloves over your hands< where else would u wear gloves

[mattface]

Man goes to a doctor and says 'i have a problem with my downstairs, Doc. I have five appendages...'

'crikey' says the doctor, 'how do your pants fit?'

'like a glove' the man replies

---

i know this isnt positive or constructive but nevermind

[ironsmiter]

you don't really want them to answer that last question, do you?

For people that didn't understand that last comment, this is for you(you need it)
Do this outside. Regardless of what you're melting, the first few melts will release mild levels of metalic fumes, as the tin coating burns off the cans and some of the diverter and duct.... the fumes from that alone are not known to cause canser, but CAN lead to 'metal fume fever' (can take 4 to 12 hours to show, and last 1-2 days thereafter) and pneumoconiosis(don't panic... It's a big word, but a begnign condition, or so says osha.... and since when have we ever believed what THEY had to say?). Proper ventilation is the key to not having that happen, and outside is pretty well ventilated ;-)

If you have them, full leathers are nice too... they reflect molten metal and heat better than jeans. I suppose I'm lucky in that i have a full set of welding leathers I got cheap, for the last iron pour I attended.... but even your dad's old Riding leathers would work pretty well, if they fit. If you're not gonna use leathers, a double layer of any non-syntheyic material is recommended, unless you sew your own clothes out of fire blankets(I THINK they are synthetic in material....)

[whiteoakart]

An easy casting method for your new aluminum is sand-casting/lost foam. Make a little sculpture out of styrofoam. Make sure to add a sprue (in this case a styrofoam rod-shape thingy coming out the bottom). Bury it in your sand box so that nothing but the sprue is sticking out. Pour the molten aluminum onto the sprue. The metal will replace the styrofoam instantaneuosly. In an hour, pull it out, cut off the sprue, and marvel at your handiwork! The surface will be rough, so don't bother attempting something with a lot of detail.

[Oorspronklikheid]

Dipping the foam in plaster first will give you a smoother cast.

[fjr122]

Yeah, I'm quite familiar with the process, I've been reading about it for years. Here's the best example http://www.buildyouridea.com/cnc/hblb/phase5/phase5.html

I'm gonna get around to it eventually, I REALLY need a shop.

I got a putfile account where I have been putting photos recently. Here...
http://www.putfile.com/fjr122/images

[whiteoakart]

What a great site! There are some great ideas to simplify the casting process and still wind up with a decent cast. Now I just have to find a reason to build your furnace and cast something. It's gonna be a tough sell to the wife. I saw your putfile pages. You are an excellent documenter. Good job with the photos and thanks for sharing your experiences. Nice rubber gloves. Thank goodness it wasn't your skin that peeled off in that chuck.

[fjr122]

I'm pretty sure you can build it in alot less than an afternoon. In which case you can be casting before she actually knows anything about it. :P That is, as long as you have some stuff to melt (if not tell me and I can get some cast off aluminum parts from my work).

[guerroloco]

As an amateur caster, may I suggest using pot metal instead of aluminum? it melts at a MUCH lower temperature than AL and is therefore easier to melt and cast safely. I have cast pot metal objects in plaster molds without shattering on numerous occasions. Carve an object out of beeswax & use that to make a mold. Pot metal melts in a hot campfire without additional blowing, but would melt much quicker in a rig like this one. Also, cast pot metal stays fairly shiny over time. The best source for pot metal? busted up lawn mower engines.

[solidification]

what is your "pot" metal exactly? (in terms of metal components? possibly by part of %) Pot metal is generally not used in industry anymore because it is not regulated by any standards. So I think you might be confused with what pot metal really is? Also, Pure Al is not used in industry save Al foil, so it is fairly difficult to find pure Al anywhere in any scrap products. If you like, you can use Lawn Chair Al, add some junk of your choice (copper, Silicon, Magnesium, Zinc, other Al alloys etc) to lower the melting point quite drastically and have great casting properties even still. (perhaps it wont be the strongest or fracture resistance casting, but it will work for what most backyard casters want. Even then, a junk mix can be made into a stronger part if the mold is made correctly, vs a great Zn or Al casting alloy poured into a poorly made mold.

[carbon]

Heatsinks are made of some very pure Al, just so's you know. You can always find me down at the junkyard ripping apart old computers. :P

[solidification]

It would make sense if the metal was very pure. (the less junk in the lattice, the fewer interface boundaries the better for free electrons to move about) But, pure Al has a lot of problems for industrial / commercial applications. It is very soft, very ductile and shrinks like crazy when it solidifies.(forms cracks and voids) wether the heat sink is machined, die cast, extruded or sintered, it would be very difficult and costly to use pure Al. (loading machine dies, shrinkage issues, oxide inclusions etc) If I pick up a typical 1 C/watt heat sink, it is very rigid. not soft and pathetic. The one I am holding right now is used to cool a very large solid state relay. It has machining marks on it and I would guess it is in the 3xx series of Al. It probably has some hypoeutectic addition of Silicon to improve casting and machinability. In fact, if I do a quick search of the ASM handbook, I find A380 used for die-cast heatsinks, A356 used for machining heatsinks. I will restate that the only place to find pure Al in commercial / industrial products are Al foil / Motor rotors. But like I said before, it is not a big concern because pure Al sucks for casting anyway. (Pure Al has a higher melting point, needs more super heat for pouring, has huge shrinkage and poor mechanical properties.)

[carbon]

What about Al bronzing powder? Or you could empty out an ordinary Etch-a-Sketch. The only way I have of telling the grade of Al is to mix it up with some rust and see how spectacular the reaction is.

[carbon]

Darn! And I had thought I was so clever. :P Btw: In step 9, when you poured the ingot, did you just pour it into a regular muffin pan? I would've expected it to stick to the pan, but I guess that isn't the case, eh?

[carbon]

Sorry, replied to the wrong person. I haven't been able to delete my comments for a while, now.

[Spl1nt3rC3ll]

I made a website that has my art on it, check it out if you want!
http://www.smithartwork.com

[Spl1nt3rC3ll]

Awesom project. I always loved to burn things, now I can burn and make shiny things, OOooOOoooh shiny 0.o

[The Lightning Stalker]

Some old microwaves have nice squirrel cage fans. They run right from the AC line.

[zachninme]

Even though this isn't smelting, can you add that as a keyword? I was trying to search for it, and that is all I could think of as a parameter :-) (Just an idea...)

[INSANE WAYNE]

Smelting is a lot more than melting.
Smelting is a chemical reaction that is done in a blast furnace and converts metal ore and metal oxides (commonly called dross) back to their free metal state with the help of other chemicals that remove the attached oxygen atoms..
If you took the lead acid battery (automotive) cell plates out of a battery and heated to 800 degrees in a cast iron pot. Then you poured it onto a metal table and spreat it out to let it cool, you would see some shiney silver metal globs appear amongst the oxides. Now if you sifted it through a screendoor screen mesh, the metal would stay on top and the oxides would fall through. If you weighed the parts you would find that only 15% of the battery plates.was metalic lead and the rest was oxide, because that is how batteries are made. Now if you took the oxides and heated them again with some coke, iron, and sand_{the oxides would be converted back to their metalic form which is called smelting. - Hope this clears up your confusion...}

[Vendigroth]

only 15%'s lead metal?

[samando]

there is also a possibility of the whole can\crucible melting

[static]

Samando points out: there is also a possibility of the whole can\crucible melting. A more substantial crucible can be DIY easily by using steel pipe nipples & fittings. For the metal alloys that melt at lower temperatures, assuming you have a handle on heat control. The Dave Gingery series of books are a decent resource on this topic. Enjoy... s.

[whiteoakart]

By the way, did I mention that this is an awesome instructable? Great job. I used to work at an iron foundry as an engineering intern. It is fascinating stuff, molten metal.

[SoDDiggerCpl]

An alternative to that adapter stuff is to just cut the seams of the duct at one end (about 2") and just bend them at 90 degree angles away from the center of the duct, like flaps. (front view [] > {[]})

[sonydude]

good job but... using a galvanized Oven Vent can give off fumes those fumes can give you metal fume fever that has no cure so far! It looks like its safe for now just keep heat and fire away!

[thejrb]

i find for buning the charc oal wate until they r about all white

[buildingteen]

can u use aluminum foil or is that a really bad quality?

[rusty13jr]

aluminum foil is about the only thing that you will find PURE aluminum in. its really good! Most everything else has other metals alloyed into it to help with strength or ease of use.

[buildingteen]

from experiance lantera is right molten zink sorta behaves like napalm on ur skin fun project but i do it in my garden with a welders mask now.

[lantera]

A word of warning, avoid doing this over bare concrete!!!!! Concrete absorbs water. Spilling 1400 degree liquid aluminum on it can cause this water to flash boil inside the concrete. Exploding concrete is bad. Exploding concrete under a puddle of partially molten metal is worse. Melting and pouring the metal over bare dirt / sand avoids this problem. A 1-2 inch layer over the concrete even makes spills easy to sweep up. Also, when adding chunks of metal to be melted to your furnace, make sure the chunk is dry. Hold it over the flames for a couple of seconds before dropping it in. Steam explosions from inside the puddle of liquid metal are bad too. That said, melting metal is lots of fun in a mad scientist kind of way. Once you've cast a few things, people look at you like you've done magic.

[davidbacsik]

Good Call.

[Arrgh406]

but, what is really cool is pouring molten lead (or other metals) in a LARGE container of water

[rusty13jr]

As long as you do it carefully, yes, cause...trust me, steam burns hurt horribly.

[static]

Well.. that was why large was presented as LARGE. Done this in the HS art room. As I recall a SMALL amount of molten metal poured SLOWLY into a LARGE container of water, didn't produce great amounts of steam. Anyway a slow pour, results in the most interesting results. Enjoy s.

[guerroloco]

Yup, that's another reason I like to use potmetal. It'll melt in a campfire, so if you want to impress folks on a campout, bring along some chunks of potmetal, a coffee can crucible, some pliers & potholders, and premade molds of any design.

[Karim]

COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLL

[whitephatt]

Hey dude! That's awesome! I'm soooo building one of those! I have a quick question though.. Why does it look like there is aluminum on the coals? Did you stick an aluminum can in them just to mess around, or did some spill out from the inner tin can? Thanks :-) -White

[fjr122]

The wrapper for the can had burned off and that shiny stuff was the "ash" that remained...

[zofo300]

kool a killer hockey puck

[Sgt.Waffles]

BRAVO! This was just what i was looking for. As an avid fisherman, i am always needing to melt down lead to reuse to use in my jig and sinker molds. This is definatly my favorite.

[Lemon]

love this instructable and all but there is an easier way to do this. instead of constructing a duct out of sheet metal, just use a vaccum cleaner tube thing, and like t3hr4v3n said use a hairdryer as the blower.

[KoolKat]

awesome!

[Arrgh406]

i think it is better to use propane for several reasons 1. cleaner (no soot or residue from charcoal) 2. easier to use during winter (who sells charcoal during the winter!?) 3. burns hotter (i have melted and cast brass from my furnace) for more information on propane burners, search Ron Reil on google. follow his instructions and you can make a great burner

[nzlee34]

you can only do so much with the metal crucibles, if you contine this it is definitely worth getting yourself a good clay-graphite/silicon carbide one (http://www.budgetcastingsupply.com/). I have been doing this now for about a year (see www.nzlee34.googlepages.com) and have found that a vaccum motor for the pump and bricks stacked together with sand for insulation works the best.

[solidification]

one other thing. a metal bucket will radiate a lot of the heat made, out its thin walls. It will act a lot like a heat sink, sucking heat away from where you want it to go. Try building your walls out of a good insulative material. Firebricks (found in fireplace/tile shops) or even cheaper is to go to a lawn and garden store where you will find a huge bag of Vermilculite/ Pumice/sand etc. for a few bucks. you don't even have to cement these things together. you can simply sadwhich it with metal buckets. (the inside one should not be galvanized though ;P . Now when you burn the fuel, heat will still disipate out of the inner bucket, but now the transfer of heat is very low compared to insulating the wall with flowing air. (do not use a clay pot for either wall. while it will withstand the heat chemically, it will fracture mechanically when it cools down. and by fracture, I mean pop apart, spilling the insulator everywhere.

[solidification]

You might try upgrading out of Galvanized materials. The common term galvanized means a piece of metal coated with Zinc through the galvanic process. Zinc is a very bad thing to heat in air, as it quickly reacts with oxygen to form zinc oxide. Zinc oxide fumes are pretty bad to breathe or have collecting on your body/eyes/clothes etc. The zinc that is not exposed to oxygen, will either run into your steel can walls and embrittle them (they will eventually fall apart, probably at the worst time) or it will diffuse into your metal that is being melted. (which isnt so bad, as it will lower the melting point, allowing greater superheat and probably improve fluidity a little. But that is another game.

[papa-g]

There is also a great set of short books on doing home castings at
http://www.lindsaybks.com/ The set I got (10 years ago) covered building larger 5 gallon pail versions and a whole host of casting techniques. I am always amazed at the number of people who discover casting.

[t3hr4v3n]

Cool! I remember once doing somethinlg like this with some fire brick, a hairdyer and a hole in the ground, But this looks a lot more portable... Sweet!

[guerroloco]

Here are a bunch of home casting & foundry links:

Homemade bronze furnace made w/ silica bricks: http://pacificcoast.net/~kerslake/BronzeSite/Studio/MetalCastingFurnace.html

Propane burner:
http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/oliverburner1.html

Sandcasting AL & brass: http://www.host33.com/casting/

Excellent lost wax casting guide/demo: http://www.anvilfire.com/iForge/tutor/vi_copper_c1/top_index.htm

Homemade furnace out of a 5-gallon cookpot and castable refractory, uses the "Ron Reil" propane burner described above: http://www.incolor.com/bill_r/fun_with_molten_metal.htm

Budget Casting Supply (sells castable refractory & crucibles, tongs, etc.): http://www.budgetcastingsupply.com -- I've never ordered from them, though

Make your own castable refractory out of perlite & furnace see-ment: http://www.john-wasser.com/NEMES/MakeICR.html

And finally, for the real thrill seekers, melting metals in a microwave:
http://home.c2i.net/metaphor/mvpage.html

[fjr122]

Wait a minute. Guerroloco.... Lawn mower motors are made from pot metal?! I thought they were made of aluminum! A lawn mower flywheel was gonna be the next thing I was planning to melt.... Btw Bowakowa, your welcome :]

[guerroloco]

Lawnmower engine blocks (but not the piston, flywheel, etc) are generally made of pot metal. I don't know if all of them are, & maybe newer engines are AL..... You could probably find out easily by grabbing a cooling fin with a pliers and trying to break it off. If it breaks easily, leaving a granular-looking surface, it's pot metal. Moving parts would NOT be made of pot metal, as it's too brittle. Wear eye protection when swinging that sledge hammer!

[Jack Daniels]

to make a mold get some of that sculpting foam or closed cell foam like POLYSTYRENE (easist to shape and sculpt also holds it's shape best) make your prototype then get a wooden box and fill it about 1/4 full with sand any grade will work but the finer it is the less you have to sand (pun not intended) after words place your protyotype in and fill the res of the way with sand making sure to keep a hole to poor the alumium into poor chill and remove there you go instant part

[fjr122]

Sorry to double comment my own article....but today I found the link to the cnc cutter I mentioned yesterday...

http://www.buildyouridea.com/cnc/hblb/phase5/phase5.html

His lost foam casting process has phenomenal results.
And also found the place where I got inspired for my machine (I had lost this link..)

http://www.gizmology.net/furnace.htm

[Fireinthedisco]

now we can pretend we're in fuedal japan and make swords! woo ninjas

[TheCheese9921]

Ninjas Pown pirates

[TheCheese9921]

lol

[fjr122]

Yeah, if only I had a cnc Hot wire foam cutter ....

http://www.theworkshop.ca/casting/casting.htm

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=lost+foam+casting&btnG=Search

[adaminc]

I was thinking about your learning to cast, and I recalled seeing an episode of "How Its Made" which had a process called Lost Wax Casting, they would make a positive mould of whatever they wanted out of this orange wax, then cover it with plaster/ceramics with an extra drain hole on the bottom, then they would fire the ceramics to cure it which would also melt all the wax out, then before they poured in the brass they would heat up the ceramic a bit so it wouldnt shatter from the heat, you could try something like this.

[Bobv]

My friends and I did a thing like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JyAlDZf5G0
Unfortunately the stainless steel cans don't last long and we lost lots of aluminum when they just fell apart, we moved on to a large 5 gallon can and a plumber's lead pot for the crucible.

[mikiex]

You could us a vac that has a blow.. add a metal tube to the bottom of the furnace.. then attach the vac - if too strong, just don't connect the pipes fully. Also improve your furnace performance and how many times you can use it before it disintergrates, by lining it with fireclay/furnace cement and perlite Be interested to see your results of casting something :)

[bowakowa]

I feel compelled to say thank you.

[rmd6502]

That's really cool! One thing I would caution people about is when melting metal, be careful about breathing vapors. Make sure you're well ventilated!!

[fjr122]

I ran that blower at 5 volts and its really just a light breeze, if I pumped 12 volts into it, it would blow out the can and the charcoal and everything. That blower is super strong at 12volts. So, it will work with alot less than I expected. Certainly any automotive blower would do it.

[austin]

this looks awesome how strong roughly does the blower you used blow?