General Categories > Non Gun Stuff
Aluminum melting
unfy:
This looks to be just straight PoP... and it didn't work at all heh.
There's a few other furnaces that use PoP/sand on youtube.
There was a PoP mold brass video thing as well.... uhhhhh.... I don't have the link handy at the moment. Anyway, melts the brass in a furnace and them pours into what looks like pure PoP 'bowl' (that is, bowl shaped). As you would expect, the mold cracked. No leaks or anything too dangerous looking - but in all fairness, that's an abusive thermal shock.
Mali:
--- Quote from: unfy on September 23, 2015, 12:11:52 PM ---There was a PoP mold brass video thing as well.... uhhhhh.... I don't have the link handy at the moment. Anyway, melts the brass in a furnace and them pours into what looks like pure PoP 'bowl' (that is, bowl shaped). As you would expect, the mold cracked. No leaks or anything too dangerous looking - but in all fairness, that's an abusive thermal shock.
--- End quote ---
This video?
So much time to just prove that you should burn out the moisture first. :D
unfy:
--- Quote from: Mali on September 23, 2015, 01:04:49 PM ---This video?
So much time to just prove that you should burn out the moisture first. :D
--- End quote ---
That's the video :D
I dunno if the point was to show that it needed to be baked, or if just to show it can be done. The description feels ambiguous in that regard.
I'd prolly suggest just green sand or petrobond anyway. It's reusable etc :D.
Hoping the weather clears up, wanna continue the slow bake of furnace. Coworker may or may not have me some crucibles made from exhaust pipe, too.
unfy:
No real update yet... rain etc.
Been continuing to slow fire the thing today for the last few hours.
Took lid off to add more charcoal, figure'd I'd take a picture of the moisture ring left over after lifting the lid back up.
I should be attempting another melt this weekend.
unfy:
Did 3 pours today.
Was heating fourth and crucible failed.
This crucible was some exhaust pipe with some flat stock / plate welded on the bottom. I do not have any before / after pictures of the crucible as of yet.
The first two pours were from 50 and 52 cans respectively. I got 0.85 pounds of aluminum out of each (so 1.70 pounds of aluminum from 100 cans).
This is far worse than what other people were getting. I suspect that I'm need to run things hotter so that I lose less when cleaning off the dross / slag.
I have noted that crushed cans appear to be worse for this set up. Uncrushed cans go in much cleaner and easier, etc.
In the two pics below, I have a little rock or something holding up one side of the lid. With some charcoal under the crucible, the 1" of clearance between the lid and the crucible disappears, so I needed some room for exhaust.
The pours are ugly. The holes for the U shaped grabber is great, but having an easier / better way to tilt the thing would be great. Also, by the time I was 1/3rd way through the pour, things were getting hot, so started to rush / panic a bit. I do have solutions for both of these.
I recommend after each pour to dump the charcoal and dust out of the furnace and then replace the big chunks of charcoal and cover with new stuff. All of the ash will eventually compact and just make cold areas etc due to no circulation. Also, the amount of ash flying into the crucible will become unacceptable.
The plaster/sand refactory is very spider webbed after 5 hours of melting stuff. There's also gonna be a glob of aluminum in the bottom of the fire chamber heh. But, it has held up surprisingly well.
I'm gonna go cast a bunch of bullets now - will possibly add more thoughts later tonight or something.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version