Foundry

Intro: Foundry

this is my small foundry i have made for melting aluminium cans

STEP 1: The Parts

its made from Metal bucket some stainless steel bar, a metal pipe, a coffie pot, and a 25KG bag of 1400°C Castable Refractory, and a couple of bolts to.

STEP 2:

i filled the metal bucket with the 1400°C Castable Refractory and then pushed the plastic plant pot into it to make the shape. i then waited 24 hours for it to dry. once dried i removed the plastic pot. then i drilled the hole for the metal pipe.

STEP 3:

the pipe is connected to a small hair dryer i got from a charity shop; it works fine for this. then i made the melting pot from a stainless steel coffle pot, i drilled 2 holes for the bolts; welded a small washer on the bottom for pouring. as you can see it works great as i melted some cans down then poured it into a cake tin, waited for it to cool and i finally have an aluminium ingot.

Comments

[gkeys409]

I made a bucket foundry for soda cans... couldn't get it hot enough the first time around using only charcoal so I added a copper line into the air feed and dripped used cooking oil after the coals/bucket got it hot... the oil fuel worked well... I made 6 Al biscuits. The cans I get from my beer drinking neighbors, used cooking oil accquired off of craigslist, life is good! The most expensive part was the plumbers brass valve on the bucket ! Gonna'make some art now ! THANKS ! ! !

[Nunwithgun]

Im very interested in making my own foundry. Ive never poured aluminum. But i want to make a hatchet/axe handle out of recycled pop cans. Main concern of mine is if its going to be strong enough. Any suggestions?

[Donutlou]

nice, what is your heat source?

[Evilhunterr]

i use coal

[frankmci]

I was going to say, "Wow, that's a powerful hairdryer!"

[ironsmiter]

charcoal works almost as well. you could even burn wood chunks, though you would need to refuel more often. even a propane powered weedburner, though you might need a partial cover for the propane.

[Jobar007]

You need to be careful when using charcoal for fuel. A lot of the briquettes use sulfur to reduce the ignition temperature of the briquette. That sulphur gets gasified and gets into your molten aluminum, making it brittle. Use only hardwood lump charcoal if you are going to use charcoal.

[Evilhunterr]

i did build a cover but it went a bit wrong the coal does the job and im not a fan of using propane i am building a charcoal maker too so i dont have to buy the stuff

im building a bigger foundry at the mo so i will post that up when its finished also i have a forge i built coming soon

[ironsmiter]

Sorry, that comment was aimed at Donutlou, but I seemed to have missed.

The cover is really only needed for the propane. The physics are a bit wonky, but burning gas just doesn't "hold on to the heat" as well as solid fuels. The lid helps mitigate that issue.