backyard aluminum casting

I have started casting aluminum parts. Mostly skulls, I did make a couple of clutch levers for my bikes. Is any one else into backyard metal casting?

I recon I will start things off with some pics of my first melt. I made a small furnice that used charcoal as fuel. and melted a bunch of cans. (dont melt your old beer cans) It just isnt worth it.

lets see some more pics.

Ditto! Tell us more! Why not beer cans? Easier to just drop in a roll of aluminum foil?

BigIrish said:

Ditto! Tell us more! Why not beer cans? Easier to just drop in a roll of aluminum foil?

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Way to many impurities in the cans. I get my aluminum from work. Mostly old water pumps, aluminum wheels, heads and stuff like that.

I have a whole whack of info on the subject, just haven't tried anything yet, way to many projects on the go to start another one. Green cast, sand cast, (much the same), Lost wax, foam, investment, (another group that is the same or similar,) and a whole lot of how to stuff. I likely have a book that covers just about every part of the subject on a beginner/amateur scale. Even picked up a set of shrink rulers for making molds. Someday I'll get to it and actually produce something. My pile of aluminum keeps growing in the mean time. The question on why not cans? They are so thin that they oxidize and turn into dross instead of liquid metal when they get fed into the melt at a slow rate. But even worse, any trace of liquid remaining in the can will cause a steam explosion and splatter molten metal everywhere, not good at any time. I'd like to find someone locally that is into this, and see first hand what it's about. Books are great, but hands on is where you really learn.

Show us some of your molds and cast pieces. Old screendoor extrusions would be ok right?Lots of those around for cheap.

i have always been told that the beer/coke cans are best, but have never tried to melt them. i do know that the cans pay more then wheels and other things. we used to do some work for alcan in ga. years ago and the cans is all they used. i have thought about doing this so i'll keep reading this thread.

Using the charcoal for fuel is a pain. So I built a waist oil burner. This is it during r&d. It is the setup I am still using. Waist oil is free!

This is an example of lost foam casting. First you carve / shape the foam and attach runners for the aluminum to flow through. Then you burry it in the sand (use the finest sand you can find) with the runners sticking out. then melt your aluminum and pour it into the runner sticking out of the sand. The aluminum burns the foam away and fills the void at the same time.

The deal with the cans is to much waste when you melt it you can still see paint from the label. And when you clean off the dross (paint) it takes some aluminum with it. The other thing is its extruded so it a different aluminum. Using the stuff Sofa talks about is cast aluminum and that’s what you are going to do with it too. It would take many cans to equal the amount of aluminum that a water pump housing yields

Sofa have you tried to coat the foam with plaster it is said that the cast part is much smoother with a plaster housing.

Have fun
Tom
P.S. check out these sites
http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/hmkithelp.html
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/casting_metals/index8.html

That looks pretty cool,I like those skulls even in their as cast form,so now I have to give this a try,possibilities are endless.

That's what I like about this forum. You guys get me thinking of the possabilities.

It takes about 30 aluminum cans to make 1 pound of aluminum. As mentioned, when melting, any liquid remaining will make a mess or pop, much like water in hot oil. Aluminum wheels or extruded window frames are a different alloy than cast aluminum pieces like water pumps, intake manifolds etc, and will likely have a slightly different melting temp than each other. They are also typically more expensive to buy than cast aluminum. I personally find water pumps more difficult to process (disassemble) than intake manifolds, front covers, valve covers, bellhousings and tailshaft housings, and they don't weigh as much once stripped down. Cylinder heads have the most weight, but they also have a lot of parts to remove, and have the valve seats and guides in them that are a pain to remove.

LRR

Sofa have you tried to coat the foam with plaster it is said that the cast part is much smoother with a plaster housing.

No I have not tried that yet. I am getting ready to try lost wax casting. I got some silicone rubber from www.brickintheyard.com now I need to make a rubber mold with it so I can make a wax part. Then you coat the wax part in plaster.
Then after that dries you stick it in the oven upside down / with a pan under it to catch the wax so it can be re used. After all that you can pour in the aluminum.

I made inverted clutch levers using the green sand method. I don't have pics of the mold but I will post the pics I do have.

hay longroof and jester it sounds like you have done this before. Lets see some picks of stuff you have done.[cl

cast aluminum stuff

Attached is a belt sander/grinder I built years ago. I cast the bearing housings and belt wheels. Also is the first page of the construction plans that were published in a machinist mag.
A picture of a dash gauge panel for a woodie I built long time ago too.
have fun
Tom

sofa king said:

hay longroof and jester it sounds like you have done this before. Lets see some picks of stuff you have done.[cl

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Sorry to say I haven't done any of this, but it is interesting. My 2 cents worth was from a little bit of recycling experience.
LRR

I know "Berkelusa" AKA Rob in NH has done some casting in aluminum...Funny I think he did skulls too. I do casting of a different sort. I do resin casting & yes they are skulls too. Skulls are popular.