Aluminum Foundry

Description

This is my first attempt at an aluminum foundry. The outside body was made from a disposable helium tank. I used a 50/50 mix of sand and plaster of paris as a refractory mix to line the inside and the lid. I have no idea how well it will hold up, but according to some forums, it should've already broke...

Components

1 × Disposable helium tank The type found at party stores for filling balloons

1 × Bag of Plaster of Paris

1 × Bag of play sand

Project Logs

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First Firing
Trent Wainwright • 01/21/2015 at 16:35 • 0 comments

I tried melting some aluminum for the first time. It was a success! sort of.... First, I couldn't get it up to temperature. I burned through a whole tank of propane to figure out that my naturally aspirated burner wasn't pulling enough oxygen in... Out of desperation, I got my wife's hairdryer and propped it up to where it was blowing air down the burner pipe. This was a huge improvement! The aluminum became molten within 5 minutes, and I started feeding the rest of the scrap I had into it. But I guess it was working too good, because it burned a hole through my makeshift stainless steel crucible... I was alerted to this after hearing a bubbling noise that erupted as the molten aluminum engulfed the end of my burner... So for next time, I will get a better crucible and start off with a forced air setup.

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Discussions

morganxaf wrote 09/19/2022 at 14:54

The oxygen issue is very important to solve if you want to burn it properly so you can take help from the https://www.jihua-alu.com/product type of platforms if you find any related article about it on this platform then it will become more easier for you.

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MasterOfNull wrote 03/01/2016 at 19:33

If you burned through your stainless, you either had an oxygen rich environment, or you could have started to make 'thermite'. :) I would avoid using steel as your crucible for AL.

It is highly unlikely you 'melted' the stainless with AL backing it up. You burned through by having too much oxygen available. An automotive oxygen sensor may give you a clue as to how much O2 you have left over. They work like a thermocouple and output a small voltage (after reaching operating temperature of several hundred degrees) For cars, that ideal voltage is 0.5v. Put one in your exhaust stream exiting the foundry. I don't think it would last too long in the flame.

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Trent Wainwright wrote 04/04/2016 at 15:44

I may have to give that a try. Thanks Daren!

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Aluminum Foundry

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