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22 August 2003
A Simple Foundry for Melting Aluminum
Editor's Note: Ralph Coppola had a link to some of this in his most recent Wanderings column, but I thought this was just too cool not to give it some special attention. -SG
Procedure
The shell for the foundry is a festive holiday popcorn tin about 10 inches in diameter and 11 inches tall. This was lined with a layer of castable refractory insulation approximately 2" thick. I used a recipe found here to make my own refractory insulation.
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Click image to enlarge |
The Raw Materials
The first layer of
refractory in the bottom of the foundry body.
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The Blower
The blower was simply an electric blower connected to a hole in the base
of the foundry through a length of steel pipe. A blow-dryer will work
for most foundries of this type.
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Blower as implemented in an earlier foundry experiment using a coffee can as the shell. Click image to enlarge |
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My crucible. Click image to enlarge. |
This crucible is a 6" length of 3" diameter steel pipe with a steel plate welded on one end.
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The foundry fired with charcoal with the cricuble in place and loaded with chunks of scrap aluminum.
Even with the fire inside hot enough to melt aluminum (1200 to 1400 degrees
F) the insulation is effective enough to keep the paint on the outside
of the can intact. In fact, I can touch the outside of the foundry BRIEFLY
with my bare hand without injury.
Results
The first melt poured into simple troughs in the sand.
The resulting ingots were about 8" long.
