I Was Confused When He Melted Old Soda Cans. But The End Result Is An Unexpected Surprise!
Using a mini metal foundry and charcoal briquettes you can make aluminum cans into little metal muffins. Insert a crucible, which you can make out of a steel fire extinguisher, on top of five charcoals in the foundry. This will ensure the cans melt quickly. Then place a one inch steel pipe into the air supply hole on the foundry.
To get the fire hot enough to melt cans attach a hair dryer with couplings to a PVC pipe and the steel tube. Support the blower to keep the angle into the foundry. This will keep the walls from cracking and extend the life of the unit.
Fill the foundry with charcoal around the crucible and light the coals most efficiently with a propane blow torch. Once the coals are burning, set the hair dryer to the low setting and cover the foundry with a cover made with a can sized hole in the center.
After ten minutes, the fire should be hot enough. The crucible will be glowing orange and over 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. Use steel tongs to remove the cover and place cans into the crucible and watch them liquefy in just seconds. If you crush the cans first to insert them through cover, less metal will be oxidized. It will take 38-45 cans to make 1 pound of melted aluminum.
Once the container is full, carefully remove it with steel tongs. Slowly pour the liquid into a steel mold. The gunk in the container will stay behind and act as a strainer to let just the liquid through.
You can use non stick pans to make small metal ingots but be informed that the non stick will burn off in flames during the first use. Once the liquid is poured out, tip the container over and tap it onto a cement slab to remove leftovers. As long as the crucible stays clean, it can be used right away.
The aluminum will be hard after a minute or two but it is still hot enough to ignite paper on contact. At this point you can pick up the aluminum with tongs and cool it in a bucket of water. The water will instantly boil, but after about ten seconds the aluminum should be safe to touch. When you want to make something, melt some ingots for 5-10 minutes in a hot, clean crucible.
Bury your mold of choice in a five gallon bucket of sand with the opening of the mold uncovered. Pour the molten aluminum into your mold, which will likely burn in flames depending on what it’s made out of. Let the apparatus cool for ten minutes and pick up the aluminum with channel locks to see what you’ve created!
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