My Homemade Foundry

May not look like much but that hunk of welded metal can be used to melt aluminum cans. My dad found the parts which are:
-an exhaust lid with handle(made from miscellaneous metal)
-2handles (which are made from thinly sliced rail)
-2 rotors from a large truck (comprising the chamber
-at least 3 short pieces of miscellaneous metal for the legs (to hold the chamber off the ground)

The lid can be lifted to reveal the opening in the top half, through which you can add more aluminum to the crucible (the container holding the molten metal). The large handles are used to remove the top half, exposing the chamber and showing removal of crucible or adding of fuel.
What is used as fuel? Ordinary charcoal and an ordinary blow drier. You might say, isn't the charcoal going to fall out of the opening in the bottom half of the chamber? No because we welded a flat steel plate with only a few holes drilled to keep the ash out. We then welded on a threaded piece of steel and screwed on a a small elbow and a long pipe to that (the latter not down in picture). This is the feeder pipe for blow drier. When you duct tape it on and set it even to low speed, this air is enough to get the charcoal to high enough temperature to melt aluminum, which melts at 1221° F or 660° C.
It is important that your crucible doesn't melt or fail because then all your liquid metal will spill into the ash and possible out of your foundry, which can be very dangerous.
Here's one foundry I had that failed due to the crucible inside it failing. The refractory lining on the bottom was not thick enough and the outside (made from a tin bucket) melted.

That is why you should always use steel. Its melting point is too high to even be bothered with and crucibles made out of it can take several sessions before becoming too rusty and hazardous due to risk of failing. Sawed-open fire extinguishers make good crucibles as well as MAP gas/propane torch tanks. If using fire extinguishers, check them with a magnet before using! Some are made from aluminum! If so, add to the scrap pile.

Collecting the scrap is actually easier than figuring out what to do with the pure metal. I like making sculptures using moulds I make myself. Here is an aluminum goddess:

I advise practicing on a small scale with easier metals to work with first. However, these metals are slightly more uncommon.

Lead (Pb)
-melts at 621° F or 327.5° C (melts with a MAP or propane torch)
-heavy, soft metal that turns dull quickly
-found in shot gun slugs or old wheel weights on cars at junk yards (If you're lucky like me and happen to find a bucket full of shotgun ammo in a bucket under some train tracks, be very careful when opening the slugs and removing the pellets; the primer is very volatile)

Zinc (Zn)
-melts at 787° F or 419.5° C (requires a slightly more efficient heating strategy, such as a stove)
-obtainable from toy cars, pennies made after 1982 (97.5% zinc content), and these plants:

https://steemit.com/gaming/@proto26/my-futuristic-dream-garden-in-space
#nomanssky
These are small faces I've made out of lead.

Fat Baby

Jesus Christ

Darth Maul

St. Joseph

Those I made with dough moulds but soon I'm going to try plaster moulds of wax forms.

I will make future posts about the foundry and post more original pictures of it later when I fire it up one day. Thanks for reading! Any suggestions on what to cast?