Al foundry

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does anyone have a small al foundry?  I have built one but am having some issues and looking for help, with all aspects.
Reply:A guy posted a few weeks back saying they had a foundry and do small jobs to large jobs. Run a search and you'll probably find it. John -  fabricator extraordinaire, car nut!-  bleeding Miller blue! http://www.weldfabzone.com
Reply:This site has lots of links and info:http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/I saved the wiring and burners off a stove I just scrapped, so with some firebrick and a crucible can hopefully melt some aluminum.
Reply:I played around with it for some time, then other interests took over and it was put on the back burner. Is yours electric or gas? Wonder too if you have the gingery 'charcoal foundry' book...- John
Reply:I was using a propane burning setup like I saw on the internet but it was too mickey mouse so i started using my oxy/fuel torch with a rosebud and i want to post a bunch of pics here but I have too many and they are too large to post here but the main problem im having is with my soda can feedstock and the amount of impurities it causes i have pics of it but like i said before too big for this site and I have a piece of 14" schedule 40 pipe with a plate welded into one end and a piece of 3" schedule 40 pipe welded into the side so the torch can go through and it is lined with cement/refractory and the crucible is a piece of 6" schedule 10 with a plate welded into one end with a lifting tab on top and i just use a piece of galvanized sheet to cover the top while the heat is applied but ill find somewhere to post the pics and link it up
Reply:I've read that pop (soda) cans are incredible crap, that they are almost all slag.- John
Reply:hey TiFreak,if you go here http://bluefive.pair.com/ you'll find a free download called PIXresizer.this will let you resize pics for uploading- very simple, and works well.
Reply:Look for things old pistons, cylinder heads, and other high quality castings to use for stock/. I would recommend getting a few of Gingery's books on the subject too. I have a Gingery furnace, built by my dad. It's a super nice little furnace and not difficult to build. Done quite a bit of casting with it, lots of brass and some aluminum. I haven't had much luck with aluminum unless I was melting cast aluminum. Brass is easy to work with and pours nicely too, you should try some for fun.Miller EconotigCutmaster 38Yes ma'am, that IS a screwdriver in my pocket!
Reply:Are you recycling soda cans or trying to make something out of them?
Reply:I just want to make some ingots, nothing fancy, no sand castings or anything and i save all my soda cans and seeing as I drink about 12 cans a day I have a decent amount and im working on the pictures but i forgot to mention that all the pieces are 304L and I welded them with 308H filler on a Miller Syncrowave 250 but anyhow pictures coming soon
Reply:So this is mostly based on my book learnin' and not personal experience - other than tearing down a Subaru engine.  But, I read that old Subaru motors are a good source of aluminum for casting.  The piston sleeves are steel, but the rest of the block and heads are aluminum.  The come out pretty easy and the old 1800cc motors from the 80s are almost light enough to lift without a hoist after they are out of the car.  I paid 40 usd for one.
Reply:thanks hotrodder that program works great and those are just a few i have to pull some more off my camera and these pictures are before I put the refractory material and cut the inlet pipe also you can see the original crucible which was 6" 304L schedule 40 which was toooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo thick and took forever and a day to heat up so that is when i made the other crucible out of 6" schedule 10 and im also working on a skimmer to remove any impurities but until later......... Attached Images
Reply:This is an interesting thread. Please keep the information comming!!
Reply:ok so i made a skimmer at work and here are the pics....also there are some pics of what i could pour (into a cake pan lol), some action shots and the setup and what not, enjoy and let me know what you think Attached Images
Reply:more pics Attached Images