Casting aluminum ladles - GIF

[Altair]

Casting aluminum ladles.




Previously:

Casting aluminum ladles - GIF
Ladle making tips - video
Japanese sauce ladle - GIF
Third world spoon manufacturing - video
Spin casting a metal part - GIF

[nova_robotics]

What's the black stuff on the inside? Cast iron with lumpy refractory on the outside? Carbon? Some other magic?

[Frank S]

In melting any aluminum if you had a way to slowly stir the liquid near the bottom and inject pure Argon not only will this help to reduce the oxides but will cause the hydrogen molecules to be absorbed in the Argon bubbles and rise to the surface where it can be removed with the draff. This will aid in degassing by removing the hydrogen and other impurities, also will help to reduce porosity and shrinkage of castings.

[nova_robotics]

This will aid in degassing by removing the hydrogen and other impurities, also will help to reduce porosity and shrinkage of castings.

That's a good point. If I ever get some motivation I might try putting a hose and a quick connect on my kiln. It would be interesting to try, at least. But I also don't know what I'm doing. I've never cast metal before. Watched plenty of Youtube videos on the subject. Kinda like reading a book on how to swim.

[Frank S]

That's a good point. If I ever get some motivation I might try putting a hose and a quick connect on my kiln. It would be interesting to try, at least. But I also don't know what I'm doing. I've never cast metal before. Watched plenty of Youtube videos on the subject. Kinda like reading a book on how to swim.

Here is the rub. the Argon needs to bubble up from the bottom of the crucible or cauldron at a slow pace. One thing you can do is to use a tube made from just about any metal which will not sluff off anything at the melting temperatures of Aluminum. If you have a way to slowly stir the molten aluminum so much the better as the bubbles from the argon will be distributed more evenly and will absorb more of the hydrogen molecules as they rise to the surface.
So there is your challenge stir the pot inject Argon and not bubble molten metal all over the place. If you have a cauldron capable of say a 40 lb melt a rotating stir tube with vanes on the bottom with a high temp rotary swivel at the top to blow the argon through you should be golden The RPMs might need to be varied between 150 and 250 or so this all depends on the depth and the amount of metal being melted. The Argon flow and the amount of time required to achieve bets results Just think of it as stirring very hot paint you can dip out the amount of metal for your pour with ladles or if a crucible use tongs to lift it out and pour.
The biggest factor here is I can't stress this enough since for most things I don't wear much of it that is PPE and be safe never put your face or any other part of your body directly over the molten metal use every safety precaution you know and even those you don't know. Also water is explosive in any molten metal

[odd one]

What ever it is it seems to be doing a pretty slick job. Looked like a nice surface finish. If it was cast iron, I would imagine the molds needing to be preheated.

[nova_robotics]

What ever it is it seems to be doing a pretty slick job. Looked like a nice surface finish. If it was cast iron, I would imagine the molds needing to be preheated.

It's a beauty. And it seals really well too. No flash at the seam between the two dies. I have piles and piles of aluminum chips and would love to try my hand at aluminum casting. And this guy seems to be doing it right.

[hemmjo]

It's a beauty. And it seals really well too. No flash at the seam between the two dies. I have piles and piles of aluminum chips and would love to try my hand at aluminum casting. And this guy seems to be doing it right.

I have not had much success recovering much usable material from aluminum chips. My furnace is electric.(Electric Crucible Furnace Update) My crucible, a 9" piece of 4" Sch 40 steel pipe with a steel bottom welded on. a It holds about 9 pounds of melted alum with out spilling all over. I tried reclaiming about 20 pounds of chips. I began by packing the pipe with as much of the chips as I could pound in. During the melt there was a lot of "smoke" or fumes, I am guessing from residual cutting fluids etc. I should add, the chips were mostly from machining castings from pops cans. I only get about 6-7 pounds of ingots from 10 pounds or cans.

I was expecting the chips to fall as they melted, but they did not move much at all. Using my stir rod, 3/8" rebar. I poked at the chips, they were just a spongy mass. It did shrink a little and I added more. I got very little liquid aluminum from what I tried to melt. The process, as I tried it, was not successful at all.

I am thinking the thin chips were mostly oxidized aluminum from the heat of machining which I am unable to convert to usable casting allow.

[desbromilow]

wasn't there a link between aluminium cookware and parkinsons found about 30 years ago?

[phred]

the link was debunked when they discovered the brain matter being investigated was stored in aluminium containers.