raocow's talkhaus

So I finally fired up my Devil-Forge for the first time today, tempered my graphite-clay crucible, and melted down a couple dozen empty aluminum cans to cast my first ingot!

Not sure if it was just my propane tank freezing up or if it's just super low, but I was only able to get a 17oz/roughly half a kilogram ingot out of it. Left a ton of aluminum slag over for the next time I melt (hopefully soon, depending on how much work there is this week).

Check it out! Australian 50-cent piece for size comparison

out of curiosity, have you made momiji's sword and shield before?

aah⚟ thats super duper neato✧ﾟso you could make like a real gold bar⁇ just from like scrap from stuff that contains real gold❢

im amazed how people can just make stuff⚊it sounds silly but that ways but i really mean it₊˚* really great work🎔

Rockythechao wrote: ↑4 years ago

out of curiosity, have you made momiji's sword and shield before?

Can't say I have! That'd be a super neat project, I'd like to eventually get into blacksmithing too if I can get good enough with just casting and pouring. Blacksmithing is a totally different set of skills I'd like to have, too

I think this might be my largest ingot yet. Think I'm finally getting the hang of this, at least to much more a degree than I had a year ago. Just need to (finally) get some more molds, green sand for casting, crucibles, and better lifting tools and I should be able to make more than just loaves of metal

loaves of metal

please tell me you’re going to get a bread mold

though hopefully not a mold on your bread

Rixithechao wrote: ↑3 years ago

loaves of metal

please tell me you’re going to get a bread mold

though hopefully not a mold on your bread

I could! Though if it were to be an actual loaf size there's no way I could easily cast that considering I'm stretching it with my #8 crucible and 100oz mould already!

...though a 2-burner 2-tank 20kg furnace would be a pretty sweet thing to have. Heck I could melt cast iron with one

Made more ingots this morning. Getting pretty low on aluminum to melt The one on the bottom would be larger but my tank started to freeze over so I could only get so much melted before I had to do a pour My total collection of ingots so far. Not a huge amount, but I'm getting some good practice

So what do you intend to do with the ingots?

thatguyif wrote: ↑3 years ago So what do you intend to do with the ingots?

Hopefully melt 'em down into other things, need to get green sand/petrobond sand casting supplies and maybe a 3D printer for that though. In the meantime it's just nice to have a ton of aluminum cans in a convenient bar form

Despite feeling pretty under the weather today, I went ahead and did something super dangerous! I melted copper and made my first copper ingot using new supplies today. It's surprisingly heavy, weighs probably at least a few pounds. Has a lot of flaws, but I wasn't able to get the copper as hot as I'd have liked. Need to exchange my propane tanks

Made more ingots this morning despite how windy it's been. If anyone's ever wondered what molten copper looks like, I tried to take a photo. A bit tricky to do over an active 2000-degree F furnace

that's pretty fuckin' metal

Those are actually really pretty! I didn't know ingots could look like that :0
Are those first two also copper?

cheez8 wrote: ↑3 years ago Those are actually really pretty! I didn't know ingots could look like that :0
Are those first two also copper?

Yup! Well, probably about 95-98% copper, if I had to guess. Probably still has a bit of impurities (zinc, tin, trace elements of whatever else, plus the borax I used for this melt).

I'm not 100% sure what the dark red areas are, my guess would be impurities or something like that. Since I tried to use borax on this pour, I think it might be responsible for the neat glaze on parts of the ingots.

Might have to sand these down and see if I can get a mirror finish, for that I'll need more tools though

Oh, I haven't updated this in a while.

Made a tin ingot in my oven recently I discovered something new, too. Since I live at a relatively high elevation, I need to use less gas pressure and have the furnace choke open less. Learned that by overheating and over-oxygenating the crap outta these two copper ingots:
With that knowledge in mind, I managed to melt and refine my sterling silver ingot for a 3rd time, and it came out *super* nice this time Also been experimenting with reverse-electroplating silver plated silverware. From a couple dozen pieces managed to refine a tiny drop of pure silver

Awoo wrote: ↑3 years ago overheating and over-oxygenating the crap outta these two copper ingots

I love this thread and your work but these scorched ingots just put me in mind of the infamous Ea-nasir:

BobisOnlyBob wrote: ↑3 years ago that's pretty fuckin' metal

Hahahahah... Metal... Hahah...

This thread is super neat though. I've been rather interested in the topic of metallurgy lately, coincidentally. Are you able to alloy?

Smibbix wrote: ↑3 years ago

BobisOnlyBob wrote: ↑3 years ago that's pretty fuckin' metal

Hahahahah... Metal... Hahah...

This thread is super neat though. I've been rather interested in the topic of metallurgy lately, coincidentally. Are you able to alloy?

Thanks!

I'm sure I could easily alloy things already. Pretty sure I have on accident already, considering my sterling silver bar somehow has zinc in it. (guess that's what I get for using the same crucible for several things)
Went to a local coin shop that has the ability to tell what things are made of and apparently it's about 1-1.5% zinc

Did a ton of melting this weekend
Re-melted my tin stockpile and some new scrap I obtained. Made it into smaller ingots to more easily make bronze with it: more scrap copper, though it's at least partially bronze since I used the same crucible as the tin and there was some left in the borax at the bottom melted a ton of scrap sil-foss brazing rod scrap that I've gathered from my work. They're probably around 10-15% silver, mostly copper and finally around 5 ounces of 91-92% sterling silver

Re-melted the drop of silver I made some time ago Now it's a tiny ingot Also melted more precipitate that I've gathered from the same silver source. It's tiny, but still pretty neat

Awoo wrote: ↑3 years ago Also melted more precipitate that I've gathered from the same silver source. It's tiny, but still pretty neat

If you're not the ingot, you're part of the precipitate (...or something)

This is rad. I have no interest in this stuff but I love seeing it and seeing that you've got a hobby for it. Keep it up

Haven't shared any images in a bit, but I made these last week or so. They're 95+% copper Smaller ingot turned out a bit like Swiss cheese on the bottom, if I had to guess it's because I didn't stir the metal when it was molten Made these this morning from the remains of a bunch of silverware I stripped the silver metal from using reverse electrolysis Fairly certain that it's cupronickel (the same metal alloy that US dimes and quarters are made of). It poured just like copper, thought it was brass until I used a wire wheel to clean them up

Argumentable wrote: ↑3 years ago This is rad. I have no interest in this stuff but I love seeing it and seeing that you've got a hobby for it. Keep it up

Thanks!