Picture Log

The melting point of steel is 1370 degrees Celsius

The melting point of brass is 940 degrees Celsius

And the melting point of aluminum 660 degrees Celsius

The foundry we made was crude and did not get to the temperature needed to melt brass so on Sunday we had to melt aluminum instead in order to at least get a metal cast.

Our spent brass from the gun range

Our first lid for the foundry started to fail and cracked all the way through but we kept it going in hope that the brass would start to melt.

The foundry lid broke into 5 different places and the brass started to melt but it was too late. We tried to pour out the melted metal and all that came out was slag and it ruined the mold. Gabe had to make another mold.  We decided to go with a peace symbol hand because the classic circle style is hard to pour.

Gabe putting a soda can into the crucible for melting. 

We had to put the cans face up because the vapors could have made the can blow up if there was no escape hole.  The cans took seconds to melt.  We had to scoop the slag with the tongs.

The new lid and some beautiful molten aluminum. The key to getting the foundry hot enough was to seal the air so that no heat could escape from  the foundry. We hooked up a blow dryer to a pipe at the bottom of the foundry so that the charcoal could get airflow because fire needs oxygen.

This was the second version of the peace sign we made as the first one had failed.  We did not pour the molten aluminum fast enough and the sand collapsed in on the mold.  The second time there was some failure at the base of the hand, the sand collapsed, but the main model survived.
We put the finished model in a bucket of water, then we took a grill cleaning wire brush to scrape off the sand.  This is the finished aluminum model.


The main thing we learned was that in order to melt something as hard to melt as brass, the foundry must be more professional.  Also if you do the things that you imagine and dream of doing, it is so rewarding.  I've wanted to do something like this for a long time, and once I actually did it, I felt so good about myself.