Foundry guys...can I use aluminum cans?

I wouldn't use them for anything heavy duty, just decorative stuff. Thought I'd give sandcasting a try with all the good info on here. Also would be a good way to combine two of my favorite activities, drinking beer and metal working. Not at the same time though.

 

Technically... yes. Would I do it personally? Only if that's all I had access to on a prison island populated by hungry canibal rapists and I needed to forge a means of escape. You enter a whole new level of needing ventilation and respirators just for the crap on the cans.

 

I would think it would work fine... but I'm no aluminum casting authority!

 

you'll have better luck smelting items that had already been cast before, there are some great sites out there to get you started sand casting check out http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/

to answer your question, yes you could but it will most likely have poor results

 

In shop class, we used broken up tractor pistons. Seemed to work well, and we got them for free.

 

You'll probably wind up with more slag than usable aluminum plus the fumes from the coating on the cans will give you cancer as soon as that night! You'll be better off using old pistons.

 

around here an aluminum can is worth 5 cents to return, so returning my cans and then using the money to buy scrap wheels from an auto wrecker is a better deal.

 

a friend who does sand casting uses old aluminum transmission cases , he seems to get good results

 

You can, but as other have said, you get a lot of slag. Also it takes A LOT of can's to get an appriciable amount of aluminum. If you do it, the resulting cast pieces are very shiney but not strong. Need alloys for stronger stuff, again as others suggested already.

 

old Volkswagen pistons

 

Sounds like the cans are best taken to the recycler.

 

Cans also usually have some sort of moisture in them, you really dont want the droplets of water or beer expanding and exploding on you either.

 

We casted using cans once (because we were drunk and it sounded like a good idea at the time) and the aluminum is such a poor grade/alloy that the club plaques we casted with it were noticible poorer quality in finish and sound when struck than previous pours using busted up aluminum wheels (wheelium) and intake manifolds (edelbrockium).

Don't do it!!

 

Wheelium and edelbrockium...two prescious metals!

 

pistons is the good answer

 

We tried them in shop class, they kinda burned up and floated out of the crucible as ash.

 

Tecnically yes but I wouldn't I work in foundry use old pistons or old motorcycle cases anything that has been cast before aluminum has alot of gas so bring it up to temp and puor it don't worry if there is any steel studs etc these will sink to bottom and remember water any liquid makes hott metal explode be careful and if working with silica quit set sand wear a mask deadly stuffing also wear one when melting

 

I was thinkin the same thing because i figured on making club plaques too, but everyone had to drink there plaque aluminum in coors cans first... doesnt sound like such a good idea now.

 

Cans are very thin, the ink on the outside and the lacquer have a thickness almost equal to the metal. You'll end up with a lot of dross from the coatings, it'd take quite a few cans to make anything useable... also, you'd need to off gas it with chlorine to remove any impurities in the metal (probably why the one fellow who said he tried it ended up with a dark casting).

BTW, the metal in aluminum cans is VERY high grade, purer aluminum than you'll find in most other products. The process of making a can dictates that it be a very malleable alloy.

AND, if you were so inclined (and a bit crazy) you could scrape the ink off the can and the lacquer from the inside, and eat it all day long with no ill effects. All materials used in the production of aluminum cans is safe for human consumption (that said, I wouldn't breathe the smoke, it's probably carcinogenic, but so is smoked salmon...)

Just out of curiousity, what do you guys who say that aluminum cans can't be remelted think they do with all those cans they collect from recycling?

Oh, I'm not a casting expert, but I did work in a Sodaberg dry anode aluminum smelter. I did everything from alumina reduction cell babysitting, molten metal transfer, primary and secondary emission, all the way to vertical drop wet casting. After I was laid off I went to school and became an electrician and went to work in a facility that made aluminum cans for a large number of different companies, both soda and beer.

 

Too much dross, trying to melt cans on a small scale.

 

Some years ago I was at El Mirage with Dave MacDonald, Lionel Pitts, (monster block late Firebird) Gary Williams (454 Monza) and Jerry Szuter (With me and my HAMB friendly 29 roadster) I had an iron dipper that I put in our campfire and asked all to put their used beer cans in the dipper. In the morning I had a dipper full of good clean aluminum with some ash on top. I took it home and drilled and tapped it and it seemed fine to me. Never tried casting anything out of it. I did use that method to fill the heat riser passage in several Chrysler heads.

 

Aluminum cans are made from 3003 sheet aluminum, so if you want to make a REALLY lightweight body, ....go to it !

 

The tops (ends) are made from K182. I wish I had some pictures from the plant I was in, it resembles a Rube Goldberg machine, the way the things are stamped, drawn over a punch, washed, inked, lacquered, necked, and then palletized.

 

There's really good you-tubes on the "hows its made" shows that shows can making.

 

Take 20 minutes and melt a bunch and see what you think. Remember Smokey once said "1 good experiment beats 1000 expert opinions." I dont use them because i can get more scrap aluminum than i need given too me. I use old pistons to cast new pistons. Otherwise old intake manifolds which are easily found are my source. I cut them up in my table saw and then melt them into ingots (Mufffins in muffin tins. ) for later use skimming the dross off at this point so they will be purer or cleaner
Don

 

huh....i'll have to drink a beer & think about this one ...... Play safe.. No.

 

The junk yards are full of aluminum

these new cars have control arms made out of the stuff, and some complete under carriage assemblies for suspension, could be a good source for a lot of aluminum

yes?

 

Years ago, when I worked for APGreen Refractories, Mexico, MO, I helped install a furnace lining at Alcoa's Can Rec. Plant, Alcoa, TN.

The pile of used beverage containers was like 1/2 a city block and 40 feet tall. they used a dozer to stack the old cans.

Anyway, they fed them through big rotary kiln de-laquering furnace to burn the coatings off them, but not to oxidize them.

Then they were fed into a "Toilet" at the back of the furnace in a molten metal trough sucked down under the molten aluminum just like flushing a toilet.

They also drizzled in some sort of what looked like fertilizer pellets that I figure were flux material.

I'm not sure now, but I think the aluminum was like 4 feet deep in the furnace at full charge and it was bigger than a two car garage!

My Boss and I were there for a week working 16 hour day's!
pdq67

 

No! It's a low grade alum. and will probably vaporize before it melts to a usable liquid. I have noticed the same with metal chips from machining.

 

Despite what is above, actual experience over conjecture will win out every time. As I said I have done it and it can be done. That is not to say it should be done. Dolmetsch has had much more experience than I but we both came to the conclusion that there are lots easier sources for aluminum. Old pistons or plenty of cast aluminum on junk metric engines. Lots quicker way to go.