90% copper and 10% aluminium Sanded with 60 - 2000 grit and a lick of metal polish.

Hi everyone! I'm looking for training programs that cover metal foundry techniques, with a focus on aluminum casting. My company make racing motorcycle parts like cylinder heads. My boss wants me to learn about gravity casting, permanent mold casting, and designing both the parts and gating systems to help us move away from costly CNC-machined billet parts.

My company will cover flights and training fees, and my boss especially interested in programs in China or Taiwan because of the number of foundries there. But I'm having trouble finding relevant courses, maybe because I'm not using the right keywords. I also worry that the training might not be available in English.

If they are any recommend training programs or resources that match these criteria, especially with an English option, It would be amazing if the program includes a visit to an operational foundry for hands-on experience. Thank you in advance!

A while back my AC unit locked up.

Instead of paying to have it hauled off, I scrapped it -> https://imgur.com/gallery/8UnspNd

Well, i discovered melting loose shreddings is a slow, and wasteful process.

This week, i built a pneumatic press for fun, and decided to press the aluminum into small pucks, easily loaded into my forge.

https://imgur.com/gallery/0CRnXCI

That is 5 gallons of loose material.. pressed into a handful of cans.

Will be quite a bit easier to melt.

https://imgur.com/a/UvtCICp

Hello!

Which investment caster do you suggest in Mexico? I want to cast consumer goods in 304 stainless steel in volumes of 900-3600 parts per year. I would love to find a caster that also does polishing and if not too much to ask, laser welding.

Thanks for your thoughts!

Ok well it's my first time melting anything. And i have a bunch of key shavings from work as a locksmith. I tried melting them down and all I got was a white powder and green flames, (both of which I googled and im pretty sure I understand) but also the brass never melted. It constantly felt like a powder, maybe a sludge but I'd hesitate to eve cannot it that. I know im pretty sure I over heated it, so that may mean something. Any information I need?

Howdy. Ive been getting into smelting, casting and metal recycling. Eventually I want to work my way into knife and jewelry creation. I recently acquired a Devil Furnace and have been acquiring tools, casts, crucibles and protective equipment.

I'm building an outdoor work area and have been considering a bordered sandbox area for the smelting/casting. The law states I have to have it minimum of 50 ft from my home, which I'm doing, no issues. Any recommendations on this? I'd love to see what some people have done for work areas, containment and ventilation etc.

I was hoping some people can point me in the right direction for good info, maybe some channels or forums for learning about metal compositions, tips for beginners on things like reduction agents, fluxes and safety etc.

Thanks so much! 👍

I’ve been trying to locate someone who can make custom shaped iron molds for Ice Popsicles. I have an upcoming business project and I’m searching for someone who can develop the mold, thanks in advance!

Looking for tips on a platinum furnace - I read to avoid acetylene as a heating source as the carbon can degrade the quality of your platinum.

An electric arc furnace isn’t really an option, I don’t have access to 240v or a high amperage service near my workspace.

And propane won’t cut it for platinum, so does anyone have tips on how to heat a foundry hot enough for high temp metals like platinum?

Totally new to metal melting but always wanted to try and went ahead and bought a 12kg Vevor gas forge.

I’ve watched a few videos and made sure to rigidize with spray and waiting and then today fired it up for the first time.

I used the line pressure control to bring the gas pressure to 5psi, and put a piece of newspaper with a bit of flame and then slowly opened the gas line and it started up decently.

However I noticed a sputtering sound, the combustion wasn’t smooth, I wasn’t sure if there’s too much/too little propane or oxygen or too low or too high pressure.

I played around with psi, dropping it to 2.5 seeing if this led to better mixing and on and on.

Then after reducing the pressure I tried to see if more or less propane would even out the combustion.

I guess I dropped the fuel too much and some gas built up inside the furnace and a flame of 6” shot up through the hole with the cover on. Like a quick flash. It’s the same thing as leaving the burner on a bbq grill on for too long.

Besides the sound that made me think there was improper combustion, I also smelled the typical smell of gas they put into the tank which made be think okay, the gas is not burning completely. That’s why I decided to see if I could mess around with the settings.

I’m not sure if these kind of things happen or since it’s Chinese that is not functioning as it should. Honestly don’t trust myself and don’t want to light it up again.

What if the flame travels back up the pipe into the tank?

Should I just stick to electric?

Hello!

First post here, I like what I see!

I have come across a variety of combination casting machines such as Kayacast and the Vevor (Amazon) equivalent. I am wondering - do these machines replace the need for a foundry / smelting furnace when melting 24k and alloying it into other gold carats, or melting lower gold carats and alloying upwards, or any silver related purposes, in regards to actually melting the precious metal?

I have heard mixed things and don't fully understand the machines properties; I get the vacuum aspect but does it have an area to melt metal as well, and for small scale projects like rings and such would this eliminate the need for an actual furnace? I bought an electric melting furnace a week ago or so and have not used it yet, and would much rather return it and just get one of these machines or a handheld melter if that would work, and save the cash, as I already scored a kiln and I don't even know if I need the kiln, because at this point I have heard a million things...

help me out!

Thank you all!

After grad school, I still have three investment molds left at the now defunct foundry at my alma mater. The wax has long been melted out. I’m hoping for a way to safely transport the molds in my husband’s pickup. One cite said to use packing peanuts on the bottom and all around the mold which is in a box, but that was for a ceramic mold. Has anyone had experience with safely transporting investment molds?

Hello everyone, I am new here and to the hobby. I have been saving copper pieces from renovations for several years now and I finally got a furnace to be able to start melting and I am running into several issues. I will try to give as much details as I can up front and then answer any questions that come up that I missed.

I have a 25kg furnace from Amazon that came with a large 25kg crucible. I have bought 2 other #10 crucibles to use first as they would be smaller and easier to manage starting out. I did temper the crucibles before first use by putting them into the furnace and very slowly heating them for 10 min then crank the heat until they was orange hot then turned off the heat and put a brick on top of the hole in the lid to keep the heat in and let it cool over night.

I do have some old copper pipes and fittings that I knew would produce some dross/slag with their contamination. Most of what I have is clean striped bare wire.

My first issue is when ever I use a steel rod to help poke the melting wire down into the cruicble huge globs of it stick to the rod. I also have a stainless steel spoon for scooping dross off the top and even with preheating the spoon the copper sticks to it horribly making a large ball on the spoon. Is the molten copper not hot enough before I dip the spoon?

The second issue that I am having is it seems like there is always some substance in the bottom that will not melt. I can pour molten copper into my molds but some glowing mass stays in the crucible. What is that? I thought all impurities and slag floats to the top. The best way I can try to describe it is its like if you took a large cup and put crushed ice in it and added water, then all the ice would freeze together in the bottom of the cup. When you pour the water out the ice would allow the free flowing water to come out but the ice "chunk" would stay stuck in the bottom of the cup. I am still able to pour the molten copper out into molds even with the mysterious glowing chunk at the bottom so I know I am getting enough heat from my furnace.

I have tried using borax but that seems to be more of a mess than its worth and would rather not use it if I can get away with it. So far I have burnt through two 20# propane cylinders and melted about 60# of copper into bars but it is very frustrating dealing with what ever is left over in the bottom of the crucible. The only way I have been able to removed it is get it red hot and bang my crucible upside down on a block which damages the crucible.

I havent noticed much dross coming off the top either, only if I add borax which is a pain to get all of it out since every time I stick something in to clean it off I end up with a ball of copper on it.

I do have around 80# of brass I would like to melt but I am trying to get the last 30# of copper melted first and figure out what is going wrong.

Also wanted to note I have taken one of my ingots and milled it down on all sides to expose the insides to look for any holes, marks, inclusions, issues, ect. It appears to be solid copper with impurities in it so that is good.

Any help or ideas to try would be greatly appreciated.

https://preview.redd.it/f3o1tlpa0czd1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ff5acc362c3be3596dd264e38011850516cd8ba3

Last year, I tried a lab where students melted and mixed small amounts of zinc, aluminum, and tin to make alloys. We are in Pittsburgh, the steel city, and I’ve really enjoyed being able to connect chemistry to the history of our city. We all know the mall and the neighborhood built on slag heaps and it was cool to see slag in real life haha.

We did this in very small crucibles over a Bunsen burner. I’d like to be able to cast the alloys into small, uniform shapes. By controlling that variable, we can better compare the properties of our alloys. I am looking for a mold that is small (less than 10 mL), inexpensive, durable, simple to use. While I understand the chemistry of metals. I don’t have much practical knowledge about metalsmithing. I don’t know what materials molds can be made of or what I should buy.

Some other things I’m wondering about:

I’ve read that aluminum can splatter if it contacts moisture, so I may omit that metal in the future. It’s also at the upper limit of what we can melt with our Bunsen burners. Bismuth has a low melting point. Is there any reason to not use bismuth?

I am using fairly cheap glazed ceramic crucibles, but this lab absolutely destroys them. I watched a youtube video and tried heating borax to build up additional glaze, but it made no difference. Would you reuse the metal-coated crucibles the next school year, or just consider these crucibles disposable?

Hi.. I'm planning to make a foundry with the playing sand and Plaster of Paris mixture, because those are the available around me, the thing is I couldn’t find Plaster of Paris but I found “Anti-humid France Gypsum” are they the same? If not, can I use regular gypsum?

Hello. I’m planning to smelt zinc soon for a project. I’d prefer something denser and softer, but lead is too toxic, and bismuth and tin are too expensive. Is there anything I can add to the zinc to make a denser and/or softer alloy?

Do we have to clean the metals that we melt? what if it has paint on it?

I want to get into scrap or metal melting and start collecting scrap but I have so many questions like what metals do i melt?

how do I know if it’s a certain metal or not? what if it has paint?

do i just leave the small stuff like nuts and bolts and not do them?

What about different types of the same metal like steel or stainless steel or what even about alloy are they all considered the same?

What kind of a forge do I get?

Does anyone have a guide or a video that could help guide me

So I have a butane torch (the attachment to the cannister). It's said to be able to reach 1300C, but I can't even melt zinc at 419C.

I'm attempting to melt zinc first in my graphite mold (crucible is otw shipping) as proof of concept before attempting copper and aluminum, but not really able to prove it works.

Could it be that butane just isn't cut out for it, and I gotta switch to propane instead? If so then why does the packaging and online show that it can reach 1300C? :/

Looking to melt down soda cans and copper wire from remodel. Thought this would be a fun hobby to pick up. Any Smelting for Dummies guides out there? I’ve just been watching YouTube videos, but any suggestions on where to start would be much appreciated.

I have buckets of pot metal from work and brass, are there useful things that I could cast out of this that are practical for use. I have been thinking of making fishing weights with the pot metal

Hello. I would like to build a mini metal foundry for my backyard science projects. I plan on melting aluminum cans into ingots for further use, however, because the paint and the inner plastic liner burn, they produce black smoke, and I have a huge concern about that. I live in Ukraine, and I'm afraid that the black smoke may mistakenly trigger the emergency response services to arrive thinking it may be a fire from some sort of missile/drone debris or anything. Is there any way, I could like, filter out the smoke or minimize it?

So in my class I have a final project where I have to create something using manufacturing processes. I chose to create a bronze spearhead. I have not cast anything before and also haven’t created bronze before. I am currently 3D printing a spearhead to use as my mold. Any tips would be wonderful especially,

What ratio of metal to use to make a spear and how to measure that since I assume different densities?

Anything to keep in mind when casting to create a quality spearhead.

Thanks!