Massive Can Meltdown - How Much Pure Aluminum Is In 500 Cans - Is It Worth Melting Aluminum Cans 

No is absolutely the correct answer. Everyone tries melting cans at least once though, and I never saw anyone get talked out of it. But FWIW I can reduce 3 whole alloy car wheels into crucible friendly sized bits with my wood fired stack melter in an hour or less. That's a lot more melting stock processed in a lot less time with a lot less work, cheaper to buy as scrap than 500 cans of pop, far better for making castings with later since they are made with an alloy that is designed for being made into castings rather than for being made into cans, creates far, far less dross to skim off because cans are all surface area just waiting to burn up before they can melt, and I bet 3 wheels even take up less space to store than all those cans... "Free," yeah, right...

@@tobhomott very well put!

@@TheGrowingStack what size smelter is that? Great video by the way

@@JondroNation Thank you, that one is the Devil-Forge FB2M that has a 10kg max crucible size.

Where I live on the northeast, 517 cans would give me $25.85 at the recycling center. .05¢ deposit return for each can. The fun factor is what would make this hobby worthwhile.

Even molten aluminum oxide slag can be reacted with electricity and a carbon rod to return it back to elemental aluminum from what I recall

Thanks, that's interesting information.!

doesn't recycled aluminium in case of particular applications together with iron/steel components have iron contamination? that makes the aluminium alloy fragile and the mechanical behaviour very bad for some applications, so it's not technically always recyclable. Still, there are so many uses for it that it can be used for something else. I checked my old notes and also it seems that the energy consumption during the recycling process is roughly 90% of what you spend for primary extraction, but you save tons of scrap, MANY tons of water, and a considerable amount of CO2 and SO2.

@@AB-ld1rp so, when aluminum oxide is converted back into elemental aluminum, addition of other elements to precipitate iron with crystalization and filtration. By doing this, whether or not it was originally alloyed or became contaminated it can be removed to lower traces. However it still takes a while so you're on the right thought process of it being a bit hectic.

Problem is I get screwed by the recycling places here and it’s not worth the trouble breaking down extruded aluminum windows . I could easily bring in 3 maybe 4 tons of pretty clean aluminum but my shifty local dealer will start dropping the price to 15 cents a pound for a few screws . I want 40-50 at least for my clean. Just not worth it when I have three boys and a wife fighting for my attention

Thank you!!

Yeah that heavy metal bird singing in the beginning was so peaceful. Idiot

F.....u....in silent....

@@mastercheif3071 whats up with your attitude dawg

Hey I love waking up to the sound of the birds singing. On the other hand my friend hates it. Some people like it some people don’t.

Very interesting to hear your insight thank you.

loses

What do you mean by 3% loss No business runs on a loss. Okay I reread your comment again. There is no loss

@@icost4671 There's a loss with you.......

@@hughjaanus6680 no argument there, I'm learning a lot of things here on RU-vid and on a lot of different subjects 🤔

It does

Rather than dishonestly?

Till it splashes on your foot then things change quickly.

Yeah and that stuff can explode concrete if dropped on it

You would have to melt down 106,027 cans to get 1 metric ton of pure aluminum. Today the value would be 2,446.67. That's a lot of time to make so little.

Lol no it's not. Lay off the daily caller and other brainwashing propaganda

@@trolltracker lmaooo we do a little trolling

Lol it’s only worth it if he enjoys doing it. He paid not only his time but also he spent more on propane and materials than all that aluminum is worth

@@RepressedEel55 Even at a 10 year high in price, I think it’s only 60 cents a pound.

@@jzubs Spooner?

Thank you!!

In my state (Oregon, USA) they are worth 10 cents per can now (as of a few years ago they changed from 5 cents each).

My wife keeps harping me to go cash in the bin I have out front... She has no clue about the lawn bags under the house holding 376 lbs...🤫🤣

In finland we get 0.15e per can, but it has to from finland so we cant order from germany and then recycle those. Well we can recycle but the machines wont give any credit

​@@shawnalley3309 Denmark have a some what similar system. But they start from 16 cents(cans and glass bottles below 1 Liter) and goes up to 48 cents(cans and bottles above 1 liter). So the 517 cans would be worth 82.35$

@@jerrylindstrom3323 wow, here in Texas it's .52cents a pound. Our glass,cans,etc, are marked with different prices depending what state it gets recycled in.

Thank you so much. I enjoy doing it so long as it gives others enjoyment. Your comment made me happy and smile and that is all I could ask for...

That’s good that sum1 is watching ur finances then.

He made good money off of the video posting it on you tube so since you and everyone else watched it you did help him..

That's interesting. I had some melted aluminum that I scrapped last year, it was probably aluminum wire that had the insulation melted off. The scrap yard said they could only pay me for dirty aluminum since they can't say what all was melted down. Aluminum is 50 cents per pound right now, and dirty aluminum is 15 cents.

Aluminum can prices always go up and down so I mash mine flat to get more in a trash bag then wait until prices rise before taking them in. I own a full size '88 Chevy van so often had it packed full with bags of cans with each bag weighing around 12 pounds. Think I got 60 cents per pound several years ago when aluminum was in short supply then 32 cents a few years later after the price finally rose from 24 cents per pound. The scrapyards with smelters make more off the cans and other types of aluminum scrap once melted down and cast into ingots.

Imma start doin this since i recycle cans anyways but never for money since its not worth the time (unless ive got a scrap run already) be cool to have a stock pile of aluminum bars for no reason

How so? It's extremely expensive to mill a shape!??

I just whip out the receipts for the LP and acetylene refills when I get the question. It's just fluxing fun.

@@_nom_ No. You spend allot of time on melting, plus the gas for melting this stuff.

A big scrapyard in my town has an aluminum smelter where they melt down different grades of scrap aluminum to cast into ingots then stamped to show their alloy. The owner said the ingots from melted cans are only used to make more cans so are sold to a mill that rolls the sheets the cans are stamped from. The ingots made from melted brake calipers are shipped to a foundry that makes those and the ingots from aluminum wheels are shipped to another plant that makes aluminum wheels. I was considering on making a few cast aluminum oil pans that would hold a spin-on oil filter for old BMW motorcycles so checked with that yard about the price per ingot made from brake calipers to see if those were cheaper than junk yard calipers. The ingots were cheaper but I would still need to cut them into smaller pieces so they'd melt faster.

Cool dude

My friends and I did that too. We melted down fishing weights.

Making lead soldiers is cool, especially the ones which comes out of the moulds missing arms, legs and heads.

The good old days before the world turn all soft and scared. My bedroom growing up probably smelled like an industrial plant between the lead casting, model painting and plastic and rubber molding.

That will change

@Jan - AmiLoGiXx We have something like that also. We pay 10 cents per plastic bottle, glass bottle, or aluminum can... then when we return it to the recycling center for reimbursement they give us about 1 cent. Its part of how they keep all of us slaves.

@Jan - AmiLoGiXx That's interesting. Not that different from how certain things worked in one of the books I wrote. Was not with cans though.

@@gibsondrummer Ya think? Look what we do with water right now, in most areas of the world. I GUARANTEE you that will change, already is in some areas actually. In fact, wars are beginning to be fought over it.

@Jan - AmiLoGiXx And what is the Pfandbon made out of? :-/ Is it at least readily recyclable? I'm just messin with ya, BTW. But many such schemes, when you examine them deeply, like the US govt's subsidizing new car buys for 'environmental' reasons to get 'old polluters' off the road, cause more environmental damage, by cycling out all of those perfectly usable cars given the materials, energy, transportation, etc. required to get the unneeded new ones in service, than was gained getting the old ones off the road. The net gain is a definite loss in the precise area they were trying to address...typical, actually. My guess on that one was some car manufacturer's lobbyist. Also, I always love it when I hear things like "solar energy is free!". That is only at least somewhat true if you are a plant. For us humans, to power our homes, etc. with it requires raw materials, energy, pollutants released, etc to get those collectors manufactured and into our hands, at regular intervals. A good trade, in that case, but not REMOTELY free. And just go price a good solar system for your home, and look at the monetary payback time if you think it's monetarily free. We got a quote from Tesla's company that made me think he's been smoking WAYYYY too much weed. How's 60kish for a house unit sound? I only paid 10k more than that for the whole damned house (not kidding).

Wich you then both emptied at the deck of your yacht, having another great day... yup, absolutely worth it!!!

@@henridejong9433 Unsustainable though. Sorry, couldn't resist.

Ahahahhahaha

just came here from BigStackD lol, brothers from a different mother for sure!

My thoughts exactly

I agree! Thanks for sharing us the video. Amazing. Congratulations. From Rio Brazil. 🇧🇷🇦🇺🇺🇸

Lol

Hahahahahahahaha!!!!

Not this summer, there's been much rain.

Would actually work, on Venus.

😊 oh yeah!!

It's really just playing with fire for grown ups.

Priceless.

Ahhhh, yeah, what he said.

I wonder if my apartment complex would be ok with my getting one of these?

and since it's already refined you get more aluminum out of it too.

Isnt aluminum an alloy?

@@xTr4c3d nope.

There's money to be made in this statement.

@@xTr4c3d Aluminum is a basic element but aluminum cans are an aluminum alloy. They are about 97% aluminum.

Is that good or bad? I ask that honestly and whole heartedly, just want to understand exactly your experience before I replied without going into to much info one way or the other in case I didn’t understand the comment completely. 👍

No question about it, you'd come out better off financially by taking your cans to a metal recycling place.

@@TheGrowingStack ok NOW is it worth it? Given that propane cost is way up and so is metal value

When big stack hit 1 ton

i been watching big stacked too. been liking these vids lately.

Thank you!!!

Lol

To the uninformed buyer. GG no re

😆👍🏻

A: Anthills

@@donniebrown2896 Really?

Most of that is in a state needing massive ammounts of energy to convert to metal 😉

-Littering- **Enrichment**

@@John-rw9bv that's pretty-pretty good

Why?

Thanks Rob 👍

I agree, ppl think I'm crazy but I love this stuff..!!

It's because it's something shiny.

Dios bendiga a Todos los que estan leyendo esto! Deseo que tengan un hermoso dia! Buscad a Dios mientras pueda ser hallado! Jesus es el camino y el unico camino y regresa pronto! Recuerda cuando te sientas que no eres amado... el mayor sacrificio se hizo por amor! EL SUICIDIO NUNCA ES LA RESPUESTA! Porque de tal manera amó Dios al mundo, que ha dado a su Hijo unigénito, para que todo aquel que en él cree, no se pierda, mas tenga vida eterna. S. Juan 3:16 RVR1960 La paga del pecado es muerte (infierno) pero Cristo pagó nuestra deuda en la cruz para nuestra salvacion! Debemos volvernos a Dios y apartarnos de nuestros caminos pecaminosos, confesar que Jesús es el Señor y creer con nuestro corazón que fue resucitado de entre los muertos por Dios, y debemos de ser bautizados en el nombre del Padre, del Hijo y del Espíritu Santo y vivir por Su palabra y mandamientos! Confia que Dios ayudara con el resto! Busca a Dios, antes de que sea muy tarde! Hoy podria ser tu ultimo dia en la tierra! Que tengas un hermoso dia!

Shinyyyy....myyyyy preeeeciiiousss...

Thank Mr Electron for reflecting the light from the conduction band. BTW that slag can be converted to pure aluminum using molten flouride salt and electricity.

Thank you! 👍

Maybe. Maybe not

Agreed.

I hear that!

Thank you Chris! That’s awesome, I appreciate that a lot! 👍

Interesting. And this is stuff that would otherwise have been thrown away?

I tried the drink it rich method now my liver hurts

Always good to have dreams

I have a neighbor that drinks about five 30 packs a week, it takes about 3 to 4 weeks to fill a 55 gal drum. If I wait till I get about three drums, I can make enough to pay for the gas to drive to the scrap yard. Three different people have tried making money by saving his cans, we all gave up, they go in the trash now.

Knew a family of beer drinker. Daily after work then all weekend. Had bags after bags is empty can. Ben of a pick up full. Paid for along more beer. Cha ching. I guess

At least you got them working overtime!

This would be super economical cause those aluminium ingots can now be used for many things and the slag can also be used as well.

@@kurokitsune6173 clearly you've never actually looked at aluminum prices have you! Including time and effort and fuel for the furnace this is a losing proposition he does it for fun not-for-profit!

Sorry Kevin, I’ll showcase the polishing in a upcoming video. I was running heavy on time on this one or I would have. A sidewalk would look pretty cool!

Parquet floor style would look amazing

Same flux as the stain glass bond?

Ice cube test lol

Lead also......

As a former aluminium foundry worker, I can personally confirm this to be true

Lol...ouch!

Lol

Me to

that is literally impossible... it would have been about 80,000lbs of aluminum.... way way more then would be splattered anywhere. For context.... an 18 wheeler semi truck can only haul 40,000 lbs on the highway legally.... so it would have been 2, semi truck loads.

@@Legohaiden I saw your comment, so for fun I searched RU-vid to see what 80 000 lbs of aluminum looks like. And this was the first video to come up.

@@Legohaiden It's not splattered it builds up on the walls of the furnace over time.

@ Cool.... there was STILL not 80,000 lbs of build up.

When I was little living in Michigan.. We use to make money off the cans.. And use that money to buy all video games..

I'm right over the border in Indiana. I'll be visiting WalMart very soon!

75€ when return cans to grocery in Finland.

...or any place with birds.

@@Thiseffinguyhere neckbeard

Like location makes a difference baha

@@MM-zj8be Sure it does because some states like NY (where I live) you can get a 5 cent deposit per can for returning them to a recycling center. So you could melt those 50 cans into a 1lb bar that is worth less than 1$ or return those 50 cans for $2.50 in deposit refunds

@@NYC-Gardener he mentioned weight not money. 35 pounds weighs the same wether your in arizona boston or africa. Smarten up

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Tp4E2tiD8yU.html

There's, not theirs.