Melting Aluminium. Who needs a crucible 

The neighbours are saying Nothing to worry about, it’s only Ian cooking again 🤔😂

There's plenty of successful, incident-free melting & casting channels on RU-vid. It's refreshing to watch an incident-packed, not-so-successful adventure! You have found your niche Ian! 😉👌🤣

hmmm why you even bother to clean up that alu what was stucked to burner ??? it would propably just drip off with next melt ... cheers EUN

Hey Ian. My new crucible developed a hole with my 2nd copper ingot pour. At least I got 1 nice paperweight. Now if the cricible is cracked put it in a plastic Grocery bag and throw it down. It should break. And theres always the ohmer.

I had the same thing happen years ago, let it cool and took it out in a few pieces, I now use a old Co2 extinguisher with a thick 5mm wall for melting large amounts of aluminium. The reason your crucible cracked is probably because you didn't temper it before use, or you let it cool down to fast outside of the furnace. Graphite dust can be used in steel molds to avoid copper or copper based alloys to fuse to the steel.

hi buddy still not seen you use the lathe just think if you sell me the lathe and tooling it came with you could buy a nice new foundry and crucible just saying lol

Wow you made a mess there lol you should of tempered the crusiful before using

Would have been more tragic if it was a crucible full of copper ?

Well that did not last very long lovely pile of copper though 👍👍👍👍

That nasty smell is probably the plastic liner from inside the cans

Glad I know not to use stainless steel as a crucible now. Every days a school day

I wonder if the Vevo folks are having second thoughts about this relationship 🤣 Don't worry about the smell, I'm sure it's not of any danger to your health 😲😲 My list of what NOT TO DO when I start melting is growing...thank you 😆

It pains me to say it but if you could source out some thick enough fire extinguishers good enough for one or two pours and then discard them you could convert this over to a full time foundry channel. Bad luck on that stainless one.

Thats what you call making scrap in d shed 😂 Guess you know what doesn't work now so it should all be plain sailing from here on in😮

Also you can crush up the crucible to make graphite powder , powder sprinkled on the moulds helps release the cast as it sometimes sticks. I also notice that the fire extinguisher, if you drill two hold about an inch down on either side u can use a length of bar with a bend to lift out Eisner like a tent peg but longer two foot using another bar with a loop the same size as the extinguisher to tilt when pouring the metal.

Pure entertainment at the expense of your anguish 🥴 Keep going, you will get better at casting. 👍😀

Only you could do that Ian 😂😂. Maybe you should have just bought a new one 😂😂😂

Fire extinguisher casing too thin, try a casing from a compressor motor.

Would a copper band around a cracked crucible work for aluminium, cut out a burner hole in copper?

im surprised that burned through so quick. you must be running it a bit hot. hopefully you eventually figure out cans are not worth it lol. cheers. never a dull moment.

Hi mate. I don't know if you did this but with graphite crucibles I always leave them to cool down inside the furnace once I have finished. I have found even with thick steel fire extinguishers melting Ali. You don't want to try to get more than 2 pours from them. To be honest your are better of with a graphite crucible, just temper it before first use and let it cool down as slowly as possible.

Omg lol don’t use the crucible again,I use extinguishers but they normally last a bit longer than that perhaps you had the gas flow to high normally 1 bar will do, and you always need to keep an eye out on the bottom for leeks. Fire bricks when u talked apart a boiler then use the fire bricks from that you can normally cut them to size. You should have just heated the furnace up again and put it on a tilt to let the alley flow the other way. I do like your moulds did you make them. It’s all a learning curve..

cast iron would work for a crucible

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Ian as my favourite channel I feel bad telling/ asking you what to do. I’ve worked in a foundry the whole of my adult life. Please just ask for some advice. Because by heck you’ve bollocksed. Your casting all up

Good job you got it for free

oops. I suspect the acrid smell is toxic. You can use thick walled steel fire extinguishers as crucibles but it does need to be thick.

Idea: The cylinder is likely failing right where the flame from the burner is directly hitting it so possibly wrapping and welding it with some thicker steel would disperse the heat and let you get through the pour. Perhaps even putting a second fire extinguisher around the first one like a tight jacket. Can't wait to see the progress next!

Hi Ian, I have seen folk use a deflector on end of burner, spreads flame round crucible 🤷‍♂️ probs slower melt but saves hot spots on crucible. Also back in day we used to use cast iron guttering under a bommy of old pallets and alley cable. Worked a treat.

I don't know if it would work but you could try putting a large jubilee clip around the crucible to keep it compressed.

Well, I just got mine in the mail and I wonder if I have made a mistake

Not being quicker using a electric heat gun to melt from the lid

what bigstackD Casting watches for entertainment.