I stripped my 50 gal gas water heater of all the Brass, Copper and aluminum and melted it down using my new forge. Amazon link to the forge: amzn.to/38l0gCN
This just popped up in my recommended, nice to find another fellow aspirant metal caster on YT, I love content like this, hope to see you do more, Buttons clicked and bell rung 👍👊
You could re-use some of the parts like the burner for a camp stove or the tank for an air compressor or vacuum suction chamber for sucking out liquids.... reverse intake on compressor for vacuum...
I'm sure you'll document it, but I'd definitely be interested in following your casting experiments. I'm looking into 3d printed wax based resin > lost pla metal casting. Looks fun!
The funny thing about this is that if you had taken down the water heater to the tank, cleaned, etched the tank and coated it, you could have reused it. I think the $500 or so that was spent on the new heater would have been a better gain than the metal you got out of melting it. One thing that HD and Lowes should sell is the inside tanks. You don't need the controls and other things, it's the tank that get rusty. They do this for a reason, they'd rather charge you $500 than $50 for the tank.
You know, that thought didn't occur to me. I have resealed many fuel tanks, but never considered repairing a water heater. A good reseal and anode rod would have probably done the trick. Although, I am not sure what sealant/coating could be used on the inside that would allow it to remain potable
@@AustinCoulson I think PPG makes one. I do automotive body and paint as a hobby and some years ago I was in a PPG wholesaler that sells industrial paint for things like factory floors and stuff like that. They had a kit to paint your bath tub. Given the price of water heaters, I bet you could make a stainless steel version of the tank for less than the cost of the new one.
@@karljay7473 not a compliment. You'd spend thousands of dollars glass lining your homemade replacement tank that would void out any form of insurance protection you'd have using a professionally manufactured one. And there's no way in hell that the cost to make and distribute a modern water heater tank would result in a $50 shelf item. It's just dumb
I've kept meaning to build a cheap smelting forge for ages. Short lengths of larger diameter (4 to 5") aluminium round stock to use on my little lathe is stupidly expensive here in the UK, So I priced up building a cheap forge and realised that if I bought damaged alloy wheels as raw material, the forge would pay for itself through cheaper material costs in just 6 pours. The idea was to use steel coffee cans as single use molds, then either peal the steel skin off with a grinder and pliers, or just turn it off with the lathe (If I can get the thing held tight enough in the chuck to do this). I currently need a 4.5" drive roller for a DIY belt grinder build, but I keep putting off buying the 4x5" diameter round stock because it's price works out as a large percentage of how much a cheap pre made Chinese one would cost, and I'd still rather once and for all put the money toward making a forge. :(
That's not a bad idea. The coffee can should work fine and peel right off, and damaged aluminum wheels are very cheap (at least around here). Good luck!
Now do an experiment, put the bar of 'gold' on the dash in your car and leave it in some parkinglot over night and see how long it takes to be stolen? Obviously with some well hidden cameras in the car so you can show us the result.
I think someone has been watching bigstackD. I've been thinking of getting a furnace for home, just to play around with melting metal. I used to work in a foundry and seen it happen at an industrial level.
You know how you did the hourly rate and cost breakdown for the Ford pickup? Probably best to not do that one for this project. Seriously though, it looks like an interesting project and learning experience.
@@AustinCoulson If you moved across the country for a job, and you're having to supplement your income at this rate, perhaps a conversation with your employer about your salary/hourly wage is necessary.
I did a video a while back where I made a mini ingot with a single can. It was more aluminum than I expected. Not sure how much will fill this mold, but I'll be finding out soon
I'm a new viewer, and you have me a bit confused, why would you expect to get copper out of a gas water heater, as it doesn't use electricity to heat the water. Now an electric water heater I would think has copper coils in it.
neither gas or electric water heaters would have anything but sediment in them, some speciality water heaters would. one example is an indirect fired water heater will.
