Very Simple Aluminum Furnace 

Al melts @ 1220 F. Good job. I did this once, with my Dad's brand new grill and a shop vac/blower. Bad idea, since the grill was made of thick cast aluminum. Not only did I blast furnace a hole in the back of the grill, I set the back yard on fire to boot. However, it did guide me towards a career. I have been a firefighter now for 28 years. I fixed Dad's grill with a piece of metal road sign and some self-tapping screws. He was still awful pissed off at me though. There is just no pleasing some guys. Cheers from Texas.

Very cool crystals on the aluminum. I really like your videos. I hate all the people worried about safety... Just a bunch of unadventurous people scared of their own shadow!

I've just gotten interested into melting metals and making ingots and a lot of the videos I've seen have made it look really hard. This video on the other hand, made it look very easy and actually possible, so thanks!

Amazing - never thought about it with the amount of cans we use at my house. Thanks I am going to give this a try!

Nice try ;) I've worked in aluminium casting industry, it's pretty fun^^. For safety, I strongly recommend to dry the cans before melting them. a single drop of liquid in the crucible can make it explode (it happens at my work once in a 40 tons furnace, over 6 months of maintenance stop for the furnace, the loading machine and some equiments around. 14 years after the accident, you can see some marks on the walls and the ceiling of the foundry, but fortunately no one had been injured).

In my experience if you sorta skim off that slag periodically you get a better ingot at the end, I used a steel spoon for that. However, that stuff is protecting the rest of the molten metal from oxidation, so leave a layer on there until it's time to pour. Fortunately it floats. I NEVER do this because I HATE safety dinks, but brother, you gotta wear some shoes. Sometimes it pops and little (or not so little) bits of molten aluminum go flying, and if that hits bare skin you'll be very unhappy. And sometimes you dont see where the drops land, and then you step on them in the grass, and well, it hurts. Ask me how I know this.

This the best RU-vid video. Who would of thought something this simple could cause a riot, must be all the positive energy. Keep up the good work.

For just slapping some things around the house ya have, it worked surprisingly well, I love things like this where its barebones but effective for some experimentation

If you use the metal tubing and the silicone hoses and hose clamps from a front mount inter-cooler setup for a turbo car as the pipping it will be a lot more secured to the hair dryer, and a lot more reliable. Other than that good idea, it seems to work really well. As for what shoes to wear, Mack Boots are awesome, and I've had the pair I'm wearing now since 2008. They still have plenty of rubber grip left, nearly like new actually, and I did security in them for 5 years. They breath very good, and I never get sweaty white spots on my feet from them, but as soon as I wear cheap sneakers for a day it's another story. I love my Mack Boots. Totally worth the $140au I paid for them.

How the hell did i get here?

Glad I found your video! I am doing the same thing, just a little different setup. What got my attention was the camping cup. I wasn't sure it would be thick enough but bought it anyway just to try. I know now it will work. Thanks for sharing!!

Well done capturing this first experiment on video and achieving some melt. I love how every back yard melter invents a slightly different setup based on what's lying around😁. I've been using an air mattress inflater with limited success, I need a hair dryer!

Nice work. You should mention that aluminium melts at 660.3°C or 1220.54°F

Wife- Honey what happened to my hair dryer. Husband- nooooothing

every time we go camping (every once or twice a year) i get all the soda cans in a pile and feed em one by one into a steel soup can and when it cools i usually find that its just a stack of crushed cans that can be pulled apart with a tiny bit of melting going on at the very bottom, I'm thinking about taking an air mattress pump and a steel pipe and feeding it some air, bellows would be way cooler and wouldn't need batteries or be loud as shit, lol I'm the type of guy who will hand make my own bellows out of whatever, car tires and stuff, that should get that camp fire aluminum ingot i wanted all along

Im with you lot, I'm so making one of these on the weekend!!

Also be careful with the fumes. Aluminum Oxide is not something you want getting into your lungs! That, plus the other unknown fumes from the surface of the can - paint, plastic, etc. Also, try this with copper and see if you can get an ingot. I suggest getting strands of wire from any nearby construction project. Cheers!

I have been looking into metal smelting for some time now, and your video has helped me out a lot. Even giving safety tips and precautions (like shoes). Also have you considered cast iron cup in place of steel?

As you said at the end, I really enjoyed your video throughout. Thank you very much.

3:14 his laugh made me smile...lol..great video sir.👍🏿 will try it out myself

Dink enough soda cans, and make enough ingots, and you got yourself a house made of tin. The world's financial crisis is solved!

03:13 His happy Evil Genius laugh... Lmao...

Thanks so much for the help I went and bought every thing I needed for this design and made it then I went to the local school dumpster and food a TON of cans so far I have about 8oz of aluminum Thanks again bro!!!

By far the best smelting video I've seen and u also said how it was made

If you pour the aluminum while it's still hot you get much more turnout. What you said was slag looks like it's mostly cooled aluminum

When making a fire hot enough to melt aluminum always wear shorts, sleeveless shirt and bare feet. :)

man what a cool video you have here, thanks. As soon as I leave this apartment, Im going to be doing this for sure. Dont worry bout the shoes man, people get to excited over any little thing these days. Take care!

you are so creative by using a hair dryer. AWESOME!!!!!!

Ever since the beginning of the human race, we have been fascinated by fire...

I made something like this at home and it works. computer hard drives melt down well in this setup.

I love the shoe disclaimer/warning in the description :) I like your style.

The laugh is the best. Love the video. I have tried this before and I can tell you it works better than you think. Aluminum has 1221F melting point which you can easily accomplish with oxygen force. Anything above that I think you would need other chemicals to get to higher temps.

me in summer : Im gonna do this me back from summer: What a minute..... i forgot to do something

your feet will heal, if you burn up a good pair of shoes, that's a hunnert bucks. I do everything barefoot

probably the most simplest method I've seen thanks M8

Thanks for telling us about those alloys! I was always wondering what the crap I kept getting from my aluminum was. And you really don't need shoes for this, I think that you'd burn right through them if you touched any of that stuff! Water soaked rags work WAAAY better.

Safety 3rd

Try building a rocket stove out of some cinder blocks and put your charcoal chimney on top of it.You may get enough draft through the rocket stove and you may not need the hair dryer.Or you may be able to eliminate the charcoal chimney altogether and melt the cans right on top of the stove.

I'm amazed that this worked because without any refractory your furnace has zero insulation, most of the heat is probably wasted leaving little of the energy to actually melt the aluminum. As far as safety goes, I'd suggest long handled tongs to keep the heat away from your hands, thick gloves, a full face shield, maybe a welders helmet with a good dark visor to protect your eyes from the glare, and that makes it easy to see how the melt is going on. Perhaps a leather apron (like a blacksmith might use), well you get the idea. Oh, make sure your mold is sitting on dry sand. If any molten metal falls on a wet surface the resulting steam explosion will send hot molten metal flying, that's when that leather apron will come in handy!

this worked great! going to practice a little more but I was able to make almost a full muffin. stopped though cause I started late so it started getting too cold to do it outside. thanks for the great post.

You should cover the top of the device. It will melt your aluminum faster by trapping heat.

3:13 the can spat on you for putting it there!!

Cool looking glob. A shorter extension cord with larger gauge conductors might also be helpful to compliment the hairdryer's cord length so your blower stays efficient. Maybe weigh the glob to see what the net weight is per the gross amount of cans?

Great test of the low cost, simple concept. I’d like to do some smelting and casting for machining.

don't forget to inhale this stuff.. aluminium particles is really really good for the brain

goo job

Hey man. I love how simple your thinking. Spot on with the hair dryer. heres a vid that I used to make this Furnace last longer :) Blacksmithing Part 18 Making a Brake Drum Forge

This is a great video. Along with melting metals (which is always fun), it reminds me that I still need to get chemical glassware for home use. Anyway, I noticed that you seem to have aluminum oxide (or remnants of the alloy, I'm not sure which) and am curious if you've tried a Hall-Héraolt cell to purify the sample.

4:30 - but you forgot to spray the the cookie sheet with Pam!

when i was doing this i messed up and had my tongs touch my elbow and left a pretty cool burn mark

Next time I would suggest having two furnaces. One for meltdown, the other for the mould. After each melt, I'd suggest transferring the molten aluminum into the 2nd preheated mould furnace held at a higher temperature so that it will stay molten. I was aircraft metals tech in the Air Force. One thing I can say is that what happened to those cans is a reaction called eutectic melting. Basically, 90% of applicable aluminum is an alloy called copper aluminide, or AlCu. The aluminum is trapped inside a matrix of copper which is what gives it its strength. Kind of like microscopic honeycombs or a cobweb. Now what you're seeing when you quenched it is an uneven and rapid cool down. If you insulate the 2nd furnace with firebricks somehow, you'll get better results with the finished metal, especially if you can control the cooling more gradually by turning down the air supply for several minutes. It won't be perfect but it'll be better. By quenching the aluminum, the copper and aluminum rapidly trap in place. The copper has a lower melting point than the aluminum, so if you cool it gradually, the aluminum will set in and harden and allow the molten copper to re-matrix, and you'll end up with a better, more consistent product throughout. Happy moulding!

to reduce slag, add common table salt. I found that it reduces the slag tremendously. I am about to rebuild my furnace ( old 20# LP Gas tank, past its last fillable date) with 1-inch thick fiber fire blanket (2600F) from amazon cost $7.00. cannot wait to start casting stuff ... and who care what people say about YOUR SAFETY. its YOUR SAFETY not theirs !!! you want to wear shorts, or be nakid so be its YOUR FREEDOM to do so !!! OOH RAH !!!! Your idea of the hair dryer is pretty good, I will have to add that to my rig! (thank you for the idea)

I like the cobbled together nature of your little foundry. Screw the safety Nazi's, i get them all the time. the reality is the safest thing you can do is NOTHING at all. Your feet, your choice. keep up the good work!!

Ah, molten aluminum. Perfect for pouring into ant nests.

We had a charcoal grill with aluminum grates. I did a cookout. When I was done I closed the lid on the grill and left it. The next morning there were chunks of melted aluminum under and the in the grill. The grates were gone. I didn't intend to melt them. I don't remember how the wind acted during the night. I'm sure it played a roll in the melting of the grates.

This is the simplest melting video I have seen that worked

imagine how much aluminum foil is in land fills.

Lol i was just about to comment "Man you should really have worn shoes" but then I noticed OP will delete shoe related comments

very nice :) my furnace has an inflatable bed pump instead, using a solar panel as well as the power source- it doesnt work as well as yours though as mine takes way longer to melt aluminum, great video!

That giggle was worth watching the video alone.

You have the crystals because you didn't remove all the slag.

nuuuuuuuuuh not the mtn dew m8

As kids, we had many regular campfires into which we'd toss our soda cans and watch them melt. We always thought that was super cool.

i find it hilarious that this man has been looking for comments about shoes and deleting them for almost a decade

I donno if anyone has said this yet but you really need to wear a filter mask when doing this aluminum fumes are very toxic I know this because I am a welder and I have worked with aluminum for years. Go to a hardware shop and ask for a mask that is raited for aluminum welding.

I think it would work much better if you used a ceramic crucible and it fit closer to the size of the opening so not as much heat got past the crucible

BTW I had heard of this ton in the back pages of popular mechanics... using an old furnace blower. You should be able to score one at a thrift store like axman surplus (rheem has speed control on some of theirs). Squirrel cage fans are also in some air conditioners which would be all over and less power than the furnace but probably more than the hair dryer.

One thing i can suggest is changing your setup so that your blower goes into the side of the can instead of the bottom. That way if your crucible fails you wont have bits of molten aluminium spraying into the air. Its also a lot less messy, i used to have mine set up like that and there would be flakes of wood and other stuff flying everywhere.

I'm not sayin' wear shoes next time, but.........wear f*ckin shoes next time!

The hair dryer was free!? Good find :)

I can't believe the PVC elbow didn't burn up more! I love it. Simple.

I used my garden blower and a metal pipe to put air into an old potbelly stove. Worked well.

how much mounten dew do you drink man

Why not just crush the cans first. One at a time placed in to gradually soften and collapse, seems inefficient.

Hi, Well done, terrific job! Just one thing, Is there a way you could perhaps run a gas torch along a row of tins before putting them in to melt. If my guess is correct, and I am not at a certain on that, the slag will be pretty much the plastic printed film on the outside, if you can raise a bubble on it before you melt it you may be able to tear it off easily. I don’t know because I do not drink any canned stuff so can’t try this. It would give a pretty slag-less mix though and if you are trying to judge it by volume it would make things easier.

Thanks for the simplicity. keep it up.

you should have had a lot more aluminum, keep the fire going longer next time

just curious, what would be the purpose of doing this? thanks.

I like it, even without your shoes. very easy and rewarding, thanks

Neat! I tried this but in the center of a very hot bonfire. Got it hot enough to melt, but not hot enough to pour. Relatedly, I think by turning the hair dryer off and letting it cool while you talked, you lost some molten aluminum in the process. I don’t think everything left in there was slag. I think you’d have had more of an I got if you’d kept the blower blowing WHILE you pulled the cup out and poured it

I weld barefoot in my shorts. No problem that keeps you safer anyway. Lol.

put a full can in!

I'm glad to see you sharing your knowledge on how to make hotter fire, etc.. I'd highly recommend some PPE in the future. A face shield, an apron, and at the very least- boots. Mama don't cook bacon naked for a reason.

nice and simple experiment, good results! I want to try it...

brah get some shoes nah just joking good video keep it up subscribed ;)

Shouldn't that be done in a low-oxygen enviroment to prevent it from being turned into aluminumoxide? Aluminum oxidizes really easily, but when in a solid state, it will form a protective layer on top of the pure aluminum and the oxidisation will stop. Because of aluminums low melting temperature, pure aluminum is the most enviromentally friendly material of those used widespreadly, but because stripping oxygen from aluminum takes a shitload of power (about 10 times more than remelting), remelting should be done in a big facility where the conditions are controlled. :)

You have a spiral firewall, my mind went nuts for a moment :)

Love your approachable style bro.

The plastic gloves you are wearing are a bad idea is is the idea of no shoes. If you splash aluminum on those gloves, they will melt and stick to your hands, causing a much more severe burn than if you had no gloves on. You should stick to all leather gloves for handling aluminum. No shoes is probably better than laced up shoes. Metal down the laces can really burn you because you cannot get the shoe off easily. You will get a better yield on you aluminum if you crush the cans first. The method you are using exposes the surface to the air as it melts and allows it to oxidize. Crushed cans will allow you to put several cans in at the same time. A top on the melt pot would help keep oxygen out. It would be a good idea to use a refractory coating on the steel pot you are melting in. That will stop the aluminum from sticking to the steel and eventually eating a hole through it. Lacking real flux, you can use table salt on top of the metal to slow down oxidation, just skim it back before pouring or use a skimmer and remove it first. The salt is lighter than the metal and will float.

i like burning thing too 0o

I've ordered a hair dryer. I've been trying this for months. I understand your happiness

Hi m8. I was thinking... To produce more heat, try to use coke instead, it will not produce any ashes at all and it will heat about 3-4 times more and longer than charcoal. And to prevent heat loss, see if you can find a conical container to your chimney, and in the top of your chimney cut some "groove's" with an anglegrinder. The idea you used wit the hairdryer is perfect.. :-) Best regards from Denmark.

its a good thing it didnt splash out of there or POP and burned your bare feet. Safty first dude.

Seems you are well protected incase accidents happen

IT WORKED!!!! awsome thanks for sharing it

if you redo the pipe for the hair dryer use some cheap metal piping at the part that connects so the crucible. ive seen people who ducttape a 1 foot section with the elbow to a vacuum cleaner on blow and that works pretty well.

the 2015 ford trucks will be made out of aluminum maby you can melt a ford truck in 2015.

I'm gonna try it naked.

The video itself is awesome. But I think that what it made if better were your giggles xD

that's awsome man! Nice job.