Aluminum ingots for the foundry

In this post I will focus on the making of aluminum ingots. The process of making the ingots is very simple all you need is a metal container that will hold the molten metal and will not break under the high temperature. After the aluminum is melted in the crucible and all dross is skimmed off it is ready to be poured into the metal container. I personally don't mix between the aluminum alloys only if they are from the same source of aluminum. I mark every ingot what his origin alloy is from.

As for the ingot container any metal container is good depending how big you want the ingot to be, don't forget it has to be fitted into the crucible.
Big aluminum parts could be broken with a heavy hammer so they will fit into the crucible. Another option is heating the aluminum parts in an open fire until the aluminum is soft enough to be broken easily.

Another very important thing is always work with a dry ingot container and preheat the container before pouring the molten metal to prevent it from "poping" into your face and of course use full body protection gear while handling molten metal. I made a few large ingots using simple tin cans. It is very easy to cut them open in one vertical slice and after just to peal the sides off. Gloves are good to have to prevent cuts from the sharp edges.

Simple example for making a re-usable ingot tray is to weld a few L bars together or just using a tin muffin tray (Not aluminum). It all depends on what size of ingot is desired and how much molten metal is going to be poured into ingots.

Before you know it you will have a pile of aluminum ingots ready for some quality sand casting............ Good luck... and work safe ;-)
First clip pouring round aluminum ingots:
<---Aluminum ingots

Second clip pouring long and slim aluminum ingots:

Casting New Aluminum bell cover

This is another quick project I made for my house. After painting the door last year the bell button looked a bit boring so I decided to make it look a bit more "attractive". The design is very basic and the pattern is made from MDF.
MDF is not great for small patterns but it did the job, the hard part was getting the shape of the bell cover button cavity. So as I did with the aluminum handle pattern (another project) I cut it into 4 parts, that makes it easier to get the mold out without breaking the sand. As for the button I shaped a small part of hard wood. After opening the flask I cut off the sprue and riser, I was lucky there was only a bit of shrinkage on the back of the bell cover because I was a bit short of molten aluminum. Some cleaning a bit of polish and It looks great.

Sand casting Aluminum Key Fob

This is a quick project I made casting aluminum Key fob. I made a small flask and a pattern from MDF. After a bit of metal filing and cleaning it looked really cool. The Key Fob could be carried in the pocket and even be used in case of emergency for self defence or for emergency car window exit ;-). I also combined a bit of paracord for this project the Snake stitch guide can be found in my Paracord Projects blog.

Some late addtion threaded adge to give it more interesting look.

Sand casting aluminum handle

Last week I was walking with my family near a frozen lake, we saw a small dog running into the middle of the lake while chasing ducks then falling straight into the ice cold water in the center of the frozen lake. The dogs owner made the crazy decision to try and walk on the frozen lake to save his dog. I was thinking it would be great if I had a long rope just for emergency for cases like this in my car. Anyway the dog was saved by his owner and I made a decision to place some rope in my car with a strong aluminum handle.
I started by making pattern for my sand casting using 20mm MDF. First I drew the shape of the handle making a few corrections along the way. After the drawing was done I used my drill with a core bit and jig saw to cut the handle shape. I used a wood chisel to shape and round the grabbing part for the fingers. Last I gave it a good sanding and used acrylic paint over it.
After I opened the flask and the mould was ready I removed the pattern and cut it into 4 parts clamping it back to create the inner handle core parts. The reason I cut it is to get good quality sand casting. It is impossible to press the sand out of the pattern without breaking it if the pattern is in one part.
I released the clamps and carefully took the pattern out. Now I have the two inner core parts. I placed them in the correct place in the flask and after close the flask tight with large clamps.

In this casting I tried something new using two tin cans as a sprue and riser extensions. The cans are filled with petrobond and the cavity I made is bigger then the flasks sprue and riser. I was looked after pouring the molten metal and it worked very well. I could see the riser feeding the molten aluminum into the mould, really cool. See picture below of the riser extension.

I cut the sprue and riser with my hack saw and used a metal file to chip off the extra aluminum, then I drilled a hole for the rope and used an electric sander with different sand paper grades. After the sanding part I used fine metal wool for the final polish. To get an even better polish results it could be done with aluminum polishing products and a buffing wheel.
The rope fits very well into the handle hole and the handle is very comfortable for grabbing. The handle is heavy enough to be used as a weight in case it has to be thrown.