So I'm wanting to build a small metal foundry to melt down aluminum cans, but I want to expand to shit like iron and steel eventually so I can start getting into forging.
what would be an ideal material to use as a resilient crucible?
You may ask your question again on /diy/ my friend
>>30156044
Aluminium fumes give you alstimers
>>30156081
good thing asltimers isn't a real thing
>>30156044
>an ideal material to use as a resilient crucible?
ceramic, they are pretty cheap.
>>30156081
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/26/health/alzheimers-disease-infection.html
too early to say
>>30156044
Just lookup "great leap forward backyard furnace"
unless you're using that foundry to cast your own bullets then go to >>>/diy/
>>30156044
Graphite is fine for things up to iron and steel depending on how high quality you get but crucible steels are going to need a hell of a lot more horsepower, I'm talking custom nozzles and oxy boosted setups or a shit ton of money or time sunk into an electric set up and that's not talking about the safety equipment needed to not wreak your shit or the calculations needed to find out if your crucible steel is worth more than scrap iron.
Just buy steel.
>>30156044
Why would you want your material to be able to absorb a large amount of energy through deformation from impacts ?
I think the word you're looking for is refractory.
>>30156547
Nay sayers
>>30156044
Alright OP here's what you do. Watch a movie with an old timey type smithy with a below and shit and you just copy it and plan on getting that sweet fucking black Smith body that they model cologne after. You fucking got this.
>>30156577
What you are describing is forging and it is faster and vastly easier compared to creating crucible steels. Though you could make a rough steel with a technique like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTlmrAh1oHI (skip to around 18:45) but it'll take a LONG time and you won't really be able to tell what you've made after.
>>30156547
he probably wants to be able to make shitty castings for small repair jobs, it would be pretty damn handy sometimes.
>>30156328
Aren't those the POS furnaces the Chinese commies used to try and make steel, but they didn't work so they just melted down all the good steel they had at hand so that they could meet communist party quotas?
>>30156081
>What are respirators
It's like you don't know hardware stores exist.
>>30159855
That was mostly because said chinks were just dumbass rice farmers who knew dick all about metallurgy (rather unsurprisingly) The backyard furnaces from china's traditional iron mining areas turned out decently good steel.
That said, there was pretty much no attempt to educate the rice farmers because of mao's commie "lol peasants can do anything they set their mind to just give them time to figure it out, power to the people!" shtick
>>30156091
I think he meant oldtimer's.
>>30160131
It is called Alzheimer's disease
>>30160184
thanks for ruining the joke.
dealing with solid state materials is going to be a lot easier than melting. Just start with forging instead of a foundry.
>>30156563
pls explain
steel needs 1500 degrees more to melt, compared to aluminum. you aren't going to get that on a steel bucket and plaster forge.
I suggest you build a a proper forge from fire brick and fire cement. Then call it an oven or a grill to justify it to your wife.
You need to put in piping so an electric leafblower can pump air into it.
cans suck as feed stock. you're a nigger, go steal some rims.
>>30156044
I've tried that exact setup.
The fucking cans never melt uniformly. More like pancakes and flakey.
Half the time the steal crucible crumbiles away.
What am I doing wrong?
>>30156044
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEc5Jak9jsg
You may want to check out this video for smelting Aluminum. Super cheap and easy.
Here is it being done with a welder for the heat instead of propane.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQpGePlPSos
