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Don't Build a Metal Foundry Until you See This First

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Language: en

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Okay, what's up guys today?
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Today I'm out here with my mini metal foundry because we're celebrating a milestone.
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The video on melting Pop cans has reached over thirteen and a half million views and over one hundred thousand likes.
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Now when I first made the metal foundry
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I had no idea that so many of you would actually be making this
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yourselves and as a result, a lot of you have had questions and concerns and left comments about
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failures and mistakes that have been made and I wanted to update you through this video about some of the personal tips and tricks that
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I started using that may solve those problems for you. The mini metal foundry is made of some very basic materials,
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It's just a steel bucket with a little bit of sand, some plaster of paris and some water to create just enough of an insulating
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layer that you can heat up and melt metals like aluminium, brass and even silver and gold. Okay now some people would like to know
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why did I design the metal foundry out of sand and plaster when I could have used refractory cement,
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kale wool or other higher quality refractory materials like that and the answer is simple, when I designed the metal foundry
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I wanted it to be relatable.
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I wanted most people to be able to go out and buy simple commonly available materials and put together a backyard foundry that would work.
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Now along with that, using cheaper materials means that the system is going to break down a little bit faster. One of the most common
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pieces of feedback I've had from people is that after two or three firings the lid starts to crack and crumble and break and that's
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not just you guys that happens to me as well, but I figured out a cool little trick you can do.
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It'll make it last about 10 times longer and all you need is a little bit of steel wool.
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I went down to the hardware store and found some of the coarsest steel wool
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I could get and when you unravel the bundle you can see it rolls out into long strands of steel
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which is kind of like a metal spiderweb,
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and the idea is to push this down into the plaster and sand mix while it's still wet because this metal mesh will help
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reinforce the sand in the plaster and hold everything together about ten times longer than it would without it. If you want to get even
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more mileage out of your metal foundry then try using stainless steel strands instead of the steel wool.
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You can get stainless steel strands in things like Brillo pads which are gonna be a lot more expensive,
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but it should hold up a lot longer in the same kind of conditions. Another one of the benefits of the metal foundry is it's
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very easy to make. Over time the walls will start crumbling,
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but you can just bang all that crud out with a hammer and mix up a new batch, and in 20 minutes
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You've got yourself a brand new system. A bag of plaster and a bag of sand together will cost about $20
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but the cool thing is you can make between two and three metal founders with it.
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Now some people wonder if you can use cement or concrete
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instead of plaster of Paris and I would strongly caution you not to. The reason is
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if there's any moisture trapped in the concrete then when it heats up
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there's the potential it could explode in your face. On the other hand plaster of paris and sand are very porous
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so they vent the gasses off
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and there's very very low risk of that happening at all. Now the foundry will reach temperatures up around
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2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and I know that because of a melt copper and if it can melt copper
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It'll melt silver and gold as well.
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But it probably won't melt steel. Steel has a melting point up around 2300 to 2400 degrees Fahrenheit
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so you might be able to use the metal foundry to help you forge steel,
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but you're not going to be able to melt it down and cast with it. Okay let's talk about Crucibles. Now
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I used a fire extinguisher for my crucible and that was mainly just to show that it could be done in an apocalyptic situation.
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I certainly wasn't recommending that a fire extinguisher was the best way to go.
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But it's blowing my mind how many comments and questions
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I got from people asking where to get fire extinguishers, or that they bought a fire extinguisher
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only to find out that it melted in the foundry, so let's address that issue first. First of all if your fire extinguisher is melting in
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the foundry, it's NOT made of steel. Remember a magnet will stick to steel, but it won't stick to aluminum
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so if you want to know if your fire extinguisher is made of steel or aluminum, touch a magnet on to the edge and see
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if it sticks. I got my news from an industrial equipment supplier
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but that's not going to be the typical story for you. By Far by Far by Far by far the best crucible I've ever used
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is called a clay graphite crucible, and it's one that I found off the internet for about 30 to 40 dollars, Now
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it seems like a little bit of investment,
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but trust me a fire extinguisher isn't gonna be any cheaper, and the clay graphite crucible is Gonna last a lot longer.
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I've personally put mine through over 30 different firings
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and it has taken a lot of abuse, you see it's vitrified and almost like turned to glass on the edges
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but I put this thing through thermal shock. I heat it up, I cool it down, I heat it up
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I cool it down, I heat it up and cool
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It down again, and it just keeps going and going. I even cracked the side of it once
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but it seemed to just heal itself, so a clay graphite crucible is probably what you want to go for and I'll put a link
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in the description to one I found on Amazon that I think would be a good recommendation for you.
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Now when it comes to making ingots I've made all kinds of different shapes sizes and styles
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but definitely by far my favourite are the mini metal muffins, these ones are my very favorite because they're extremely easy to store
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They're very easy to melt and they'll almost fit any sized crucible, if you make some of the bigger muffins
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you're getting a much bigger crucible to melt them back down, and it's gonna take a lot longer to do now
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Let's talk about charcoal, not all charcoals are created equal, the charcoal I used for my first firings was the kingsford charcoal
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Which is used for barbecuing there are ingredients in there like lime
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Which is specifically designed to make the coals burn lower temperature?
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So they last longer, so if you ever switch over to something like lump charcoal
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which is basically just
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[pyrolized] wood
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You're gonna find a massive difference in the way it operates.
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The first thing I noticed about lump charcoal is it emits a shower of sparks,
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so you definitely want to make sure you're wearing long sleeves or
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you're gonna end up with little sparks burning your arms. The other thing is it burns a lot hotter in the early days
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I had one of my steel fire extinguisher crucibles in there
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And it actually got so hot that it melted the steel and all the aluminum leaked out
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So if you use lump charcoal it will burn a lot hotter, it's very very powerful stuff
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But you need to watch it more carefully, use a lower setting on your hairdryer
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You don't need to be pumping that much air into it to get the same temperatures
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If you're still using Charcoal to melt your metals
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and as soon as you turn the hairdryer off pull the tube out of the metal foundry.
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If you leave the tube in the foundry with no air blowing the heats going to travel up that too and melt your hairdryer
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And you're gonna end up having to get a new one. Now if you made the switch to the propane conversion congratulations
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I hope it's working well for you
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But there are some things that you should know like if you run the propane tank for more than about 25 minutes
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It's going to start getting really really cold it may start to sound like the gas is running out
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But really what's happening
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is your propane cylinder is starting to freeze up, a couple of ways you can battle that is to get a big bucket of warm
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water and just dump your propane tank down into it to help warm it back up again, or just get a bigger propane tank
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they'll take longer to freeze.
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Now I want to talk for a second about styrofoam casting.
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I did styrofoam casting in my previous tutorials because I think that's the simplest method to get started in casting
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But it doesn't always yield the cleanest results. It's a trial and error sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't.
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It blows me away that this concept even works at all that you can just bury styrofoam in sand poured Molten Metal and
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Pull out a casting that looks almost identical
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But the surface is going to be rough and sometimes the sand collapses and you lose your entire project.
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Another thing you need to consider when styrofoam casting is that styrofoam can bend,
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so when you're adding your model to a bucket of sand you need to be very careful about how you add the sand,
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because putting too much pressure on it can bend the mold and then
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when you cast it it's going to come out looking funny. Now if you want to pull the most value in the most detail from your
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Styrofoam castings as possible it does make a difference
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what kind of sand you use. Regular play sound will work great
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but if you want even more detail you can go to the pet store and get aquarium sand which is
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extremely extremely fine
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sand. That'll just be able to get into all the nooks and crannies a lot better and help your casting come out looking really crisp
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I worked with very very wet sand all the way to extremely dry sand
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And I haven't noticed much of a difference between them
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Some people wonder how long should they let their foundry cure before they use it and honestly I don't really think it matters.
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I use mine the same day I make it and it seems to work
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just fine.
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One other disadvantage to styrofoam casting is as you pour, quite often
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sand will fall into that molten mix which will contaminate the purity of your metal so even if you try and buff it up
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Sanding it and spend a lot of time
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You're gonna know as little specks of sand start to surface through and you'll never be able to get a perfectly smooth finish
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Now if you really want to get serious about sand casting rather than using styrofoam which vaporizes
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every time you pour your metal, look into green sand casting instead
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It's about 90% sand 5 to 10% clay
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and then just a little bit of moisture to get it to a
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consistency where it'll hold together like a sandcastle. The cool thing about green sand casting is you only have to make your model once and
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Then you can pack the sand down around it
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and then pull your model back out you can reuse your model in your sand over and over and over again
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now a lot of people ask me to try casting the foam fighter jets from a previous project, but there is a problem
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and that's that the foam is not thick enough for the molten metal to get down inside.
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I've noticed with dollar-store foam board your object needs to be about two to three layers thick in order to get the Molten metal into
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all the crevices. If it's less than two thick your chances are very very low that it's going to fill all the gaps
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Now let's talk about spalling. At certain times of the year
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there's probably
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moisture held within the concrete and if you ever spill your molten metal on the concrete, it can flash that moisture into steam in an
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instant and explode
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spalling out bits of concrete all over the place. Now in my experience these chunks of concrete fly up to about 5 feet away which
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doesn't sound like much, but remember it's spewing molten metal at the same time
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so if you're working over concrete be very very careful that you don't spill any molten metal. If you want to be extra cautious then
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do it in an area that's covered in sand. When I was making the mini master sword I failed over and over and over again
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Metal casting is an art form it takes a lot of practice. You're not going to get it right on the first try
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It's just a lot of fun to get in there get your hands dirty
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See, what works and see what doesn't play around at the materials that you've got and see what you can create
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So there you have it guys
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I actually am still a really big fan of the mini metal foundry after two years of using it
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I still use that one personally, and I haven't made another system because it gets the job done
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and it works so well and remember that this is an entry level system
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If you want to get really serious about backyard casting, I'd strongly recommend looking into
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proper refractory materials. You want to be getting a refractory cement or kale wool.
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It's expensive, but it's really good stuff
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and it'll last a lot longer.
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The purpose of this project was to get you thinking outside of the box and seeing that you could do
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things on your own, and there are other ways to do it as well my friend Nighthawk and Light
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just dug a hole in the ground and blew some air into it and that was enough to melt aluminum the backyard scientist
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just put out a tutorial for making one of the simplest propane burners I've ever seen also check out the art of weapons
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This is a kid who took refractory brick and made his own electric kiln for melting metals as well
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which is very clean and uses electricity instead of propane or charcoal.
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So there you have it guys. There's a few tips and tricks that hopefully will help you and your backyard metal casting experiences
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Thanks so much for supporting, sharing and liking these videos that I can keep making them and I'll see you the next video
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Talk to you then

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