Dangerous! Never do this! Smelting Aluminium without fancy equipment

[112358d15]

@minniman1234 For smelting barefoot can actually be safer than wearing laced shoes. In casting plants workers are not allowed to wear boots with laces, because if a drop of molten metal gets into their boot it will continue to burn their flesh until they can get the boot off. A drop of molten Al on your bear foot would burn you, but for a shorter amount of time, causing less damage.

[bettasplendens713]

*you

[bettasplendens713]

Your crazy but I like you, I like because your crazy:)

[TommyGun8142]

but you are badass!

[TommyGun8142]

Why cant Americans pronounce Aluminium properly?

[TheDeltaexpeiment]

Smithing increased to level 20

[evilsnobii]

make a sowrd

[titanicdiscotheque]

dude your cool anyways do you live their??

[TiamarnSWTOR]

@commenterbot12 that is the legitest thing ive ever heard, Hes my new idol LOL

[commenterbot12]

you are my idol, your the most coolest adult i've ever seen u rock!

[MonkeyRoll]

I have to say, you are a baller.

[minniman1234]

Wow, barefoot smelting.... Smart!!

[JoshMurphy424]

Awesome!!

[TheOriginStudio]

so i plan on doing this soon (with a very primative set) but i dont have a mould...would the dirt in the ground work...also if there is an explosion could i use a fire extinguisher to put it out since the melted aluminum cant touch water

[NoobTamer]

Sword time!

[Cruxador]

I have a buddy that does this. He cooks the aluminum in a brick smelter he built. Only thing I've seen him do with it was star wars figures, but last time I saw him he was talking about making a cannon to mount on his canoe. That wouldn't necessarily be aluminum, though.

[whynottalklikeapirat]

@Cruxador see - thats the stuff the world needs more of. Cannon-canoes. I shall not speak of my experiments with can-can-canoes.

[dannystaple1]

I am now realising just how much value engineering there is in a simple drinks can. You look like you'd need quite a few to cast that shape fully.

[BigotesMcbuff]

Never smelt metal unless you know what you are doing. Molten metal poured on water/moisture will create superheated steam leading to eruptions or explosions, and bathing you in said molten metal.

[novemberfive]

Great video. Seeing as though you're visiting this side of the world did you happen to see James May's Man Lab on TV? The were smelting aluminium.

[oliverjamescarr]

Something you could maybe do is hook up a fan next to the fire to blow more air into it. It will make the fire hotter so the aluminium will be better melted.

[Jesusability]

Awesome! More of this!

[freeNode5]

I must try this at home

[paulkienitz]

d00d, don't neglect the banana building TOO long -- there's snow coming!

Maybe you can like put a pointy plastic tent over the saggy part, or a sheet metal teepee, so it doesn't get re-crushed any further.

[gabe2304]

Thats an EPiC shirt Jamie!!

[aleks138]

There's a guy on YouTube -myfordboy- lots of great smelting videos.

[OtterWater528]

Wrist chains are cool.

[LavenderWolf]

I used to make fishing sinkers out of lead on my BBQ, so I've got a small crucible and other items that work for smelting. When I found out how low Aluminum's melting point was I just HAD to try it. Turns out it's quite easy to do - melting from cans gets you a surprisingly small amount of metal though. Try enclosing your heat source, i.e. using your wood stove with lots of wood, with some airflow. Also vital is a much more solid crucible - a solid crucible stays hot longer and aids in melting.

[AStandsForFrench]

To avoid confusion, and to maximize annoyance, I have christened it "Numa Numa-um".

[sdbigguy]

I have done the melted cans in the fire and I have to say that it was interesting. I think the next step should be using the sunlight itself and cut out the flame. I have a LARGE fresnel lens that I got for free on Craigslist. It didn't start out a a fresnel lens, it was actually a FREE non-working projection TV. The scene is quite impressive once you deconstruct the box. Again, use caution when working with capacitors. This would creat a very hot pinpoint of light and a man of your talents cou

[jmnoob1337]

been there, done that, burnt a hole in my deck! it was a fun experiment though.. i used charcoal and had a hand pump connected to it so i could pump more air in, although that eventually made it hot enough to burn away some of the steel can, in the end leaving me with a few blobs of aluminum left on the ground.

[Rambowjo2]

Doesn't the colour from the sodacans mess a bit with the intregrity, or does it just burn/evaporate?

[jmnoob1337]

@Rambowjo2 the paint and whatnot left on the can separates, and while in the process of melting more cans you can scoop out all of the bad stuff off the top of the aluminum.

[LavenderWolf]

@jmnoob1337 That's actually slag you're removing, the paint burns away almost entirely.

[jmnoob1337]

@LavenderWolf aye, thats what i meant, i couldnt think of the word at the time and i was too lazy to google it!

[ADinHD]

Cool! I want to try to cast in aluminium, but haven't tried it yet. I've seen people cut shapes in styropor and covering it with sand. Pouring the molten metal in the mould melts the styropor original and leaves an aluminium cast. It's really cool and I look forward to seeing what you'll make.

Keep up the awesomeness!!

[sjvsworldtour]

Most wondrous. I had wondered about doing this on the forum, but someone told me why it wouldn't work. Glad to see you didn't let that stop you!!!

[jscotthales]

there is a website called backyard smelting dot com, that I found in a simple google search. (youtube didn't let me post the url. )

[jscotthales]

Jamie, my dad (who was called Jamie as a boy), was a sculptor and had a foundry in his studio, with a little blast furnace to smelt bronze and stuff. I think he did cast some aluminum, too. It was kind of exciting to watch him casting sculptures, using lost wax casting process. I later did this myself at a junior college sculpture class. (they had an induction furnace, that induced a current in the metal to melt it..

[DrGreenfun]

but you live in vermont those are worth money..... but hey i LOVE the idea!!

[billygotgrove]

C'mon make a real foundry. All the cool 15 year olds like me are doing it. Custom aluminum parts are a good thing. I may make some for my robotics team.

[jong036]

Amazing! I would have never thought you could meld aluminium on a wood fire.

Here in South-Australia you actually get 10 cent for your can so that would make it quite expensive to build a robot out of.

Aren't you worried about oxidizing the aluminium and therefore making quite weak casts?

[MakeMeASammich]

Jesus dude, now the robot is even going to have metal pieces you've smelted in your own forge.

Yes, I am jumping to the conclusion that you've decided to build your own proper forge.

[ashworth614]

It's great to see you're still about and making videos. I have really missed seeing videos pop up in my subscription box every week. I hope once you get all the toy designs sorted out you can get back to some awesome projects again.

[personperson666]

Cool but the colouring on the cans can create toxic fumes, so next time either don't like stand around it the entire time its melting or get a gas mask or something. They can be pretty cheap and they cost less than a lung!

[hobbexp]

cool, i gonna try that

fredde

[captainalant]

I use a old cast iron pot and a LP torch to melt aluminum cans. Great idea for casting robot parts.

[DerCrossi]

After the lumber mill, the foundry is just the next step in jaimie-evolution ;)

Okay, okay, the laser cutter and 3D-Printer don't quite fit my model...

[Syger]

Very cool Jamie! Very tempting to try something like this for myself, I gotta say- but thankfully I know better!

[Omega52]

You should try making a mold out of some ceramic clay, or plaster of paris

[GatheringSticks]

awesome stuff ...you are always doing something interesting.

[Craydon]

I still have a scar on my foot from dripping some heavy-duty wax on it like 20 years ago.

[wisyakman]

these type of vids are my favs, just little things that are super cool

[Srfingfreak]

Oh, man... I thought I was going to have to build a legit furnace with refractory and home-made charcoal. You did it with wood and a steel can! AWESOME!

Obviously, in no way am I going to replicate anything I see in this video ;)

[TheMegaJerm]

JME, you need a Rocket Stove!!!! =)

[chiefdaddypct10]

Jamie that was great research. Outside the box, cheap, easy, strong and did I say free..

[Helioforge]

Excellent! It worked! Sometimes borax is used as a flux when melting metal. Just think of all the cool leather armor you could make so molten metal doesn't splash on you : )

[Madmonkeythegreat]

You smelted with aluminum cans and dirt. OMG You are always getting awesomer and awesomer!

[popsmcgee1]

YOUR THE MAN!  Seriously Bad ass

[ReddmanDGZ]

It may not break with your hands, but watch what happens when you try to put a fulcrum workload on something like that.

I'm amazed that it came out as good as it did. Aluminum tends to be extremely temperamental when melted in an open system like that.

[AnonymousKdub]

it would be sweet if you were at a campfire, and you were like, im gonna make a robot out of beer cans... man your friends would be really impressed.

[TheGreatSteve]

@AnonymousKdub Or drunk. :-)

[ReddmanDGZ]

you need to evacuate ALL air from the kiln and use an electrical arc to melt your aluminum process to avoid the oxide that will build up and make the aluminum extremely brittle using other methods.

[Halobitt]

Are the wrist chains for arm weight exercises?

[dondorr]

@Halobitt Jamie sometimes wears chainmail as well to get more of a workout.



[HeatedUnderwear]

@Halobitt I believe it's called resistance training he wears them and his chain mail to help build mussel faster

[FlamingBrad25]

@Halobitt Yes, his method of resistance training

[deweys]

@Halobitt Nope, those a +5 strength bracers of the blood boar.

[uokel]

@Halobitt yeah hes been wearing them for a long time just liek he has a chain mail shirt he wears all the time

[snowboarderx3x]

@Halobitt Yep

[LavenderWolf]

@Halobitt Yeah, he explains in one of his earlier videos (don't ask me which, heh, I spent weeks going through them) that he started wearing chains and a chainmail shirt (that he was making as he went) so that his everyday activities would be much more strenuous - and therefore making him stronger. JME is a smart guy, and I've never had the good fortune of meeting him!

[kattejuice]

@Halobitt yes, he talks about this in older videos

[MockEmpire]

@Halobitt no dude, they grant a +4 bonus to his smelting skill and are also there because they are badass.

[TheBrainParalysis]

@Halobitt He's trying to be more medieval.

[xela1221]

awesome :D

[evilweeman]

All I could think of while you was dangerously playing with fire "MY HAIR IS ON FIRE! MY HAIR IS ON FIRE!"

[fatback2]

Awesome vid Jamie! The only thing holding you back in the vid is your casting medium. The dirt worked fine as a proof of concept, but if you were to make yourself a little casting box and fill it with some extra fine uniform sand you'd be able to cast some really detailed little robot parts.

[SlacktiveInAction]

Those eggs looked good too.

[samejohnboy]

In loose liquid form its kind of beautiful in a strange way, but very dangerous indeed.

[araz1994]

its easier to melt led from a car battery than pop cans.

[pilleyuppo23]

Please be careful with that. Melted aluminium can actually blow up in your face. Only a drop of water can make the melted stuff blow with a bang!

[billyzelsnack]

@pilleyuppo23 When I was about 15 I would melt a bunch of aluminum and toss the entire crucible into the swimming pool. It was fun, but incredibly stupid.

[AnWe79]

@pilleyuppo23 Yep, even moist sand or dirt could end you up with a steam explosion, that aluminium is 660+ degrees C, and doesn't cool down as fast as one might think. Although, i think Jaimie knows what he's doing, he usually does.

[TRcustomengineering]

Jamie..., I have a feeling people will be doing this anyway.

And so will I! :P hehe

[charlottemcghee]

Glad to see you put my beer cans to good use! Very cool...

[soundslave]

Doesn't industrial aluminium production require a ton of electricity?

[TheIcelandicDictator]

@soundslave Only if they are processing it from Bauxite to Useable Aluminum, otherwise its just melted in a smelter after going trough a separation process.

[KREREV]

@soundslave yes, but he dont produce aliminium, he reshapes it (melt)

[ElliotovHull]

@soundslave Yeah to extract it from the ore in rocks. But he's only melting it.

[soylentgreenb]

@soundslave Yes. You can't mine aluminium metal. To make 'virgin' aluminium(rather than recycled aluminium from coke cans etc.) you start from bauxite; a mix of several aluminium oxide and hydroxide minerals.

You can reduce iron ore to iron metal with metallurgical coal; but this just doesn't work with aluminium; it needs a more powerful reducer. You can either use a crapton of electricity to reduce aluminium or a very powerful reducer such as sodium(also produced electrochemically).

[mcmacpolus]

Thumbs up if you're doing this anyway.

[luludawg1]

JME French toast on open fire is awesome Now for the Martha Stewart moment..try this on an open fire while outside working. Great fall time snack. Cut top off pumpkin take all seeds out, leave all the guts inside the pumkin just deseed. Put a cinnamon stick (or two) inside pumkin add brown sugar (amount depends on how sweet you want it) then add 1/2 & 1/2 place lid on pumkin, put on fire let cook few hrs or until tender. mix when done, open fire pumkin pie adjust time and amounts as needed

[BigAdam2050]

As Oppy Prime once said;

"Die cast, its a forgotten art"

[0bligh]

For making other small objects you could use your 3D printer to make the mold.

[0bligh]

Mnuminuminm, I like it.

[DharokDude]

rad

[Dillon1791]

Got Cookie? :D

Aluminum.. Looks like the stuff used for engines, so yes, VERY STRONG!

[YankeeIngenuity]

Very cool

[Elliottslingsby]

I used to do this with my Dad all the time, I don't recommend people try this unless you really know what you're doing.