Author Topic: Aluminium Conversion  (Read 5809 times)

Offline ausdier

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 161
  • Burpengary, Australia.
Aluminium Conversion
« on: August 10, 2014, 03:30:48 PM »
Not much of a casting project just trying to save a bit of room and do a bit of cleaning.
I have been collecting anything and everything ally to be used at some later date to start casting some engines and other things.
So over the past couple of days I have melted most of my stock pile down to ingots.
This has burnt off all the rubbish and reduced the overall size.
It has also given me a good selection of different ally to be able cast with the detail required at the time.
Still looking for material (as always) to add to my stash, so if local call me .
If you are wondering what the codes on the ingots are, they are as follows.
AC = Ally cans.
WL = Car Ally Wheels.
EX = Anything Extruded.
EC = Engine Components. (Heads, Covers, mounts and crank cases etc, so long as they are cast)
? = Some mystery ally that was a first attempt by a friend.
I also number them and put the weight on them.
All up I have a little over 260kg (573lb) in total and a bit more to go another day.
Once I get a bit more room and setup it should be full steam ahead or maybe full IC ahead.
Cheers.

Offline Roger B

  • Global Moderator
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6133
  • Switzerland
Re: Aluminium Conversion
« Reply #1 on: August 10, 2014, 07:55:15 PM »
Wow  ::) That should make a lot of engines  :ThumbsUp:  :ThumbsUp:
Best regards

Roger

Offline ausdier

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 161
  • Burpengary, Australia.
Re: Aluminium Conversion
« Reply #2 on: August 11, 2014, 04:47:51 AM »
One day I hope Roger.
Once I get setup with a CNC and start making some patterns hopefully I might be able to offer some casting kits.

Offline derekwarner

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 833
  • Wollongong ...... Australia
Re: Aluminium Conversion
« Reply #3 on: August 11, 2014, 06:13:13 AM »
ausdier....you may find the combination of the materials you term as WL, EX & EC :stir: will produce a material that have superior machining qualities over ingots of  :stickpoke: AC & ?....Derek



Derek L Warner - Honorary Secretary [Retired]
Illawarra Live Steamers Co-op - Australia
www.ils.org.au

Offline ausdier

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 161
  • Burpengary, Australia.
Re: Aluminium Conversion
« Reply #4 on: August 12, 2014, 12:22:39 PM »
I agree Derek but even by looking how the ingots came out of each material I might have a bit of doubt about the EX material as well.
When I start casting parts I will be using material that has been cast before and things like the Ally Cans as billet blocks.
I also might experiment a little and use a combination of them.

Offline geoff_p

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 54
  • Aranyaprathet, Thailand
Re: Aluminium Conversion
« Reply #5 on: September 25, 2014, 02:23:11 PM »
Sorry, I know this is an old(ish) thread.

I actually mix-up my aluminium when casting - runners and risers from previous casting, together with whatever-else was laying around, like pistons, brake-handles, brake-shoes.  It all mixes and the dross sometimes contains piston-rings, gudgeon pins.  It has even been known to have a cast-iron cylinder in it - threw the whole motorcycle brake-drum in rather than smashing it up first!

By the way: when melting cans - beer, soda etc - don't crush them!  Any liquid will be trapped in the folds with potentially dangerous results.  Drop them into the melting pot OPEN-SIDE UP.  Any liquid will simply boil away against the hot can-bottom, and the steam (and odd burning can-lining, if any) will vent safely and harmlessly from the open top.  There is no danger of a melt-through dropping the water into your melt because the can-bottom cannot heat past 100C while it is water-cooled.

(As an aside,  you can boil water over an open fire using leather as the kettle by exactly the same principle.  It's a very old idea, from before even my time.)

A soon as my castings are firm, they are broken-out from the sand and quenched using the garden hose until they are quite cold.  Machining these castings is a dream - the chips are mostly short curls, and the finish is quite adequate for me. 

Which leads me to a major problem: what can I do to melt-down the huge amount of swarf/chips? Each tiny chip is of course a small volume of aluminium coated with Oxide. 

Chucked into an empty melting pot they do nothing - there is too much air between chips, which in turn insulates each from the next.

Chucked into a melting pot that has a little liquid left over from a pour, the swarf more or less just floats.  Pushing it down into the liquid ali. seems to just create lots of dross - just like thin cans and extrusions do.

Have you any ideas (ones that work would be even better) on how to melt aluminium swarf?

Geoff,
Thailand
"Statistically speaking, people who have more birthdays live longer"

Offline ths

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1801
  • Kangaroo Valley, NSW, Australia
Re: Aluminium Conversion
« Reply #6 on: September 25, 2014, 10:50:58 PM »
Would pelletising followed by submersion in the melt work? Hugh.

Offline derekwarner

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 833
  • Wollongong ...... Australia
Re: Aluminium Conversion
« Reply #7 on: September 26, 2014, 12:50:28 AM »
In the back of my  :old: mind I seem to remember common salt [NaCl] was a cheap flux in an aluminium melt  :stir: ..... but be verycareful with leather apron & gloves & full face protection..... :facepalm: ...remember that common salt left exposed will absorb moisture from the atmosphere.....this is the root cause of the resultant hot spit   :Mad:  when adding the salt ....... Derek


Howevere according to Dr. Dmitri Kopeliovich   :hammerbash:

"Fluxes for melting aluminum are solid substances (commonly mixtures of chloride and fluoride salts) used in aluminum foundries in order to reduce the melt oxidation, minimize penetration of the atmospheric Hydrogen, absorb non-metallic inclusions suspended in the melt, keep the furnace/ladle wall clean from the built up oxides, decrease the content of aluminum entrapped in the dross, remove hydrogen dissolved in the melt, provide aluminum grain refining during Solidification, modify silicon inclusions in silicon containing alloys, oxidize excessive magnesium.

 Common practice of flux introduction is manual application.
 Most of the fluxes are applied on the melt surface and stirred into the melt. Some of the fluxes (degassing, grain refining) are plunged to the bottom by a clean preheated perforated bell"
« Last Edit: September 26, 2014, 12:53:30 AM by derekwarner_decoy »
Derek L Warner - Honorary Secretary [Retired]
Illawarra Live Steamers Co-op - Australia
www.ils.org.au

Offline Tennessee Whiskey

  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3781
  • Springfield, Tennessee. USA
Re: Aluminium Conversion
« Reply #8 on: September 26, 2014, 01:08:55 AM »
Would it help if you compacted or "crushed" it, kinda like smashing ali cans for recycling

E

Offline geoff_p

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 54
  • Aranyaprathet, Thailand
Re: Aluminium Conversion
« Reply #9 on: September 26, 2014, 01:22:35 AM »
Yes, Derek, but that's AFTER you've got the stuff to melt.  It's reducing the oxidation taking place IN the furnace, whereas my problem is the oxidation that took place BEFORE getting to the pot.

Aluminium has a wonderful property of creating a protective oxide-film over its exposed surfaces almost instantly, which is great for the workpiece but, of course it happens to the swarf/chips one has machined-off just as quickly.

I sometimes chuck some ordinary salt on/into the pot, just before pouring.  I'll try putting some in along with the swarf DURING melting, see if that works.  (I agree with you about it "spitting")

@STS, Maybe pelletizing would work.  Head-scratching now, how to achieve it on a "home" basis?

@Whiskey.  I think of crushing as breaking things into smaller bits but perhaps it could also mean "compacting".  Trouble is the chips/swarf already have an oxide film and squeezing it (pelletizing) doesn't get rid of that oxide.

Geoff,
Thailand
"Statistically speaking, people who have more birthdays live longer"

Offline Ian S C

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1080
  • Stirling Engine Maker Darfield Canterbury N Z
Re: Aluminium Conversion
« Reply #10 on: September 26, 2014, 11:42:42 AM »
I,v been looking through some of my books, it might have been in Model Engineer, but I read somewhere about putting swarf in a paper bag, and putting the bag in the furnace.
                                         Ian S C

Offline ths

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1801
  • Kangaroo Valley, NSW, Australia
Re: Aluminium Conversion
« Reply #11 on: September 26, 2014, 01:48:43 PM »
Pelletising? Put some swarf into say, a bit of 2" steel pipe, inserting a 'piston' into it, and belting the piston with a lump hammer. A pill should be retrievable from the bottom of the pipe. Hugh.

Offline Alan Haisley

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 693
  • Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina, USA
Re: Aluminium Conversion
« Reply #12 on: September 26, 2014, 03:42:29 PM »
Common salt contains water of crystallization. Rather than use it straight from the shaker, toast it for a while to drive off the water. An oven set to about 80 C (170 F) should do it. That should stop the spitting.

Alan

 

SimplePortal 2.3.5 © 2008-2012, SimplePortal