Melting Cans

[Mikemow95]

I am very new to melting anything but I have looked up a lot about it but still need some help, I am trying to melt some cans I can only melt one can at a time becuase I have to smash them very small. I tried to melt one today with my homemade foundry the thing I'm melting it in is an old 9 ounce co2 tank one that you would use for paintball, I cut the top off of it to put stuff in the bottom of it is round. So today I put my soda can into it and left it for about one hour and it was still the same just red hot, so I took it out and tap it with a hammer and it just went flat like a ball of paper does it not melt to a liquid? But before any of this I put 2 small parts of a knife that snaped in half its stainless steel, it was in there for about 5 or 6 hours and still did not even move everything was red hot but no melting. What am I doing wrong? Here is my foundry, its an old cast iron tea kettle its very heavy and strong and I put a blower on the opening it works really good better then I thought it would, it stays red hot. So I just need some help to find out what I am doing wrong and what I can do better.

[781]

Dont bother trying to melt Al cans.
They are too thin and oxide too quickly.
Al melts at 1260 depending on the alloy
Get something that was cast like a transmission housing
I have a melter made out of 1/2 of a 55 gal barrel lined with fire brick. It used a fan and waste oil. The exhaust will melt al.
As for melting stainless you dont have a chance
To do cast iron you need a cupolette (SP) and coke