G'day from Sydney

[Kopper]

Hi everyone,

I'm a 13 year old from Sydney Australia. After a long periods of begging I've finally convinced my dad to buy a propane furnace kit for me, on the condition that I would never use it alone So we started experimenting with my dad in the backyard.

My first melt was an aluminum folio ball that my friend gave me at school. It was a magical experience to pour the liquid metal and turn it into a solid metal ingot. I loved it!

Then I melted more aluminum scrap, then copper and I made aluminum bronze. I invested my pocket money in casting sand and I started casting. My latest project was making an aluminum bronze sword. It turned out pretty awesome!

I put my all projects in my youtube channel, if you want to have a look here is the link.

https://www.youtube.com/@Kopperssmeltery

Any advise and guidance would be greatly appreciated since I am still learning and I want to do more projects. Great to be in here.

Have a good one

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Welcome from the Ozark Mountains. USA have you seen this thread, a lot of good folks there.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

 

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard Kopper, glad to have you. If you put your general location in the header we won't have to keep asking you, mentioning it once in one post won't stick in anybody's memory once we open another post. What kinds of experiments were you doing on your Dad? Mine had a very limited tolerance for that sort of thing. 

I checked out your web page though I admit I didn't look at any of the videos. One suggestion is your shop  name. "Smelt" is a specific term meaning to reduce ore into pure metal. Meltery is much more appropriate.

I started to ask what kind of "Personal Protective Equipment" (PPE) you are using and decided to take a look for myself instead. I watched experimenting with "metal letter stamps". You're FRIGHTENING ME! If your Dad lets you treat molten metal with this level of carelessness he should be visited by the authorities!

You are playing with molten aluminum wearing lace up synthetic tennis shoes and shorts! Do you have ANY idea what a couple drops of water meeting 1100f / 593+ molten aluminum does? 100c water converted to 100c Steam expands to 1,600 x in volume. I liter of water turns into 1,600 liters of steam. The greater the temp the more steam volume. That means one or two drops of water in a container when you pour molten aluminum in will EASILY BLOW 10 LBS, CALL IT 5 KILOS is close enough, 30' + 10+m. A couple drops of water will NOT cool it enough to notice without scientific instrumentation meaning if YOU have your BARE SKIN within 10m you WILL be hit by 593c molten aluminum which WILL cool just enough to stick to YOU and fry you like bacon on a griddle.

This is a B A D N E S S thing!!! Think horrific pain, long hospital stay, skin grafts, maybe permanent disfigurement and long term physical therapy and pain med use and hopefully a short detox time so you don't end up addicted. 

Please take classes or at least subscribe to a metal casting forum and read the safety section. It is not possible to handle molten metals without risk, the best anybody can do is protect themself and others as much as possible. I'll give you a quick run down of rules for handling HOT metal.

#1, NO synthetic clothes! Synthetics melt on contact with hot material, stick to you and deep fry you. No joke.

#2, NO bare skin! Smooth top boots with COTTON or LEATHER pants legs over the boot tops to keep flying HOT stuff our of your shoes! Long sleeves, NO CUFFS to catch HOT debris! A leather welding coat is a good idea, keep the collar turned up and wear a welder's cap that has a bill that will fold down over the collar. To once again keep HOT STUFF from running down your back, maybe lighting your clothes on fire as it goes!

#3 (maybe this should be 1)) NEVER work alone!

This has been discussed many MANY times here including experiences, some disastrous, others saved by the PPE. Hopefully someone will post a link My google fu is weak today.

One last tip about casting. Next time nail or glue your letter or whatever pattern  to a board that is covered by the flask pattern UP. Dust the pattern with your release agent and ram up the mold. RIDDLE the sand, whether it's Petrobond or simple green sand. Riddling is sifting it so there are NO lumps, this allows the sand to come in full contact with the pattern. Trying to hammer the pattern into rammed sand is a losing proposition. YOU want to compact the sand onto and around the pattern for GOOD reproduction.

Stick around, we'll get you up to speed soonest and link you to people who do this sort of thing for a living.

Please PLEASE stop experimenting with casting until you have some good instruction, and I sincerely mean better than mine!

Frosty The Lucky.

[Kopper]

Hi Frosty,

Thanks for the advise. I admit we were a bit reckless when we first start this hobby. I think we are way more safe now with steel cap boots, respiratory masks, aprons etc. Before the next project, I will buy a leather pant and full face mask. And I never do anything alone. My dad is near me in every step.

Thanks also for tips on casting 

[Frosty]

Sorry about the reckless thing, I was kind of rattled. You didn't know any better and that's different. The big thing to remember is keep everything DRY. If you're going to transfer melt from the crucible to a ladle preheat the ladle over the melter. "Crucible" is the container in the melter a ladle is a container you pour into the molds with. 

You CAN melt and pour with the crucible but you need more tools and a second person to do it right.

We have some excellent casters here almost all my experience was in high school and I'd be hitting the books hard to taking a class before I did any casting.

Frosty The Lucky.