2 Melting aluminum with firewood

During the winter I collected some aluminum: profiles, engine parts and lots of beer cans (prosit - skoll). Now the weather seems good to melt outdoors, no frost and no wind, so I decided to melt it into ingots.
For many years I use firewood to heat my furnace and it gave me good results, and for me it is cheap. I also melted brass with firewood, so the heat it produces is at least above 900 Celsius or 1650 Fahrenheit.
I melted 4 batches, each two ingots of about 0.5 kg or 1 pound, a total of 4 kg or 8 pounds.

[@BensWorkshop]

Good work and interesting to note using firewood even to melt brass.

[@electronicartis]

It's nice of you to share this technique. Thank you.

[@shawnguy3005]

Hey. Hope you are still around. Just finished last melting season aft er 7 revisions on my hand stacked brick furnace using wood and forced air. Melt two gallons of aluminum at a time and over 200 lbs a day if needed

[@timothysorenson8701]

Shawn guy: what is your crucible size to do that’ much?

[@peacefulscrimp5183]

That's a great video 👍

[@SalvatoreMontalto]

Bellissimo video. Vorrei imparare a fondere metalli a casa senza rischiare di dare fuoco alla casa e a me stesso. Questo mi sembra un ottimo punto di partenza. Hai un video che spiega come è costruita la fornace? Grazie per la condivisione, sei veramente bravo!

[@wisconsinfarmer4742]

Ten years. Pretty good durability.

[@randyearles1634]

good clear video, thanks

[@Rolingmetal]

Did you get a lot of ash contamination in the aluminium?

[@janslos]

Not that much, anyway it floats on top of the molten metal and is scooped off with the dross.

[@Dardomor]

Also, to minimize oxidation on the aluminium, some even throw in some wood chips into the crucible, exactly because any residue from the burnt would will also float on top in the dross. So that shouldn't be much of a problem. Ash from the firewood itself is probably mostly blown out of the furnace I expect.

[@nightrunner3701]

Ah! Vacuum cleaner! Yes! I was going to wait till i got a hair dryer... But vacuum!

[@nightrunner3701]

Works. Barrel foundry. Having a hard time melting copper though.

[@janslos]

I did not try copper yet, collected a lot of electric wires and tubing, but haven't had the time to melt it.

[@dicelabiblia7461]

Great video, thank you for sharing

[@janslos]

You're welcome, glad you liked it

[@y33t23]

Does it always smoke that hard? Because where I live "campfires" are not allowed inside of villages, so I wouldn't like to draw all the attention at myself.

[@janslos]

It smokes when you start the fire or when you fill it with some wet wood, this you cann't avoid, once the fire is burning well then there is no smoke at all. If smoke is a problem then you must use a propane burner and propane is not cheap, some people use waiste oil but that smokes also. My blower can work with propane aswell as with waiste oil, but for casting aluminum, brass or bronze I use wood because it's free.

Why would a campfire be banned I wouldn't live there for anything

[@y33t23]

@@kingflockthewarrior202 what

[@Diddleurdad]

There is no chance that's this forge would melt copper

[@dutchsilver7661]

Goed bezig jan

[@janslos]

Dacht ik ook ;-), bedankt