Making Aluminum Bronze (Part 1): Melting Copper and Aluminum - Looks like GOLD!

[@bigstackD]

And Subbed. Keep melting and making ingots bro.😀👍

[@GeekGuyMJ]

bigstackD Casting Thanks BigstackD!

[@gregkretchmer3588]

For those watching and wish to try this, remember this rule: Iron liquids bounce off skin, Non ferris (copper, aluminum, lead and others) stick to the skin aggressively (personal experience). Synthetic cloth sticks, wool and cotton don't. Any oil in your muffin tin can act as a flux and solder the ingot to the pan. Coating the mold with a mix of graphite powder and water then heating the mold to well above boiling to dry the coating will make the metal fall out with no effort for a nice finish. Make sure it's dry! With your bronze, I'd wear leather shoes. Any water with the liquid metal will make the metal explode, getting us back to the sticking to skin bit. Aluminum takes three times the heat over iron to melt, taking into account iron melts at around 3200 and aluminum around 1000F. You can use Potassium Chloride (no sodium water softener salt) from home depot as a flux stirred in to cause the non melting oxides to float to the top for easy skimming and no bumps and voids in your ingot. Just wrap it in aluminum foil, maybe half a tea spoon full, and stir it in.

[@TheChaselg1]

Thanks Greg, this is really useful information.

[@jackrichards1863]

I'm happy to have looked at his clip for reading your comment, if nothing else! After two years your comment is still providing a useful reference to viewers . Good stuff Greg, thank you.

[@tobhomott]

Aluminum bronze is amazing stuff when its hardness and/or corrosion resistance is called for, but the downside is, it loves to turn into foamy dross inside of a mold if the sprue and gating isn't carefully designed with the minimizing of turbulence in mind. Yellow brass is easier to work with when the castings just need to be shiny and golden coloured, and it is easily found in the form of cheap thrift store imported unicorn and dolphin statuettes. Just putting that out there... 😀 Anyhow, looking forward to seeing what you have planned for these ingots! 👍 If you're open to a little advice, if I were you I'd make building a safer set of crucible tongs and pouring shank a priority. Grabbing crucibles by the edge like that with channel locks is a dangerous move, it causes stress fractures to build up inside the crucible wall and rim that may cause the lip to shear off without warning, and the TKOR salad tongs aren't likely gonna save you from a boot full of molten bronze and an extended vacation in the burn unit when it happens.

[@GeekGuyMJ]

Tobho Mott thanks for watching and for your feedback. It’s good to know about casting Al bronze. I have a few more Al bronze videos that will go up in the next few weeks. I made about 10lb worth into ingots and gave them as gifts. Since I made those videos I have made much better tools, but there is a back log of videos to get out so the poor tools will be seen a bit longer. I agree with you. Eventually, I would like to cast an Al Bronze hammer. Have a great day.

[@tobhomott]

@@GeekGuyMJ sounds like you're on track, have fun and play safe!

[@IcyG7]

So I actually made aluminum bronze using this ratio today and ran into that weird foam you were talking about. I ended up losing about 500 grams of bronze to that foam and I’ve gotta figure out how to melt it back to something usable

[@IreWolfMetallurgy]

I have actually had a string if these foamy dross castings lately, but I figured it was due to too much water in the sand. I just learned about gating calculations though so hopefully will conquer problem that soon!

[@phindabear13haters18]

what about white brass?

[@scarletletter4900]

It looks like being just under the 11% really works in your favor here.

[@merkel2750]

You really should melt the higher temp metal first, then add the lower temp stuff to avoid overheating the shit out of the lower temp metal for ages.

[@theMedicatedCitizen]

💯

[@jackrichards1863]

I suspect this may be the most useful new to me alloy yet? I was not introduced to it by you, here. It was in fact BigstackD with Nordic gold. But it turned out not to be a cheeky gold imitation I discovered later. It is a precise ratio that provides a strong, possibly enduring material supplementing naval bronze? Only now I wish I had not sold my leather motorcycle jacket. It would have been a great safety garment to wear when casting copper alloy.

[@Metalstacker]

Cool man! I'm planning on making my own aluminum bronze soon. Just a question, why did you melt the aluminum first? Copper has the highest melting point? I know how molten copper and brass react, not good, so maybe because of the reaction? And did you stir the metals or do they mix automatically? Thanks!

[@GeekGuyMJ]

Thanks. I read it was better to melt the lower melting point metal first so I did it that way. But since then I’ve read the opposite. So, really I’m not sure. I did give it a quick stir and it seemed well mixed.

[@ateslaintrumpland2476]

Always melt the lower melting point metal first, then dissolve in the higher melting point one. Metal alloys almost always have a melting point between that of the two constituent metals. In this example, you melt the Al at 660C, then progressively add Cu which dissolves and raises the melting point to 1030C. As you're adding Cu, you're heating the furnace, so you stick pretty close to the liquidus on the binary phase diagram. This means you're never overheating which would waste fuel and increase loss of Al as vapor. Melting the copper first to make Al bronze is like melting NaCl and mixing in ice cubes to make salt water.

[@HochyX]

Can I have question? Which step is right if I melting 2 metals together, melt down metal which has higher melting temp. (Copper) and then add metal which has lower like zinc ? or melt down zinc then add copper and increase temp. to melting copper?

[@blipzero]

it is easy to burn the metal so watch out on the heat if you can pull it off place a ir reader close so you can read the level of heat .. also never use dryice it will warp the metal unless you have it in a 2+ ton press .

[@ejh237]

Fresh sub, thanks for the stream!! But, i cry over the melting of bar stock copper. 😢 😊

[@MLFranklin]

I was playing with aluminum and cast a few mini muffin tin shapes. Then I added maybe 5-10% copper for fun. A strange thing happened. A few of those next 5% copper pours seem to have almost welded themselves to the muffin tin. I had to wack them pretty hard to release them. It looked like a couple of them had bonded to the steel. Not sure what was happening. Normally aluminum and steel just don't stick to each other at any temperature.

[@حسينالاسمر-خ3خ]

مرحباً اريد اوريد الوصفه كتابي ١٠ كيلو نحاس كم الكميه المنيوم وكم يريد نحاس اصفر واحمر

[@LordDraconis12579]

I have a question can u melt copper,brass, aluminum, and dust like iron to make a sword ive always wanted to make a sword of stainless steel, copper and brass but aint found anyone thats done it yet could it be possible

[@Rob337_aka_CancelProof]

Do you glaze your Crucible with Borax or anything else before using it the first time?

[@desorkaththomson436]

Great video. Do you have any information on the burner you used? Did you make that yourself?

[@GeekGuyMJ]

Thank you, I did make it myself. I used a similar design that others have used. It is mainly plumbing parts. I will try to make a video showing it closer. For awhile I had trouble getting the foundry hot enough. I originally made the nozzle hole 0.6mm big, but when I changed it to 0.89mm it was much better. I went from couldn't melt copper at all to melting it in 10 min.

[@mauri4763]

Google REIL type Burner

[@izjay6350]

Would loveto purchase some aluminium+copper mix ingots for keepsake

[@bmb49]

Great video thanks! Liked, subscribed. Btw I do like those the shape of the castings you made with with these intial molds in your video. What mold did you use and where did you get it if you remember? Thanks

[@Rob337_aka_CancelProof]

3:10 you should are to the heavy side with the aluminum because you'll lose some of it

[@fkingride.5500]

so its basically brass useing aluminium instead of tin

[@frikkiesmit2695]

You just got a new sub.

[@robertroberts2795]

place crucible on plinth block with cardboard separating the two and you will get better melts with less crucible stick. Clean bottom of crucible

[@jgnugnes3443]

Excellent question, how long does it take to melt?

[@IreWolfMetallurgy]

About 30-45 min with a propane burner and similar sized furnace at 10ish psi

[@philmenzies2477]

Nice experiment. Should metal alloys be calculated in % by weight, or by volume?

[@GeekGuyMJ]

Phil Menzies Thanks Phil. I was told they should be measured by weight. 11% and 89% by weight. I’m just a hobbyist but it worked for me. Thanks for watching!

[@GeekGuyMJ]

Phil Menzies I have a few more aluminum bronze videos coming out in a week or so.

[@philmenzies2477]

@@GeekGuyMJ Hey I dont know either way. i'm just asking

[@tarciomalcher7273]

@@GeekGuyMJ you're right. It is measured by weight

[@យុឹមលើនិងលោកសេយាន់]

ល្អណាស់បង

[@bardmask9089]

An easier way to get the aluminum wheight required would be to multiply the copper weight by .89 instead of dividing then subtracting the copper weight from that number. Unless you intentionally wanted to know/show the total weight before you got the aluminum weight

[@GeekGuyMJ]

Thanks. You are right. I believe I was trying to start with a total weight.

[@bardmask9089]

@@GeekGuyMJ great video on making aluminum bronze 👍

[@rokhmanshimazu5602]

70 Al and 20 Coppee and the Zinc 10 % try this

[@lucianovasco4654]

Queria entender porque colocar o metal com menor ponto de fusão primeiro e não o contrário. Não há perda do alumínio por evaporação? Obrigado

[@mauri4763]

El punto de ebullición del aluminio es 2470 °C, por lo que no hay problema de evaporación, pero el aluminio se oxida con ese tipo de calor. Por tanto, el cobre se disuelve en aluminio fundido.

[@backporchfoundryandforgeus900]

Good stuff. New subscriber. You from TN?

[@josepholiver8650]

How the copper melt and mix in Melton aluminum?

[@micaelhildenborg5712]

Math tip: (CU weight/CU percent)* AI percent = AI weight. Like: (1461/89)*11 = 180.573

[@walendawalenda4769]

is same like EU coins 10 and 20cent 50cent

[@kewintaylor7056]

How strong it is compare to bronze or brass?

[@mauri4763]

You can make a sword or cannon from bronze, but not from brass

[@tarciomalcher7273]

Man. Just wait for the ingot to cool down. When you put them in water you end up producing micro crack that make your metal fragile

[@Badassblacksmith]

And how would that negatively affect an ingot that will be melted again? Lol

[@reciclagemeofuturo2429]

👏👏👏👏👏🇧🇷🇧🇷♻️♻️

[@ludditeneaderthal]

The EASY way to figure percentage weights from a "I'm gonna use this pile" start (doesn't matter major, minor, or trace ingredient): weigh your "start pile" (your 2 copper bars). Divide that weight by percentage of total (89). Result is 1% weight. Multiply by additional ingredient percentage (11 for your aluminum), result is needed weight for that ingredient. Write down weights of each so you can "check sum" on the scale. By working from 1% weight, even "points' (nn/100 of a percent) are easily determined (0.nn times 1% weight). At any point you can confirm the result by dividing by "accumulated percentage" to ensure it conforms to the 1% weight. Best part is it doesn't matter what your "starting pile" is, the major ingredient, or the most minor one, or any in between.

[@zahraseeff9897]

Mix gold and ➕cober yelow

[@យុឹមលើនិងលោកសេយាន់]

ខ្ញុំអោយសេរភាសារកម្មវិធីខ្មែរcambodia

[@cyanuranus6456]

Well. Bronze Doesn't Looks Like Gold. Because Bronze is Chrome Yellowish Brown in Color