Melting Aluminium In The Mini Metal Foundry - Melting Aluminium #1

Melting aluminium in the mini metal foundry in the back yard. Experimented with diesel and vegetable oil mix and the burner roared to the point of melting steel crucible itself. Fabricated a new ingot mold too.
#eestiyoutuber #donndiy #meltingaluminium
Soundtrack:
Pomade - Silent Partner (KZbin Audio Library)
Donations accepted at: youshouldbuild...
Blueprints available at:
youshouldbuild...

[@bushrob411]

Awesome videos as always. But what happened to the other aluminum melting videos? You had 4 I believe orginally

[@meditativemuriwo9078]

Hie. I cant find your video about your aluminium burner details. Did you deleted it.

[@stephenoutdoors7496]

I like the simplicity of your mold. good welds.

[@tomharrell1954]

DO YOU NOTICE ANY VOIDS IN THE ALUMINUM BILLIT CAUSED BY BUBBLES ?

[@seal5215]

Hi Donn,Why is your diesel blue in color?

[@auto1640]

The diesel can be blue green red etc they are dyed because it is none taxed and it can’t be used on public on-road going vehicles, the color variation helps to keep clear fuel used by the general public separate from the diesel used by the government on-road vehicles.

[@owendodman3037]

Is the blue for offroad use? We use red dye for off road diesel. And it wouldn't be in that wierd container. Cheers from Canada

[@pjoutdoorservices775]

Absolutely awesome!! Could you do a video on how you built the foundry? I'd love to try and build this.

[@DonnDIY]

I'm gonna have to build a bigger foundry so I can melt more aluminium at once. So maybe I can do a video on it in the future.

[@pjoutdoorservices775]

@@DonnDIY ok brilliant can't wait to watch. Thanks so much for all your videos. I found your Chanel yesterday and haven't stopped watching since! awesome builds!!

[@jasongrinnell1986]

It it a foundry or a forge?

[@donniebrown2896]

Neither, it's a furnace

[@allmihi]

Don't you wish that was bright shinny GOLD!!!

[@DonnDIY]

Yes I would!

[@al9094]

For what it cost to make them gold may be cheaper

[@mechanicalmonster2115]

Love your vids! Really happy I found this one, I was looking for your burner setup. That thing is slick!

[@Wongigigi]

Woah blue diesel? Crazy shit

[@Hellsong89]

Yeap got me scratching my head for a while in 3rd video, what is this magical liquid, since diesel far as i know here is clear/greenish tint and burning oil(less taxed hence cheaper, but non road use only) is red tinted.

[@Wongigigi]

@@Hellsong89 I’ve always known it to be green as well, and off road diesel as red.

[@asad-gw8qp]

I work in the field of smelting aluminum scrap, but a lot of molten metal mixed with slag and lost sludge dam What materials should be added to separate the aluminum from slag without loss

[@fynbo1007]

Have you made a new burner or borrowed one? Thank you for sharing your amazing video

[@DonnDIY]

I made this burner myself many years ago. It's not as efficient a burner can be but it's more efficient compared to the bottle burner I made.

[@fynbo1007]

Donn DIY thank you for your answer

[@klasostrom3697]

Carsten Andersen 6

[@MotoWanderer]

I really like the burner setup. A more in depth video of it would be very cool and appreciated. Would it work for using it as a general forge as well?

[@DonnDIY]

I think so. An acquaintance of mine used the furnace for forging the poker for a stove. But I bet it's weird to use since your work piece is vertical instead of horizontal like on a classical forge.

[@MotoWanderer]

You're right. Maybe making the firebox like a T so it can be used both ways by blocking on side with fire brick based on the use !

[@charlienadeau5856]

They look like giant silver Toblerone chocolate bars

[@DonnDIY]

Not edible unfortunately and probably not so tasty either. :D

[@Toto-ko5on]

Farmers diesel for foundry? Greetings from Latvia!

[@buckbundy8642]

I like your idea for your ingot mold.👍🏻 Your forge setup is pretty cool too.

[@RZ296]

Did you use some flux for degasation of melted aluminium?

[@DonnDIY]

As a cover flux I've used NaCl to prevent the hydrogen from atmospheric water vapor from entering the molten aluminium in the past. For degassing I've used NaHCO3 but maybe Na2CO3 would be better. To prevent hydrogen from getting trapped in the aluminium in the first place I've read that all of the equipment should be bone dry so there's minimal water vapor in presence of the molten aluminium in the first place. This time I didn't use anything since I'm gonna re-melt these ingots anyway.

[@RZ296]

Thank you for the answer.

[@etchisinoga8593]

Hello , I am from the Ivory Coast in West Africa. I live in another country called Mauritania. One of my activities is to buy used aluminum cans, plastic cans and bottles with a view to sell them to a Chinese company, which transforms them into various finished products. I want to become like them and like you by making large-scale finished products myself. What advice can you give me to achieve this?

[@ianlongfoot4672]

I'm not a fun police type but it's nice to see someone on here wearing some decent gear while handling this stuff. I found out the hard way that good strong boots are a must just in case, like me, you sneeze while pouring!

[@kuigalaxy5226]

how do you get the Aluminum? me and a friend need some more ways of finding some and it looks like you know what your doing

[@DonnDIY]

Scrap yards are always a good option - you'd have to buy from there obviously. But when living in the country side there's always scrap lying around, steel or aluminium, doesn't matter. ;)

[@humberitogarcia6390]

Kui Galaxy could use soda cans

[@al9094]

Parking meters are aluminum .and the rims on police cars and if that don't sound good old Windows pop, beer cans old lawnmower engines go to local scrap yard and buy it some of them buy or sell

[@sinaca05]

i use aluminum windows find some one that installs windows and then could possibly have a endless supply

[@Hellsong89]

Go to talk to your local auto repair shop and ask if you can dumpster dive. Lots of car parts are made from aluminum like rims, lower control arms etc. Usually if part is casted aluminum its perfect to do recast since it already has additives in it that are beneficial, or so i have heard, not entirely sure about the metallurgical principles behind this. Beer cans are pretty low grade and have lots of impurities from the beverage, so i would advice against using them. Also if local machine shop collects aluminum chips into different bin that could be great source and could find other metals as well like that, just need to go trough it to remove any steel chips with magnet. Stainless wont be drawn to magnet so that is bit of a issue, but make sure to scrape those out in casting phase before you pour, so the wont be non aluminum metal peaces trapped inside the cast that make it weaker, potentially could make turned part to explode from crack created from this.

[@Ghis1964s]

Hey! and Hi! I'm sure know that you can replace diesel with old cooking oil ;) (some guys around here been running their old VWRabbit for 15yrs already, and all his tractors.) Heating-oil was cheaper then diesel the fines were too $$$.... and junk cooking-oil is none tax-able etc.... Not only cooking-oil, but also old mineral-oil, that is used to lubricate food-assembly conveyors (like for pizza, meat-pie, sub-sandwich, etc...) (I haul 100s of gals a year just for them food-grade buckets, and waste the oil on my bond-fires whenever the wood is wet) (heck... if it is good enough to lubricate any pump that feeds those conveyor, I'm almost sure this is good plenty enough for the injection pump on a diesel engine.... if old burned-out cooking old can do it for 15yrs, old wet never-burned mineral oil should be even better.... although I would keep it for engines) ;)

[@DonnDIY]

Yup, I know. I'm using also vegetable oil with diesel as a mixture. Now I just have to find a fast food joint that will give me the waste vegetable oil. :)

[@MCRuCr]

How many umph's does it do per hour?

[@danielcadar1088]

I'm quite impressed with your work! I love the fact that you found super easy ways to do the job properly. Molds, furnace, everything. I'm just curious about your Crucible... What material is it made off? i managed to see that is almost NO oxidation on your crucible. (This is the only problem i encountered over time with my own furnace. I burn through crucibles like paper). Hope to hear from you soon^^

[@DonnDIY]

The crucible is made from a thick wall steel pipe. It holds up only due to the massive wall thickness. Before I had this crucible I used thin wall pipe and burned through it all the time. You can also use thinner stainless steel for crucible, it will last longer than regular steel.

[@danielcadar1088]

Donn DIY thanks for the reply, much appreciated

[@BushImports]

I have,nt seen this one before, I don't know how I missed it. It looks like that setup works well for you. What are you using for a crucible/melting pot?

[@DonnDIY]

I'm using a thick wall steel tube as a crucible. Works okay. Other people use also stainless steel pots, they heat up faster and last longer compared to regular steel. My crucible on the other hand is made from really thick material and I hope I don't have to change it in the nearest future. ;) Thanks for watching!

[@justsaying833]

I'm wondering if diesel fuel is cheaper then propane for you because where I'm from its not cheaper, only asking because this is the first time I've seen someone use diesel fuel for a foundry ( not bio diesel ) plenty of those vidz.

[@DonnDIY]

It might not be cheaper but it's the setup I've used and I'm comfortable with.

[@random_kidd_2232]

Did you make the crusable?

[@DonnDIY]

Yes, out of steel which will burn through when you least expect it. So I wouldn't recommend it. ;)

[@random_kidd_2232]

@@DonnDIY can you make a video of how you made your furnace?😭

[@kassiman5307]

VERY CLEVER ... BURNER ..!

[@markrutar]

Can you melt copper with it? How much fuel did you use to melt that? Great video by the way.

[@DonnDIY]

I presume I can melt copper since the furnace gets damn hot. I'll have to try though to say for sure. I used up 5 liters of diesel for 3 batches. It takes less per one melt when the furnace has warmed up properly. I have to make the nozzle smaller so it will squirt less diesel out of it per minute. Thanks man!

[@markrutar]

Thank you Donn DIY. Keep up the good work.

[@nathanlynch7417]

Fallout 4 comes to mind when I see ingots like this

[@tlowry6338]

Nathan Lynch haha ikr

[@thebug4046]

farm Diesel here is red and on road Diesel is green

[@lucab.7829]

the temprature oft the aluminum is too low

[@stuffmorestuff9588]

Luca B. Agree

[@UmVtCg]

You left out an i there.

[@e46anas]

great work , i think if you use cylindrical mold next time to make some pieces that you can use in your lathe for your projects

[@DonnDIY]

Yes, for sure. I've used old paint cans with bigger diameter and also rattle cans. They work just superb.

[@superactiontank]

Very satisfying video, something about melting metals looks fun.

[@DonnDIY]

It is fun and dangerous. Exactly what every man needs. :D

[@wachako4065]

btw it's so satisfying when you pour it

[@DonnDIY]

Yeah, I know. :D

[@VenturiLife]

Impressed by your welding

[@DonnDIY]

Thanks man!

[@kickflipfeeble76]

nice video is your foundry just made out of bricks and sand ?

[@DonnDIY]

Yup. The clay bricks are cut down to 22,5 degrees on the sides, and eight bricks + some in the bottom form the furnace. Holds up pretty nicely. Sand around it is just for insulation and for plugging up the voids between the bricks.

[@kickflipfeeble76]

thanks it's a cool idea and looks cheap as well. I'm planning on making 1.soon and your 1 is the only 1 I've seen that has used bricks rather then sand and plaster

[@draggy76]

during the pouring process all i was thinking was "Pour it faster you moron"

[@Jeffreyvan]

great job what are you going to use the ingots for?

[@DonnDIY]

Probably gonna have to cast a couple of humongous pulleys and then some. :)

[@peterdrakencrona7068]

how hot is it in the "oven" you can melt other metals in it?

[@DonnDIY]

Probably copper and brass. But no cast iron though. Should build another furnace for that.

[@peterdrakencrona4095]

Donn DIY ok, one question. Does your family have any connection with Riguldi? my grandfather came from there. he was noarootsi. Looking forward to more videos from you.

[@tlowry6338]

Steel?

[@Hellsong89]

@@tlowry6338 Even less so. You would need far more insulation and much hotter flame to get steel or iron to melt. Its practically near impossible to do in DIY way due those reasons. Only potential way would be to use oxy acetylene flame, but that runs with its own issues. You could maybe get results with induction heaters, but cannot say much about that side of things and it has its own problems like working with mains or even 3phase voltages and hellawa lot of amps.

[@tlowry6338]

@@Hellsong89 how about an electrical arc furnace? the king of random made one

[@mareksumguy1887]

And whats the point of the ingots??

[@DonnDIY]

Storing aluminium for further melting.

[@polskiposzukiwacz8264]

Hello. How many kilograms you melting in one hour ?

[@DonnDIY]

Haven't measured it. When the furnace is already hot the volume of aluminium melted in one hour increases.

[@volvod244]

blue diesel 🤔⁉️

[@carwynspruce778]

Pretty sure diesel is brown so I'm wondering what the hell he used for fuel!

[@DonnDIY]

This is tinted diesel for agricultural purposes only. It used to be red.

[@carwynspruce778]

ahhh

[@JamesParus]

that burner is amazing.

[@DonnDIY]

Cheers. It can be modified to be excellent!

[@fendtonafarm8513]

Good video as usual,I've learned a lot of stuff from you!

[@DonnDIY]

I'm glad I have a positive effect on you. Would be sad if you thought you get more stupid every time you dial in to watch my channel. :D

[@AquariumMania]

Lol I started looking away over at the recomended videos when he was welding

[@Jakeshell12034454]

Name Anonymous lamp fuel. Is desile

[@al9094]

Not i stared at it like a man and tomorrow i call in to work and cry to my wife about how bad it hurts . It's metal work of course it hurts

[@watahyahknow]

maibe if you use a pressure regulator and a bigger nozzle you can reduce the time the compressor needs to run to keep up , looks to me that you could allmost gravity feed the oil in allready

[@raz999.9]

Pyramidal ingots ... that is nice.

[@nonplayerzealot4]

I wonder what it would smell like if you poured that over a turd.

[@DonnDIY]

The same when you burn a turd. :D

[@nonplayerzealot4]

I've got to try that. The world needs to know what happens. I'll give you the link when I upload it, Donn. Keep your eyes peeled!

[@DonnDIY]

:D Well unfortunately people can't smell things through a video yet but let me know when you've captured this endeavor. :D

[@nonplayerzealot4]

Will do, bro. For the record, I think the smell of burning feces is probably quite pungent and acrid, but that's just my take.

[@Smith-hs8bd]

Donn DIY how long does it take to turn to a solid? Everybody says that The aluminium which poured out of the World TRADE center from the 80th floor should have been solid before it hit the ground.

[@prancstaman]

Cool!! I always wanted to try that but too busy.

[@DonnDIY]

I agree. It needs quite a bit of investment both money and time wise. Making that furnace is a big thing and when not having lathe one has to buy the components for the burner. But it's fun and kind of satisfying. :D

[@xx_w.x]

وين منير وكاضم عنكم 😂

[@user-sx9sr4dt6m]

اي والله 😂💔

[@elrusolokooooo]

7:59 rip grass

[@stevy2318]

molten aluminium looks harmless but if you tuch it you will burn your finger real bad

[@stevy2318]

Yea XD

[@jeffreyjackson2374]

Stevy231 no really

[@neonickhaos4811]

Stevy231 ..why would you think of touching something that has the word molten at the start and think its OK to touch

[@shadetreelife3670]

No shut?

[@auto1640]

Welcome home Columbus and how did you discover that by touching it 😂🤦🏼‍♂️

[@castandforge9927]

nice video!

[@AFHProjects]

That was relaxing to watch! (Y)

[@DonnDIY]

AFH Projects It was relaxing to melt aluminium. ;)

[@hayderking3163]

منير احسن منكم يسوي !

[@user-ft8jv9jp3d]

💙💙💙💙

[@TheFenix717]

Perfect!!!

[@DonnDIY]

Thanks buddy!

[@Aslyuriel]

Why is your diesel blue? xD

[@DonnDIY]

It's a tax thing for farmers. This diesel can only be used for agricultural purposes. Like I did. :D

[@jakewise2033]

Donn DIY they use red dye for "off-road " diesel here in the US

[@wachako4065]

Why is the diesel blue? LOL

[@DonnDIY]

It's the tinted version for agricultural use only. Cheaper than the regular clear diesel.

[@wachako4065]

I didn't know, I don't think we have that in my country. I learned something new.

[@DonnDIY]

Yeah, it's a local thing. When you get busted using this in your car it's fine or jail time. :D

[@williamela3340]

Dyed diesel is used in farming machinery or for industrial uses because you get tax deductions on those machines but you cant use that diesel in vehicles on the road because that would be tax evasion so if you get pulled over and have dyed diesel in your tank...your in trouble

[@MoaedIQ]

😐

[@taitelennox4514]

great video bro

[@DonnDIY]

Cheers bro!

[@gedasalekveravicius5466]

Now paint them gold and sold as gold plates.

[@allmihi]

Why don't you try used moter oil

[@DonnDIY]

I've used motor oil before but it doesn't atomize as well as diesel and creates a lot of soot. I would like to get my hands on used vegetable oil to make the melting process cheaper but it seems we don't have too many junk food joints in our neighborhood. :)

[@AlbySilly]

7:46 What would happen if the pants caught fire, just wondering

[@DonnDIY]

My pants would just burn.

[@user-zk1fk1uf4t]

Чистый 2019

[@user-uz8wc9lo1g]

من عربي

[@bustercheeks3070]

Burner burner burner

[@joannamaria8860]

I melted a tiny amount of aluminium on my induction stove by accident and I cant remove it. Like Im not unlucky person already haha. I really cant afford a new stove at the moment, so can someone please tell me if there is a way, to remove it safely? I do not want to destroy the stove. Its pretty challenging but im sure there is someone who can help me out.

[@bobdickweed]

look and works great..;-p

[@stuffmorestuff9588]

You pore your aluminum to slow

[@DonnDIY]

Yup. I am slow.

[@stuffmorestuff9588]

I very much admire your foundry it is really nice good creativity

[@steelcarnivore8390]

That rust tho

[@ufdiah]

the price for 1 kilo today = 2,04 $ your rich :D

[@DonnDIY]

:D

[@DataKing101]

pls make more

[@DonnDIY]

More will come!

[@jalenjose3905]

I collect lead.

[@bpapao]

awful pouring practices, 1) its a liquid, thes no need to move the thing while pouring 2) why so far? 3) Safety #1

[@DonnDIY]

How many times have you poured aluminum?