Massive Can Meltdown - 8,000+ Cans Melted For Pure Aluminum - Trash 2 Treasure - The Growing Stack

I got a gaylord of cans from my buddy who had been saving his cans for a decade. It took me 40 hours to melt down this massive amount of cans, and another 10 hours of cleanup, editing, and side work on this project. I hope you enjoy this massive can meltdown to end all massive can meltdowns as much as I did making it!
-The Growing Stack

[@vintageludwig]

Your buddy needs credit for not littering all of these cans throughout the years.

[@RandomExpunger]

Fr

[@atedinahalf6288]

That's a slow Tuesday

[@yeticonfettis]

Man needs credit for cleaning up after himself

[@ASquareNarwal]

Nobody deserves credit for not littering.. it's common sense and courtesy. Only scumbags litter

[@t.m.8012]

I should deserve credit too

[@SeanBrown22]

I think we can all agree that the most impressive part of this video is your perseverance. Thanks for the entertainment!

[@przemusprzemus12345]

totally agree

[@-_gdude_-8308]

I think we CAN!

[@studmuffin1237]

I agree, but the shelf comes in second for how well it handled those ingots.

[@wayneharper8843]

I hope they was all aluminium 🤣

[@FCWW87]

Agreed! I would have lost patience during the counting session.

[@herbdailey5900]

That shelf is so gonna break at 3am and scare the crap out of you. Great video!

[@Lorem7701]

Aluminium is light

[@LinguinisNotHere]

@@Lorem7701 yeh but 100 bricks stacked right next to eachother + other metal stuff on the shelf isnt

[@el_fucko]

@@LinguinisNotHere Actually I think you'll find that a kilogram of aluminium is significantly lighter than, for example, a kilogram of steel. It's almost as light as a kilogram of feathers even (because steel is heavier than feathers).

[@jeanperdsmesbras5720]

@@Lorem7701 well the total wieght is shown, that's not really "light"

[@BrandonTConklin]

I don't know what I am more surprised with: the amount of bars you made or all the death statues you keep summoning

[@bmo14lax]

9:24 My favorite part was when The grim reaper comes over and yells " It's dying time!! And The Creator comes over and just knocks him out of the way.

[@ron707sims]

This is by far the "greatest aluminum can meltdown" on KZbin... Thanks for the time and effort you put into this project... I love it to "DEATH"

[@TheGrowingStack]

Thank you my friend, it definitely took me a few weeks to fully complete, a ton of hours on top of just the melting and I was really proud of the end result. I’m glad you liked it and share it if you “CAN”… I know I’m cheesy, sorry! Thank you again 👍👍

[@aaronburdon221]

@@TheGrowingStack I give you a like just for the cheesy pun.

[@WindWaker11]

​@@aaronburdon221 me too

[@davidwarda5616]

@@TheGrowingStack Hi. I would rather see you build an aircraft propeller of medium and small sizes using alloys. by the way your videos are great. another tip: you can use AC power through a coil to heat them and melt them.

[@TheGrowingStack]

Hey all you beautiful people! This was a MASSIVE project that took me a few weeks to orchestrate and conduct, and cram into just under 16 minutes. Melting cans takes a long time, but melting over 8,000 cans takes even longer 😂. I hope you all enjoy watching this madness as much as I did creating it. Let me know what you think of the video and stay awesome my friends 👍 Update: After my buddy watched the video, he texted me and said “I said that was 2 years of camping, not 10 lol” 😬 I thought he said 10 when he dropped them off. Wanted to clarify…

[@ThatPsillyDude]

Love your vids! Would have loved to see all those cans go through a big grinder... Future ideas? Cheers man 🤘

[@forestcityfishing4749]

Ah, when you said massive, I was thinking 250k or more...the kids at our school collected more than 8000 lol...

[@irishsakura1]

Hello Mr. G!! This, as all your other videos, was very satisfying to watch. I love the organization, humor, editing and content. My favorite is the scooping of the slag and remelt so I’m definitely looking forward to the next episode. I hope your finger has completely healed. Stay safe!

[@TheGrowingStack]

@@forestcityfishing4749 😂 that’s funny, but I think 250k or more might kill me… or will it 🤔

[@TheGrowingStack]

@@irishsakura1 hey Irish, I hope you’re doing wonderful! Thank you for the lovely comment, and I hope to not disappoint for the remelt on the next episode. My finger is completely healed, you have to look really close to even see where it was. Have a great weekend and I’ll talk to you soon 👍

[@mattym8]

Fun to watch. Not sure the propane guy hates his best customer.

[@nelsongriffiths7819]

Where I live in Australia, a single can is worth 10 cents when recycled at a depot. You’d be looking at $840.50 AUD right there!

[@killerdoxen]

Same here in Canada. Did a quick calculation and the aluminum he got would be worth around $177 based on current prices of $2400us per metric ton. Not accounting for the propane cost. Ouch!

[@Callum-xq3px]

If u watch till the end he breaks down the prices....

[@kennysboat4432]

Many u.s states don't have can return.

[@FluePeak]

Here in sweden 1 small alu can is worth 1 Sek so that is about 8000+ SEK or About 800 Euros.

[@ShamaticFocus]

No, because recycling is funded with taxes. spotprice for alu is dirt cheap

[@doriWyo]

Now THAT is something not even BigstackD has tackled! Fun to watch, too.

[@shadowstal3er082]

Someone should challenge him to lol

[@alexisgrunden1556]

@@shadowstal3er082 *_MELT-OFF COMPETITION!!_*

[@mr.boomguy]

Ikr. Sometimes I really want him to do this, but with Copper. Find some copper pipes, boatload of wires, or disassemble lots of old electric motors. Or all of them.

[@przemusprzemus12345]

@bigstackD, challenge accepted?

[@nunyabusiness9404]

Hes building a shop. And I might guess some bigger hardware

[@kevkev5935]

This was awesome. Not sure what is more incredible though. Your patience to melt down thousands of cans, or how much fun your buddy has had on his camping trips.

[@autumnkent3005]

I was wondering if you remove the tabs and donate them to charity

[@Stettafire]

​@autumnkent3005 Charity don't want your tabs

[@durfkludge]

Brother that shelf is STRUGGLING! Great vid, great bars, great stack. Love it.

[@WilliamWebbOfficial]

bro, how many of those grim reapers do you have? 🤣🤣🤣 I thought it was funny how you would just put them right next to the cooling aluminum ingots and kick them when they'd begin to melt into it. for sure a great video to watch. thanks for the content.

[@rejected5925]

Loved how you could see the shelf bend an inch or so at the end 😂

[@sgibbons77]

In my estimation, 500+ cans is a massive melt. This was a MEGA melt! And I loved your supporting cast - you always come up with great ways of enhancing your content. Thank you for all your efforts!

[@corkkyle]

Not bad, but I'm ready for a GigaMelt after this.

[@jorge-jw6bw]

necesitaria un fundidor profesional para hacer el trabajo superrapido

[@manuel-mars]

Why is your propane so expensive

[@juannovoa4194]

Probably lives here in CA lol

[@thisusernamesucks5373]

He doesn't have someone that sells propane and propane accessories at a reasonable price to the average consumer

[@rochamocha5705]

​@@juannovoa4194 he's from Australia mate Edit: Didn't know you could edit comments. In another comment I responded as I realized I'm not watching big stackd. Really thought I was for a moment

[@navnoot]

@@rochamocha5705this guy has a home depot bucket tho? Not like, a Bunnings bucket. Think you’re confusing this guy for bigstackd?

[@Malork_Plays]

​@@rochamocha5705 he might be but that doesn't mean he lives there mate

[@Whatchamawhozit]

You and BIG D are the only melt down channels I watch I find both or your work very relaxing to watch when I want to wind down from a hectic day

[@blake2517]

This video is sick! Amazing patience and persistence through this. Love seeing that pile of melted blocks

[@TheGrowingStack]

Thank you my friend! 👍

[@Peter_Wales]

I love metal in ingot form. And I love to watch when others pour something good out of metallic "waste" or just make ingots. Doesn't always have to be gold bullion. A 10KG copper bar costs about 75 euros in Germany (my home country). Aluminum also has its value, it's the quantity that counts. I've seen other "metalsmiths" heat up the mold with a gas burner before casting, then you'll get a better result after it cools down. Maybe I could give you a little tip. Nice Greetz from GER

[@toryknotts8026]

I love the KZbin's who pour the molten aluminum down ant and wasp nests! Crazy how big those nests get!

[@Stroke999]

The cost of all that Aluminium is about $2500 where i'm from. If you can find sources of rare metals and and forge them into ingots you can make a lot of money.

[@BingsBuddery]

It boggles my mind that more than one of these ASMR meltdown channels exist.

[@jonbartosch1903]

On youtube, if there is one channel that is a success, there's always going to be someone that tries to copy it and get a piece of the pie.

[@Reactiontime6000]

why?

[@chase15a]

I used to smelt aluminum cans and magnesium together in a factory with Flux in two pits pouring 10 ingots at a time. This is long, tedious, and potentially dangerous work. Hats off to you good sir.

[@Maveraxus2.0]

After watching BigStackd for years- I cannot fathom how clean and smooth this guys pours and stacks are

[@randomsucks2444]

I was going to say the same thing.

[@JimFinlayson]

That was quite the undertaking. You definitely go big or go home. I see why you didn’t have a video last week. I can’t fathom the effort that went into this. Thanks for sharing and keep them coming.

[@Racingisgood]

Massively impressive video! Can’t decide which I’m more impressed with! Your patience or how your shelving units strength to hold all that weight!!

[@bensnipes7288]

Back in our heavy drinking early years, my best buds and i always drank from bottles. We took a heaping, entire 8 foot bed pickup bed load load to the recycling area at the disposal site. The attendant there was pretty damn impressed! Then we found out we had to sort by color.... You sir have earned a sub for this one!

[@davidmason9173]

I melt a lot of cans, but 8400+! That's dedication my friend. I started with a little 6kg furnace. Have since upgraded to the 10kg Devil-Forge and it goes much faster. That was a joy to watch.

[@carpediemarts705]

Having seen the ant hill pours, I've wondered how well an electric induction hot plate with an iron dutch oven would do for assisting with a can melt. If the aluminum didn't melt in the hotplate at least a bunch could get up to 800 degrees or so. And with different breakers you could have a handful going at one time. One can of propane cost how much and 1 kw of power for an hour cost 10¢. If an induction hot plate is $50 it could still save money in propane and potentially be a lot safer.

[@jacobchristopher6941]

Induction plates get pretty hot, but aluminum melts at 1200 degrees F°, so a crucible is the best at-home option

[@carpediemarts705]

@@jacobchristopher6941 hot plate is meant as the prep for the propane crucible. Get your cans close to melting in the iron dutch oven and then dump into the crucible to finish. Try both at the same time from room temp and see which melts faster. I predict it will be close.

[@LFTRnow]

@@carpediemarts705 I agree with you, electric would be far cheaper. You could build an electric kiln (or several) for the cost of all the propane.

[@carpediemarts705]

@@LFTRnow miss my point entirely yet again. Which since I don't plan to actually do the work is fair. I'm just supposing that a cheap hot plate in a dutch oven might be a way someone could add to their aluminum melting experience.

[@ChaserRocks]

I’m with ya Carpe on scale like this or bigger use cheaper energy to get some heat in upfront plus doubling the batches in process if if ever facing 8000+ cans again

[@DarthKanye]

i would reccomend installing supports for your display shelf since you can see the wood bending from weight

[@kapoink835]

I think this is the most satisfying video I've ever seen. Just the sheer magnitude and attention to craft is what I think does it for me. This video plays out like a fantasy Id think about when trying to sleep. Excellent!

[@hydrohomiee]

This was surprisingly entertaining. I came in expecting nothing special but here I stand, corrected. This was awesome

[@ZombifiedWatermelon]

This is by far the biggest can melt I've ever seen on KZbin. You win man. Subscribed. 😀

[@bmo14lax]

The grim reaper statues threw me off for sure 😂

[@ahnilatedahnilated7703]

Love the video and the humor put into it to keep things lite and fun.

[@jayhac3803]

By far, the biggest can meltdown on YT. Congrats sir. And a nicely cleaned up video to boot.

[@user-ml3hl6vr4t]

Spouse built foundry and has collection of crucibles. I have been crushing and saving cans… real eye opener here. Thank you for this video and all the exact numbers.

[@isaiahjuarez9352]

Genuinely impressed he counted all the cans, props to you

[@mdhaynie]

I would have weighed out 100 cans and used that weight to “count” piles of 100.

[@johnnguyen409]

This video was awesome!! Hahaha those deaths lmaoooo I was so confused lmaoooo and the little thing that fell over every time you poured the molten in

[@austinhall3937]

That giant stack of treasure is just so cool to me. It makes me really really want to get into this.

[@justinbanks2380]

That's a DAMN GOOD buddy, to give those to you. Also, I'm sure many, many good times were had making all those (not all remembered, probably but still good times!)

[@SollersScrappingandDiving]

I find my scrapping very sensory fulfilling but wow, this was stunning in every way! One thing is for sure, like every scrapper out there, I could definitely do with the space you have in that garage!!!! This lot certainly helped the stack grow and your perseverance needs applauding!! I'm not watching many videos while I'm temporarily away from KZbin at the hospital with our little one because if I'm honest it makes me miss you all, but I'm so glad I noticed and watched this one, I particularly loved the way it started looking like a giant jenga wall! I certainly didn't mind watching the ads either because videos as enjoyable as this deserve it, good work and I'm glad you showed the propane costs 👍

[@Ben-xf7uy]

Loved the mega melting and damn can i appreciate some good strong and sturdy shelves haha. Thanks for the content

[@elizabethbanks2570]

You sure do have some amazing patience!! This probably took forever 😮 its cool to see them in bar form

[@tracybowling1156]

Ok, ok you win! I've seen a bunch of can melts. Never this many! If I worked for Guinness, you'd get a world record, Mr. Melter! Excellent video, my friend. We had a hurricane-Ian. So, no power. 😢 You Sir, are my entertainment. My fav entertainment! 😀

[@SkollTheWerewolf]

I love how every time a death is about to fall onto a cooling ingot, you just slap it away lol

[@Faythe1981]

Something satisfying about hearing that safety latch that falls down in high speed...

[@willkayl8793]

Just the sheer time it took to harvest all of those cans and the time and effort it took to melt them all down is staggering. I’m new to these kinds of videos but, I’m amazed at the work you put in for this one. Cheers.

[@DanSmith-cb5vj]

His friend saved all those cans in two years of camping time and gave them to him. From what I gathered, he didn't comb the ditches, as I use to do. Now I keep driving by them thin light weight cans.

[@nachostuff]

Crazy that it was under 200 pounds. That a crazy amount of propane. Cool job!

[@jamiehughes5573]

I hope he has some good propane and propane accessories

[@AGPMandavel]

@@jamiehughes5573 man I tell you what

[@korebiis]

"Almost there..." the other 8000+ cans staring back: 👁👄👁

[@Mannlymann]

Why do you have so many Grimm reapers

[@MattH479]

If anyone CAN do it, I knew it’d be you! Great quality content. Cheers!

[@pie7395]

That shelf began to warp when you put the ingots. I got hella scared thinking it would collapse.

[@phantomms7162]

Now imagine if he had a crucible and cast big enough to make one giant ingot.

[@Digitalsurfer265]

Somebody get this man a bigger crucible 😂

[@ANONYMOUS-vf2nn]

I really respect the effort of that, really impressive. Keep it up

[@crazycarl9484]

You earned a can of beer for that, great video thanks for sharing.

[@robrobinson8328]

Very generous buddy!

[@Tonzeeee]

In Finland, the "deposit"system is in cans. by returning the can to the store You get 10 euro cents per piece for that amount. you would have received 800 euros, or about 850 dollars, just by taking the cans back to the store

[@hotgoatbutter8884]

Or you could lose 850 euros, but look cool af melting all that down

[@TacoNissan]

In the US it's 5¢ per can or bottle, and only a handful of states have it

[@Tonzeeee]

@@TacoNissan Here, glass bottle 10 cent, small bottles and cans 20 cent and 1 litre or up bottles 40 cent (eurocents)

[@AlanWatts33]

@@TacoNissan in Michigan it’s 10 cents

[@michaelfielding4613]

well done great video lot of effort put in keep melting stay safe and enjoy

[@AlbySilly]

10:43 I just love how the 3d prints just keep getting larger and larger

[@Blackmanbubbs]

The most impressive thing in this video is how strong that shelf is

[@zanderkatsirebas8190]

Nobody’s gonna talk about how he had like a hundred different death toys😂

[@whatupdan]

I KNOW RIGHT!

[@irishwristwatch2487]

Okay but....alumnium crazy paving. This needs to be a thing 😂

[@w0nd3rb0y]

It would be cheaper than some bricks.

[@michaelfomenko1563]

I wish someone had as much confidence in me as you have in those shelves 🤣

[@graflovespeep2487]

Here in Germany we have something called 'Flaschen/Dosenpfand', basically a deposit you pay on almost all cans and bottles, usually 25 cents. The empty cans can be returned at special maschines available in almost every supermarket, giving you back the deposit, usually in store credit but you can have the register pay you out. Returning all those cans would have netted you a nice sum of €2101.25, or around $2066.

[@ZarNova]

what a patient guy you are my friend

[@westweld]

Crazy amount of work man......id love to try machining one of those blocks I wonder how it mills

[@TheGrowingStack]

Thanks brother, I’d love to send you one and curious how they do. I need to catch up on your channel too, I’ve been so busy lately I haven’t really been watching anything. I’ll catch up though. Shoot me an email and I’ll shoot one over to you. [e-mail]

[@Max-dj1hu]

Most would call this man insane but those of us who have melted aluminum with our buddies call him a hero.

[@finnilrebna348]

When you smack the little grim reapers I laughed pretty hard! Idk why, but that was great. Thumbs up! 👍

[@lesliek3794]

Poor Death, he's looking a bit sad at times. I really appreciate you for all the work you did to make this video. Thank you! Is that new music? I like it!

[@TheGrowingStack]

Death had a bad experience this go around 🙂 Thank you Leslie, it was very taxing to make and produce this one, but I’m very proud of it so I’m glad you like it. It is new music, always a brand new track on every video. My brother creates a new and unique song for each and every video so they are never the same. I’m glad you like it and I’ll definitely let him know.(insider info, I used his demo track before he had time to finish it because I wanted to get this one out so bad, he had more to add to it, sent me his idea to see what I thought and I just ran with it, so it would have been a lot better and more full sounding, more everything… I might never live this one down 😬) 👍👍👍

[@justaguyfromreddit]

@@TheGrowingStack why don't you use an eletric furnace to melt the metal? Coupled with solar panels I believe can save you some bucks in the long run

[@CanManAdventures]

Awesome video man I’ve watched a lot of different people do melt down videos best one yet I’ve seen very good job sir

[@user-kr6jg6qb7l]

Honorable mention to your super strong shelf lol

[@risistor318]

Hi there. This is the first video of yours I’ve seen. Great content, love the humour with the grim reaper figures. They just kept multiplying and getting bigger 😂 But the main selling point that made me sub was that YOU ACTUALLY PUT A VALUE AMOUNT on the whole lot at the end! So many people don’t do this and it annoys me! I want to know how much all the ingots are worth after all that work melting the cans down! So, thank you.

[@squirrelfighter8747]

IDK man, i thought there was a little too much death in this video 🤣🤣 But really, awesome video

[@boronim]

He made 20 dollars in 40 hours, idk if it's worth it though

[@Roro_2338]

post your ingot collection bro

[@endurofurry]

honestly im more interested to see the remelt of the waste then the melt of the cans i wonder how much is still there

[@thejuggernautofspades9453]

When will we get that vid when the can is full?

[@endurofurry]

@@thejuggernautofspades9453 looks like he already posted it

[@citylotgardening6171]

Great video I got exhausted just watching you count them lol 👍

[@TheGrowingStack]

Thank you! It was exhausting counting them all in real time. 🙂

[@philipmcdonald2]

Loved that filmed brilliantly!😂

[@donl4914]

That qualifies as one MASSIVE MELT!!!!! Really should get you on an oil Burner, Waste oil is FREE!!! 😜😜😜😜 I've done this in a day melting Aluminum, but never tried to do that amount of cans. I'm betting this didn't happen in a single day...lol Great Video Bro!!! That stack just took on a whole new AWESOMENESS!!!! 😎😎🔥🔥💯💯👍🏻👍🏻

[@ram-ck7ti]

Fun to watch. Lesson learned. It doesn't pay to do your own recapture of recycled materials. Amazing production. Good fun.

[@EssentialComment]

Correct, those cans were almost pure alloy anyway before the melt, it is worth it when you are improving the purity of things, however this is greak content now at 800K views

[@screwsnutsandbolts]

Super videos ! 👍

[@cupcakekayser7771]

This is by far not boring to me but thanks for making this video bc I am finally ready to sleep and am starting to nod off.

[@LoreleiBlaine]

incredibly funny that after all that work, the hypothetical profit from materials alone, subtracting only the cost of the propane, was $15. for 40+ hours of work

[@thomasr2472]

If we include the fuel cost, a broken firebrick, and melted reapers, we end up with roughly zero.

[@gonefishin722]

My guess is you were 3d printing those death models faster than the cams could melt. Haha what a cool angle of entertainment to show even more so how hot the molten metal is. Even aluminum

[@lukemooney4994]

As you were putting each stack of ingots on the shelf you could see it slowly flexing :D great video bro

[@scoozilife]

The real MVP is that shelf! It sagged more and more every stack 🤣

[@insidious9088]

What's with all the reapers...

[@thunderaarcanis98]

i would estimate that each can weighs about 20 grams and if thats the case then 8405 cans would weigh 169KG meaning you got about a 50% recovery out of the cans which sounds about right for aluminum. i would reccomend saving the slag cause often times aluminum slag is reusable and you could probably get another 5-10KG out of it.

[@chrisceykovsky]

I've wanted to do this for years - major hold up is what can the ignots be used for in the end over recycling the cans?

[@pabloestafez6830]

Very nice uniform blocks too, for some reason that really stood out to me🤷😂

[@andyjohnson3790]

So is the end price of the melted cans worth any more than the scrap price of the cans itself?

[@corkkyle]

The only thing you are really saving is electricity/energy when you recycle aluminum cans. The metal itself is common. Once you use a massive amount of energy to separate it... that's the value.

[@michaelsprout8762]

Props 100 percent/and that's what u call a real stack

[@Stepher45]

That is a bold choice leaving this all on your driveway

[@xanchvk]

i thoroughly enjoy watching this vid, almost as much as i am thoroughly confused as to why there are so many DEATHs and where in the hell did they come from? All different colors and sizes all over the place😂anyway keep up the hard work and dedication metal man

[@romain3135]

if it's him with 2 other guys, they drank about 1.36 beer each day per person for 10 years

[@greghenner4978]

That would be pretty awesome to have a driveway made of those ingots

[@ClayMDT]

wow, just. Wow. That takes some perseverance. I would have given up immediately . I can't imagine how many times you looked at that and just thought " Dam , i don't wanna do this"

[@TheGrowingStack]

Thank you my friend! Trust me, after about 8 hours of melting a LOT of questions crossed my mind. But I couldn’t give up and this video, the melting, the editing, all the time spent, really made me happy once I crossed the finish line. It was definitely a massive task! 👍

[@ClayMDT]

@@TheGrowingStack I cant imagine how good it must have felt to melt that last can and pour that last ingot.

[@TheGrowingStack]

@@ClayMDT it was a happy moment for sure! Sometimes when I take on a sand cast idea I have and it goes south, I have to think my way around it to figure it out and achieve something close to my idea that I had in the first place. This one was just a marathon, so crossing the finish line definitely felt good.

[@freezingpoint1174]

I think your shelf hates you more than the refill station.😂

[@NeverEvil1]

8405 ..... somebody(s) has a drinking problem 😂 Seriously though, that video was pure dedication. After the first 5 ingots, I probably would have just quit and took the rest in to be recycled.

[@Etrius_Fysik]

Over the course of 10 years, that's less than 3 cans a day. Lol However it was over camping trips, and I can't imagine his friend is camping every day. Lmao BUT, I can imagine those cans weren't all drank by one person, so who knows who was drinking how many. Hahaa

[@melodiclodgings8]

just seeing that shelf bend as it gets weighed down is a disaster waiting to happen

[@brettie7197]

When all those ingots started stacking up it reminded me of that scene with the armourer in mandolorian haha

[@sovereignjepson5201]

This is a man of strength, perseverance, and pure fucking will

[@Khaltazar]

So, other than having a lot of ingots, this was actually a loss due to not only time but fuel too. I thought it would sell for a lot more than that.

[@fredborgmann2250]

Do melted can ingots sell for much more per pound than in crushed can form?

[@Jumper-frog]

In ingot it’s worth more as the scrapyard doesn’t have to do melt it themselves