Metal Casting Zone

hello everyone im new to this forum and i need some help!! i made a charcoal foundry out of a coffee can and a blower fan...well i melt down my aluminum and i pour it in a thing i made out of angle iron...my question is if there's a certain way to make the mold for the ingots? i pour the aluminum and wait till it cools and it gets pretty hard to take the ingots out...if anyone can help me out that would be great!

I pour my ingots in a muffin pan. My aluminum ingots are 1 lbs for every two full muffins. As far as your angle iron, you could try and rub somme chalk or baby powder or something like that on them to see if that helps. DONO

i dont know about your iron mould??? i just use those light cake tins the ones that knock out a dozen or so. this makes 50...80 gr pellets which i store for remelting. they are also the right size to handle and add to my pot as melting commences.

thanks for the reply guys i bought 2 things for making cupcakes i think it will be easier that way! i was looking at videos on youtube and thats what most people use now for another question...the sand mix a friend i talk to online told me to get some silica sand and some stuff called floor dry...i think its the stuff u use on the floor when u have spills...dont really know if thats all i need? or do i need to mix anything else with it?

dont know about the floor spill stuff. if it has bentonite clay in it i reckon you could use it. i use kitty litter which has the clay in it. its a bit of a process to make it up tho. if you find out the name of this floor spill stuff and if it contains the clay please post about it.

You are right about floor dry. It can be used. The problem with it and kitty litter (which can also be used if made of the right stuff) is that you have to grind it or smash it into powder. Bentonite clay is what you are looking for which is what they are made of, but if you can find it in powder form, it will save you tons of work and time. I found mine at a Ag feed store. The guy did not carry it AT the store, but he was kind enough to order a 50lbs bag of it the next time a truck came. They use it in Ag feed as a binder to make pellets of food stick together. They also use it in places to patch leaks in ponds.

When you get your sand, yes, get silica sand. Be careful when you get it though. It is rated in "mesh" which is basically the coarseness of it. Look on the bag and it will tell you what mesh it is. The higher the number = the finer the sand = the better quality of castings it will produce. go for atleast 85 or better.

I think they are talking about what is more commonly refered to as "oil dry" They sell it in auto parts stores. Same as kitty litter.

I searched every AG feed store in Northern California. They had no idea what I was talking about as far as Bentonite clay. Where I finally found it was thru a well drilling outfit. They call it "drillers mud". They use it in a slurry form to cool and lubricate the drill bits as they bore holes in the earth. Tanko well drilling In Auburn, CA can get it pretty easily. The guy I got this information from said that they get the stuff delivered by the dump truck and if I was to "happen across" an active drill site, they spill 50 to 100 pounds of the stuff just getting it to the drill site. If I was good with a broom and a 5 gallon bucket I could probably get all that I needed for free after they were done. If I wanted to buy a 50lb sack of it, that would cost me $16.50USD. I bought two. By the way 50lb bag of the stuff is enough to make enough good tempered casting sand to cast a large enginge block and then some. It didn't take near as much as I though it would. I Still have 3/4 of a 5 gallon bucket of it after mixing it with two 100lb sacks of 80 screen sandblasting sand. This mixture gives me slightly damp sand that cakes when squeezed and breaks clean with minimal crumbling when rolled into a 3 inch diameter sausage log and then bent to break. The kids tell me it is the very best sand castle making sand as it holds it shape even when pretty dry and the little bits of aluminum that are sometimes left in the sand are "pretty sparkles"

I only used about 7 pounds of dry bentonite to 100 pounds of sand. My sand is between 100 and 120 grit. 50# would make about 700# of greensand, Hmmm that's about how much sand I have left.
I did use cat litter for my first batch, it works great and smells good too. It had a little bit a some scented cat litter mixed in it.
You want the cheapest all natural cat litter, but you have to find a way to grind it to a powder. I used an old blender for some. I gave up on that, it works but is slow. I brought the rest to work and pulverized it in our little ball mill grinder, now it's like baby powder.
I will find the real stuff next time.

Just for grins I tried to make a ball mill grinder. I am not really sure how they are supposed to work but I think that got the idea. I took a metal 5 gallon can with smooth sides that used to have solvent in it. I left the top off so that the last of the solvent evaporated out of the can leaving a clean can ...more or less. I filled the can with about 100 or so 1/2 in ball-bearings that I rescued from the trash. I put just enough kitty litter in it to cover them and then a little bit. I built a roller type table and turned the rollers with a motor that I had laying about. The can layed on its side and rolled at about 100RPM or so. Is that more or less how it works. I left the kitty litter running in there overnight and there is still some bigger pieces. Am I leaving out a step or what? What does a

real

ball mill grinder look like inside. Pictures?