in today’s video we’re taking a classic
build the mini metal foundry and we’re
scaling it way down to a desktop version
guys in the past you’ve seen both grant
and Nate build different types of
foundries but today Nate has found a way
to make that even smaller the micro
metal foundry that’s right sometimes you
don’t need to melt a lot of aluminum you
just need little bits at a time and so
for that we are going to build an entire
foundry in this tiny little bucket
here’s the basic idea using plaster and
sand we’ll make a fire resistant shell
inside of a small bucket
well then build a propane jet nozzle
that can heat up the inside of our
foundry hot enough to melt aluminum here
we go this bucket for $2 at Hobby Lobby
there are similar versions at most craft
stores and that’s the first thing we’re
going to need is a little bucket next
thing we need is this little stainless
steel coffee scoop those from Walmart
and this was also about $2 and this is
gonna be used for two things first we’re
gonna use it for measuring and then it’s
actually going to become the crucible
inside the foundry to start our build
we’re also going to need a cup and a
spoon just for mixing some water some
plaster of Paris and playground sand we
need to fill this bucket about 65 to 75
percent away and so what we’re gonna do
is two batches of plaster sand and water
mixed up so we need four scoops of
plaster four scoops of sand and three
mix those three ingredients together
thoroughly being sure to get all of the
plaster off of the bottom of the cup now
you have a little bit of time to mix
here but as soon as you start feeling
this warm up that’s the plaster reacting
to the water and that lets you know that
you gotta move fast
this small coin these with the sand
you’ve got a few minutes but it is
something you need to be aware of
once it’s all stirred in pour it into
the bucket and then mix up a second
batch if you have really big cups you
can do this all at once with 8 scoops of
plaster 8 scoops of sand and 6 scoops of
water ok our bucket is now about
two-thirds full we do want to try and
get out all of the air bubbles we can so
it’s good to take a minute or two and
just tap the bucket to sort of vibrate
it and get as much air out of encamp
alright our D bubble D gas plaster is
about ready so now we’re gonna take our
plastic cup and we’re gonna drop this
down into the center the water is in
there to add weight so all of this is
going to displace the plaster and it’s
gonna make a nice border around this cup
so I’m gonna put this down and try and
position it just right
Kali’s going to use the tape to tape the
cup in place to just hold it right where
we want it
[Music]
with your couple of water taped in place
inside the plaster you’ll want to give
it at least an hour possibly more
depending on the temperature and
humidity of where you are if you want it
to speed up a little bit you can also
throw it in the oven on the lowest
setting for an hour or so
well that’s curing we’re going to work
on building the burner the burner for
this foundry isn’t going to use one of
the large propane tanks we’re actually
just gonna use the small ones either the
blue ones or the green camping version
first thing we’re gonna need is a torch
head that goes to a propane tank this is
the kind of just threads right on and
normally you can just use this as a
torch however this well it is pretty hot
isn’t quite the volume of fire that we
want and it’s definitely hard to place
with these types of propane tanks if you
turn them upside down or anything to get
this nozzle right where we would want it
they do have a tendency to start
flickering and sputtering after a while
and so we’re gonna hook up a whole
little hose and build ourselves a
customized burner we’ve got some thread
tape a 1/4 inch or 6 millimeter wire
welding contact tip these things are
removable they’re replaceable and they
have just this wonderful sized hole as
the nozzle we have a 1/2 inch to one
quarter inch coupling this is some steel
pipe got four of these socket cap screws
they have the hex head in them and
they’re machined threaded screws this is
a number 8 by 32 thread and this one is
3/4 of an inch long we have a 1/4 inch
brass pipe cap we have a 1/4 inch – barb
fitting and a 3 inch segment of 1/4 inch
pipe and lastly we’ve got about a 3-foot
segment of quarter inch braided hose
this is what’s actually going to carry
our propane from the tank down indoor
burner so our first step is going to be
to take our coupling file it down and
then drill and tap it so that our screws
fitting we’re filing this down because
trying to drill right into the side of a
curved pipe is pretty impossible at
we’ve now about the four sides of this
coupling filed down and they aren’t
being all filed down in the same places
we’ve got two that are going to be right
here at the top and the ones on the
sides are gonna be a little bit lower
now in each of those four spots we need
to drill a hole using a 9/64 inch in
drill bit once the holes are drilled
using 832 tap to add some threads we’ve
now got all four holes drilled and
tapped so that we can thread our screws
into them we now need to do the same
drilling and tapping process with our
brass cap so that our contacts tip will
thread into that with a 3/16 inch drill
bit we want to drill a hole as close to
the center as possible into our brass
cap this time we’re going to be using an
m6 by 1.0 tap now this contact tip
threads beautifully into the threads
that we just cut so we have all of our
pieces it’s time for assembly
[Music]
with the thread tape this should form a
pretty tight seal it was a little bit on
the loose side before but now it goes in
and it shouldn’t let any gases escape
that’s what’s important and now we need
to take the four screws and fit them
into the sides and have them hold
everything in place the four screws are
going to grip onto the contact tip to
hold everything in place so the contact
tip fits down through all four of those
and then once it’s in place we want to
tighten these four screws by hand make
sure that doesn’t go anywhere once we’ve
got it lined up we want to take an Allen
wrench and just tighten those screws
down to really hold it in place that’s
now holding itself in place quite nicely
just what we’re looking for on the other
side of this coupling we’re going to
attach our 3-inch piece of quarter inch
pipe
[Music]
we now need to attach the hose from the
propane tank onto our burner we need to
modify this so it can attach to the hose
and so it has a higher propane output
first step we’re just gonna unscrew this
top diffuser as this nozzle is when you
attach it to a propane tank it lets out
just the tiny tiniest amount of propane
you can’t even see the hole where the
propane is coming out it’s not fine
right in the center there
there’s just tiny bits of corrosion on
the brass and that’s enough to just
entirely hide it there you go if I turn
that up even the tiniest bit it’s gonna
go out we need to widen that nozzle so
we’re going to use the smallest size
drill bit that comes with our drill set
which is one sixteenth of an inch
if you drill this out you’ll work for
your micro metal foundry but it will not
am often to attach the hose onto this it
already has threads and we’re gonna use
them first what we need to do is make
the hose a little bit more pliable so
we’re gonna take a lighter and slowly
warm it up so that it can fit right onto
these threads we’ll have to push and
hose attached on the other side we’re
just gonna be using the Barb and that
just fits in alright so now we should be
able to attach this to our propane tank
attach that onto the burner we’ve just
built hopefully we’ll get a nice
ignition
[Music]
our burner is built-in attaches to our
propane tanks so let’s get back to
finishing up our plaster filled bucket
and turning this all into a foundry the
plaster is largely set it’s not a
hundred percent cured yet but it’s
definitely set enough that we can take
this off pour out the water here all
right so now we should be able to
collapse this cup just like grant did in
the larger version use sort of a
all of those we now want to use a hole
saw to make a hole on the side of our
bucket just large enough for the nozzle
of our burner to fit in our goal is to
keep it as low down as possible in the
bucket but not so low that when we’re
leaving the hole soft it’s gonna cut
into the bottom all right with our
plaster cured this much it’s like I was
saying it’s not cured all the way but it
has cured some it’s extremely easy to
[Music]
some of this looks like world’s tiniest
round there you go
I need little foundry a powerful gas jet
it’s almost the size of a jumbo
marshmallow here I made this for you
thank you mmm Tasek a drill now while
our burner does work inside our foundry
at this point we really want to make
sure that the plaster gets all the way
dry before we really use it for anything
so you can just let it sit for a day or
two but what I recommend is putting in
the oven at about 200 degrees for two
hours and then at about 450 degrees for
another three hours that should really
bake it dry so plaster while you’re
using it and while it’s drying has a
tendency to crack which is one of the
reasons that we tapped all of the
bubbles out of it beforehand if you’re
worried about the longevity of your
micro metal foundry you can also use
Grant’s trick of tearing up a little bit
of coarse steel wool and mixing it in
with the slurry before you cast it into
the bucket it kind of acts like mini
rebar you may also notice that our
propane tank is sitting in a bowl and
that’s because these propane tanks with
the nozzle opened up extra wide as they
depressurize quickly they tend to cool
down quite a bit and once they get too
cold the propane inside them doesn’t
exit as quickly and you end up having
problems keeping your flame consistent
so this is just a bowl of lukewarm water
and our propane tank is just sitting in
it and that will help prevent it from
freezing up too fast as we let it burn
now we’re going to go ahead and take our
scoop and turn it into our crucible
where we’re going to do that is take
this handle bend it over so we have
something to raise and lower it out of
this now fits nicely into our foundry
but it actually just goes too far down
in we don’t want it resting quite at the
bottom because it won’t get the fire
circulating around it as well as we want
so we’re also going to use a little bit
of hanger wire to build a stand the
hanger wire is made of steel so we
shouldn’t have to worry about it melting
although the coating will burn off the
first time I put it in there but that
will just hold our crucible right at the
height that we want it yeah it fits
we’ll stand that goes down inside our
crucible it’s right on top of that we
are ready to test out our micro metal
foundry there’s a couple things we need
to do first is we probably want to set
this on like a piece of brick or stone
or something it doesn’t conduct a lot of
heat down but we still wouldn’t want to
put it on a wooden surface the other is
of course that we need some aluminum to
try and melt down I think we’re gonna
try using some soda tabs that right
there is the coating on the hanger
catching on fire now let’s let this run
and see if we can melt these tabs
[Music]
all right our aluminum is nice and
molten so I’m gonna take it out of the
foundry and then we’ve got I made this
tiny little sword shape mold there are a
few other things that we might be able
to try but we’re gonna start with the
sword one now aluminum is a very
lightweight metal as you know and with
this little of it it doesn’t have a lot
of weight to push down and force it to
flow so my plan is to pour it on and
then use the wire to try and encourage
it into the shape that we want we’ll
give this a shot you made a very tiny
aluminum sauce there’s a sword shape in
there may have over poured the aluminum
just a little bit but needed to
encouragement but that flowed into the
general shape there we made some
aluminum with our micro metal foundry
and now I’ve got some orbits that are
not fully expanded so they are all so
little and we’re going to now pour the
aluminum into those Orbeez and see what
[Music]
[Music]
let’s just make sure this is cooled down
we’ve made an alien we got a good sure
[Music]
guys that’s not all we’ve always got
more for you to see that box up at the
top will take you to our last video you
should go check that one out the other
box is gonna show you what YouTube
thinks you should be watching next this
bomb in the middle will subscribe you to
our channel hit that so you never miss
out on the fun don’t forget to ring that
Bell and we’ll see you in the next one talk to you then
build the mini metal foundry and we’re
scaling it way down to a desktop version
guys in the past you’ve seen both grant
and Nate build different types of
foundries but today Nate has found a way
to make that even smaller the micro
metal foundry that’s right sometimes you
don’t need to melt a lot of aluminum you
just need little bits at a time and so
for that we are going to build an entire
foundry in this tiny little bucket
here’s the basic idea using plaster and
sand we’ll make a fire resistant shell
inside of a small bucket
well then build a propane jet nozzle
that can heat up the inside of our
foundry hot enough to melt aluminum here
we go this bucket for $2 at Hobby Lobby
there are similar versions at most craft
stores and that’s the first thing we’re
going to need is a little bucket next
thing we need is this little stainless
steel coffee scoop those from Walmart
and this was also about $2 and this is
gonna be used for two things first we’re
gonna use it for measuring and then it’s
actually going to become the crucible
inside the foundry to start our build
we’re also going to need a cup and a
spoon just for mixing some water some
plaster of Paris and playground sand we
need to fill this bucket about 65 to 75
percent away and so what we’re gonna do
is two batches of plaster sand and water
mixed up so we need four scoops of
plaster four scoops of sand and three
mix those three ingredients together
thoroughly being sure to get all of the
plaster off of the bottom of the cup now
you have a little bit of time to mix
here but as soon as you start feeling
this warm up that’s the plaster reacting
to the water and that lets you know that
you gotta move fast
this small coin these with the sand
you’ve got a few minutes but it is
something you need to be aware of
once it’s all stirred in pour it into
the bucket and then mix up a second
batch if you have really big cups you
can do this all at once with 8 scoops of
plaster 8 scoops of sand and 6 scoops of
water ok our bucket is now about
two-thirds full we do want to try and
get out all of the air bubbles we can so
it’s good to take a minute or two and
just tap the bucket to sort of vibrate
it and get as much air out of encamp
alright our D bubble D gas plaster is
about ready so now we’re gonna take our
plastic cup and we’re gonna drop this
down into the center the water is in
there to add weight so all of this is
going to displace the plaster and it’s
gonna make a nice border around this cup
so I’m gonna put this down and try and
position it just right
Kali’s going to use the tape to tape the
cup in place to just hold it right where
we want it
[Music]
with your couple of water taped in place
inside the plaster you’ll want to give
it at least an hour possibly more
depending on the temperature and
humidity of where you are if you want it
to speed up a little bit you can also
throw it in the oven on the lowest
setting for an hour or so
well that’s curing we’re going to work
on building the burner the burner for
this foundry isn’t going to use one of
the large propane tanks we’re actually
just gonna use the small ones either the
blue ones or the green camping version
first thing we’re gonna need is a torch
head that goes to a propane tank this is
the kind of just threads right on and
normally you can just use this as a
torch however this well it is pretty hot
isn’t quite the volume of fire that we
want and it’s definitely hard to place
with these types of propane tanks if you
turn them upside down or anything to get
this nozzle right where we would want it
they do have a tendency to start
flickering and sputtering after a while
and so we’re gonna hook up a whole
little hose and build ourselves a
customized burner we’ve got some thread
tape a 1/4 inch or 6 millimeter wire
welding contact tip these things are
removable they’re replaceable and they
have just this wonderful sized hole as
the nozzle we have a 1/2 inch to one
quarter inch coupling this is some steel
pipe got four of these socket cap screws
they have the hex head in them and
they’re machined threaded screws this is
a number 8 by 32 thread and this one is
3/4 of an inch long we have a 1/4 inch
brass pipe cap we have a 1/4 inch – barb
fitting and a 3 inch segment of 1/4 inch
pipe and lastly we’ve got about a 3-foot
segment of quarter inch braided hose
this is what’s actually going to carry
our propane from the tank down indoor
burner so our first step is going to be
to take our coupling file it down and
then drill and tap it so that our screws
fitting we’re filing this down because
trying to drill right into the side of a
curved pipe is pretty impossible at
we’ve now about the four sides of this
coupling filed down and they aren’t
being all filed down in the same places
we’ve got two that are going to be right
here at the top and the ones on the
sides are gonna be a little bit lower
now in each of those four spots we need
to drill a hole using a 9/64 inch in
drill bit once the holes are drilled
using 832 tap to add some threads we’ve
now got all four holes drilled and
tapped so that we can thread our screws
into them we now need to do the same
drilling and tapping process with our
brass cap so that our contacts tip will
thread into that with a 3/16 inch drill
bit we want to drill a hole as close to
the center as possible into our brass
cap this time we’re going to be using an
m6 by 1.0 tap now this contact tip
threads beautifully into the threads
that we just cut so we have all of our
pieces it’s time for assembly
[Music]
with the thread tape this should form a
pretty tight seal it was a little bit on
the loose side before but now it goes in
and it shouldn’t let any gases escape
that’s what’s important and now we need
to take the four screws and fit them
into the sides and have them hold
everything in place the four screws are
going to grip onto the contact tip to
hold everything in place so the contact
tip fits down through all four of those
and then once it’s in place we want to
tighten these four screws by hand make
sure that doesn’t go anywhere once we’ve
got it lined up we want to take an Allen
wrench and just tighten those screws
down to really hold it in place that’s
now holding itself in place quite nicely
just what we’re looking for on the other
side of this coupling we’re going to
attach our 3-inch piece of quarter inch
pipe
[Music]
we now need to attach the hose from the
propane tank onto our burner we need to
modify this so it can attach to the hose
and so it has a higher propane output
first step we’re just gonna unscrew this
top diffuser as this nozzle is when you
attach it to a propane tank it lets out
just the tiny tiniest amount of propane
you can’t even see the hole where the
propane is coming out it’s not fine
right in the center there
there’s just tiny bits of corrosion on
the brass and that’s enough to just
entirely hide it there you go if I turn
that up even the tiniest bit it’s gonna
go out we need to widen that nozzle so
we’re going to use the smallest size
drill bit that comes with our drill set
which is one sixteenth of an inch
if you drill this out you’ll work for
your micro metal foundry but it will not
am often to attach the hose onto this it
already has threads and we’re gonna use
them first what we need to do is make
the hose a little bit more pliable so
we’re gonna take a lighter and slowly
warm it up so that it can fit right onto
these threads we’ll have to push and
hose attached on the other side we’re
just gonna be using the Barb and that
just fits in alright so now we should be
able to attach this to our propane tank
attach that onto the burner we’ve just
built hopefully we’ll get a nice
ignition
[Music]
our burner is built-in attaches to our
propane tanks so let’s get back to
finishing up our plaster filled bucket
and turning this all into a foundry the
plaster is largely set it’s not a
hundred percent cured yet but it’s
definitely set enough that we can take
this off pour out the water here all
right so now we should be able to
collapse this cup just like grant did in
the larger version use sort of a
all of those we now want to use a hole
saw to make a hole on the side of our
bucket just large enough for the nozzle
of our burner to fit in our goal is to
keep it as low down as possible in the
bucket but not so low that when we’re
leaving the hole soft it’s gonna cut
into the bottom all right with our
plaster cured this much it’s like I was
saying it’s not cured all the way but it
has cured some it’s extremely easy to
[Music]
some of this looks like world’s tiniest
round there you go
I need little foundry a powerful gas jet
it’s almost the size of a jumbo
marshmallow here I made this for you
thank you mmm Tasek a drill now while
our burner does work inside our foundry
at this point we really want to make
sure that the plaster gets all the way
dry before we really use it for anything
so you can just let it sit for a day or
two but what I recommend is putting in
the oven at about 200 degrees for two
hours and then at about 450 degrees for
another three hours that should really
bake it dry so plaster while you’re
using it and while it’s drying has a
tendency to crack which is one of the
reasons that we tapped all of the
bubbles out of it beforehand if you’re
worried about the longevity of your
micro metal foundry you can also use
Grant’s trick of tearing up a little bit
of coarse steel wool and mixing it in
with the slurry before you cast it into
the bucket it kind of acts like mini
rebar you may also notice that our
propane tank is sitting in a bowl and
that’s because these propane tanks with
the nozzle opened up extra wide as they
depressurize quickly they tend to cool
down quite a bit and once they get too
cold the propane inside them doesn’t
exit as quickly and you end up having
problems keeping your flame consistent
so this is just a bowl of lukewarm water
and our propane tank is just sitting in
it and that will help prevent it from
freezing up too fast as we let it burn
now we’re going to go ahead and take our
scoop and turn it into our crucible
where we’re going to do that is take
this handle bend it over so we have
something to raise and lower it out of
this now fits nicely into our foundry
but it actually just goes too far down
in we don’t want it resting quite at the
bottom because it won’t get the fire
circulating around it as well as we want
so we’re also going to use a little bit
of hanger wire to build a stand the
hanger wire is made of steel so we
shouldn’t have to worry about it melting
although the coating will burn off the
first time I put it in there but that
will just hold our crucible right at the
height that we want it yeah it fits
we’ll stand that goes down inside our
crucible it’s right on top of that we
are ready to test out our micro metal
foundry there’s a couple things we need
to do first is we probably want to set
this on like a piece of brick or stone
or something it doesn’t conduct a lot of
heat down but we still wouldn’t want to
put it on a wooden surface the other is
of course that we need some aluminum to
try and melt down I think we’re gonna
try using some soda tabs that right
there is the coating on the hanger
catching on fire now let’s let this run
and see if we can melt these tabs
[Music]
all right our aluminum is nice and
molten so I’m gonna take it out of the
foundry and then we’ve got I made this
tiny little sword shape mold there are a
few other things that we might be able
to try but we’re gonna start with the
sword one now aluminum is a very
lightweight metal as you know and with
this little of it it doesn’t have a lot
of weight to push down and force it to
flow so my plan is to pour it on and
then use the wire to try and encourage
it into the shape that we want we’ll
give this a shot you made a very tiny
aluminum sauce there’s a sword shape in
there may have over poured the aluminum
just a little bit but needed to
encouragement but that flowed into the
general shape there we made some
aluminum with our micro metal foundry
and now I’ve got some orbits that are
not fully expanded so they are all so
little and we’re going to now pour the
aluminum into those Orbeez and see what
[Music]
[Music]
let’s just make sure this is cooled down
we’ve made an alien we got a good sure
[Music]
guys that’s not all we’ve always got
more for you to see that box up at the
top will take you to our last video you
should go check that one out the other
box is gonna show you what YouTube
thinks you should be watching next this
bomb in the middle will subscribe you to
our channel hit that so you never miss
out on the fun don’t forget to ring that
Bell and we’ll see you in the next one talk to you then
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