Melting Cans With The Mini Metal Foundry

today we’re going to be making muffins
but trust me this is one recipe you
won’t be able to find in the kitchen
cookbook in this project we’re using
backyard science and a bucket full of
soda cans to make a batch of mini metal
biscuits let’s start this project with
the mini metal foundry we made in
another video in a big bag of charcoal
briquettes these might look like the
kind for barbecuing and grilling and
that’s because they are when five
briquettes are spaced evenly at the
bottom we’re ready to add a crucible
like this one I made out of a steel fire
extinguisher and I found that putting
the container on a layer of charcoal
helps melt the cans faster once we fire
it up now let’s connect a one-inch steel
pipe through the air supply poured on
the side of the foundry this will get
the fire hot enough to melt metal but we
still need a way to shoot the air in we
could just blow through it but a much
better idea is to use a hairdryer which
you can find in most thrift stores for
about three dollars now I tape the
hairdryer to some PVC pipe and insert it
a couple of one-inch couplings to
connect the steel tube at one end and
give the blower tube a quick-release
feature this way it’s super easy to take
apart and fits into a five-gallon bucket
for easy storage
now since the blower tube is at a
strategically placed angle it’s really
helpful to support it so it doesn’t
straighten the foundry this little trick
will help keep the walls from cracking
and increase the life of the unit
dramatically now that the foundry is all
set up let’s fill it to the top with
charcoal and breathe some life into them
the same way you’d light up your
barbecue my tool of choice is a propane
torch because it gets everything heated
up in a hurry the coals are burning so
let’s flip the hairdryer to the low
setting and blow a steady stream of
oxygen on the charcoal to really heat
things up you can see how the cover we
made keeps the heat inside so it
conserves energy while it’s bringing up
the temperature the coolest part is that
the crucible lines up perfectly with the
hole in the center all right with that
warming up let’s round up some soda cans
like these ones I got from a local
recycling depot and this important tool
that makes the whole operation possible
a pair of steel tongs from the dollar
store after 10 minutes you can see the
foundry is scorching hot and the handles
probably are as well
let’s use the tongs to carefully remove
the top without getting burned you can
see the steel crucible is glowing or
and that means is ready for action the
container is three inches wide which is
the perfect size for melting standard
sized soda cans like these and at
temperatures over a thousand degrees
Fahrenheit you can see it will liquefy
them in just a few seconds now I cranked
it up to full power to melt more cans in
a hurry and averaged around 10 to 12
cans per minute the cool thing is that
it doesn’t matter if the cans are dirty
painted or still have soda inside the
furnace eats anything and pulls out pure
liquid aluminum which you’ll see in just
a second in my experience 38 to 45 cans
produce around one pound of molten
aluminum and if you try crushing your
cans first you can melt them with the
cover in place so less metal will get
oxidized in the process now after
liquefying about 50 cans you can see the
container is completely full but there’s
a lot of gunk floating around that we
really don’t need the easiest way to
isolate the aluminum is with something
like this steel cake pan I got at the
thrift shop for 50 cents first let’s go
ahead and carefully remove the crucible
making sure we’ve got a very secure grip
with our tongs then very slowly pour the
liquid into the steel mold you can see
the slag stays behind and almost acts
like a strainer helping prevent anything
solid from flowing downstream
now that we’ve separated the good stuff
out why don’t we tap the container on a
slab of concrete and dump out the dross
by keeping our crucible clean we can use
it again right away now just for fun I
tried melting a bunch more can so I
could pour them into a brand new cupcake
pan the hope here is that this fancy pan
will give a cool and unique look to the
aluminum ingots when they cool the pan
is made of steel but it’s catching fire
because the nonstick coating is burning
off but this will be the only time it
does that after a couple of minutes you
can see the ingots have hardened but
they’re still blisteringly hot so much
so that they’ll ignite a piece of paper
instantly just by touching it now it’s a
really good idea to have a bucket of
cold water nearby so you can cool them
down when they drop into cold water you
can see they’re still hot enough to
bring the water to an instant boil but
after about 10 seconds they cool to the
point where you could pick them up
barehanded if you want to do now I also
tried pouring ingots into a mini muffin
pan to get a smaller variety and ended
up with some really adorable mini metal
muffins these ones are actually my
favorites now because they’re so easy to
work with the purpose of an ingot is to
keep some pure metal handy for when you
want to make something cool so now that
we have some all we have to do is fire
up the foundry and toss a few Nuggets
into a clean crucible this setup can
liquefy ingots in 5 to 10 minutes and
check this out by melting cleaning it’s
there isn’t any dross we have to fish
out either instead there’s only a thin
skin of aluminium oxide which means this
entire crucible is full of molten
aluminum ready for casting
I tried pouring mine into a five gallon
bucket filled with sand and one other
specialty item which you can see burst
into flames and absorbs two full pounds
of liquid metal after 5 to 10 minutes
the metal is hard enough to grab onto
with a pair of channellocks
so we can break the mold and reveal the
casting inside watch for how to make
something like this in another project
video when it’s time to clean up all the
metalworking tools fit conveniently into
a five-gallon bucket but when the
foundry is cooled down the handle makes
it easy to flip over and dump out the
ashes cleanup is quick and when you
replace your potted plant you can see
the whole thing reverts to its innocent
disguise is fashionable home decor well
now you know how to turn scrap aluminum
soda cans in the shiny metallic muffins
which you can simply admire with pride
or use to make just about anything you
want well that’s it for now if you like
this project perhaps you’ll like some AI
others check them out at the king of
random Calm behold the sword that was
pulled from the sand hey guys this is
just a prototype for another project
video I’m working on but hundreds of you
left comments asking me to give it away
so I will oblige and I’ll give it as a
gift to one of you but before I explain
the rules on how to win we should really
take a second to thank audible.com for
sponsoring this video
audible has the world’s largest
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the spirit of melting metal and making
swords I want to recommend The Hobbit by
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including fiction nonfiction and
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audible.com slash the king of random
you’re supporting me and my videos and
allowing me to do more of them now back
to the contest
I saw one comment suggesting
everyone should guess the weight of the
sword and the one who gets closest to
the actual weight wins so that’s how
it’s going to work click here to submit
your guess on how much the sword weighs
in grams and in one week I’ll check to
see who got closest to the right answer
then I’ll ship it to the winner for free
now don’t put any answers in the
comments if you want a chance to win
click here and submit your best guess
because that’s the only place I’m going
to be choosing from thank you for
supporting my videos and I hope to see
you around for the next one I’ll talk to
you then