My first Aluminium melt!!!

WOW!!

I know it doesn't look like much, but I actually created my very first aluminium ingot!!

After waiting out the rain all weekend I couldn't hold myself any longer, so I took an old motor bracket I had lying around and after starting up the furnace I dumped it into the crucible.


I wish I could get pictures or a video of the aluminium melting, but it's so hot around the furnace I don't want to risk messing up my cellphone by taking the pics or video... Suffice it to say that it just looks to amazing seeing that bracket turn into a plastic like consistency and then eventually just becoming a pool... It was so cool!!




<--- Note the special safety equipment!!
A pair of "vellies"...

Please don't do this if you build your own!!!
You will get burned!!!!!! badly!!!






I was rather surprised at how easily the aluminium melted, the crucible just barely turned red and it was a pool already, I had that crucible glowing white hot without aluminium and still didn't believe it would be hot enough..... Oh how wrong that was ...



This is the pool, it's not a lot but still enough to get me helluva excited! finally a Eureka moment!

See the slight red tinge to the crucible....

It only took about 5 minutes from when I dropped the piece into the crucible till this pool was made. I've seen the future!! and it is waste oil!







Since I haven't gotten around to actually welding up a proper ingot mould I just dragged my foot in the dirt to make a little "ingot mould" and poured it in ...


Look it's SHINY!!!
The ground was very wet and I could see the aluminium bubbling on top, that was the water underneath boiling and the steam vapors bubbling up through the melt..

Still I managed an ingot.

This will forever go down as my FIRST... and nothing will take away from that fact.. It now has a very special place right along side my collection Ferrari F1 memorabilia.