Melting aluminum dross is about as fun as melting aluminum cans… It took me about 10 hours and 3 tanks of propane but I got through it. I hope you all enjoy watching this one as much as I did making it! Oh, and if the 3D printed death figures don’t make sense, check out my massive can meltdown 8,000+ can melt and it will 😉 There’s a link to it at the end. I hope you enjoy this one and I’ll see all you awesome people next time 👍

It would be an interesting experiment to run that leftover dross through a crusher and then try to separate out a metal concentrate on a shaker table. That would strip out most of the dirt and oxides and leave you one or two crucibles full of cons to melt a third time.

Man, that shelf at the end holding on for dear life lol.😂

2:11 while it may be a mix of sodium chloride and potassium chloride, what you want is a perfect mixture that gives you a eutectic when you melt them together, which should be molar 50:50. Make little pucks from the molten salt, in two-bite brownie trays. When using a puck, it needs to melt with your dross to drive off any residual water. It acts as a flux to help separate aluminum from the oxides. The melting point of each salt is higher than aluminum, so we use the eutectic salt instead.

I have to admit, I never thought you would get that much aluminuim out of that !! I am happy to see you did though !! The way you had the ingots laid out looked exactly like Tetris lol Another great video, thanks for sharing !!

him: “someone needs to go on a diet!” also him: *lifts 83lbs like it’s air*

If that initial bit of salt is all you added, you might as well not have bothered. The point of the salt is that it provides a liquid phase that will dissolve the powdery aluminium oxides; thus allowing small metal droplets to coalesce rather than staying trapped in non-molten oxides. Not sure about the optimal ratios, but youll be consuming salt in proportion to the amount of oxides you are trying to remove. It seemed to me your initial salted batch also left almost no metal behind, while the yield of later batches went down.

I like watching you get almost all of the aluminum out. You sure made a lot of aluminum squares. That will come in handy for all of your upcoming melts! And don't worry, muscle weighs more than fat. 😀

That middle shelf makes me nervous, that’s a lot of weight and that shelf is bowing. Great video!

A good tip: use flux to get the most metal out of the dross. Best one to get metal from dross is mixture 1:1 of potassium chloride and sodium chloride (salt). but there are "secret" flux mixtures available which do better and go faster but are more expensive. Using flux saves on the carburant use

Look at how much metal is being reused/recycled by just one guy’s hobby. Excellent

11:22 If you get more aluminum blocks you could make the garage floor in the aluminum wishbone pattern 😂

I would've never guessed you could get so much metal from the dross. Definitely makes me rethink why I've been hoarding all the cans to melt when I get my forge, instead of just turning them in and using larger scraps to melt, lol

DC...The Official shoes of the backyard foundry. Love your videos.

me, an absolute sicko: ok now do it again with whats left >:) lol but seriously really awesome to see this! looked like so much work, we are all grateful

Salt does work really well it doesn't take much. When we tested with it we settled on ~1/2tsp in a #6 and that was about right. We found using any more was excessive and caused pores to form where the salt had distributed into large globules, even with vigorous stirring. They also bubbled when you put them in water which was interesting but exposed further surface pitting. In the case of aluminum I think the chloride bonds to absorbed hydrogen to liberate it from the melt.

I feel like I've been officially called out. I might be losing weight, but I'm still just slightly under you holding a trashcan of dross while you're worried about your diet for only being 195 lol

Great video as always. I love how you slap Death away from your mold. It's hilarious.

Been watching BigstackD for years, good to see another channel with the same stuff, can never get too much!!

Love your determination, thanks for taking us along 👍🏼

This was a fun watch and honestly kudos to you for persevering, I would have bailed very early on!

Those ingots sliding out of the cast cleanly are so satisfying

Is it weird that my fave part of melt vids is watching the dross get scooped out ? This is an awesome video!

I think you need to use a little cryolite in the flux. sodium aluminum floride. use more flux it will prevent oxidization and help the metal to clump together.

corundum adds "fiber" to my refractory cement. It helps keep things together when the walls start melting.

Aluminum pavers looks like it would be cool as hell

I get a chill up my spine at some of the shots of glowing red hot goop

I think it might be time to get a bigger tier foundry, something more propane efficient and can melt more at once. Maybe some bigger moulds too

When in doubt, add more flux. You still have a lot of aluminum left in there. I would do another melt. Keep plenty of flux on it. Skim off only the very top and keep adding more. Keep the crucible full until time to pour another ingot. Then set aside the last few skims down near the molten Al to return to the crucible after you pour. The idea is to only discard dross with minimal free aluminum in it. Aluminum rich dross goes back in the crucible. Keep feeding it flux. let the good stuff settle out and the ash all rise to the top where you only remove the top, the dry part. Gas gets expensive! If you run a natural gas line back to your foundry and use a natural gas regulator and bigger orifices, you can keep your costs down a bit. But even cheaper is to make a waste oil burner. Save your old engine oil and your old cooking oil and rendered fat. There are a LOT of BTU's in a jug of used oil or grease! Same with engine oil. Rig a chimney to get the exhaust above your head so you don't breathe it. Use forced draft so you get good combustion and little residue. An oil burner is fairly simple to make if you weld. If not, still can be done. Don't get too medieval about buffing your ingots to a high luster. The surface oxides are a protective layer against further oxidation.

That’s unbelievable how much you can get out of all that. Impressive melt, and the salt added to your fire.

It looks like the first couple scoops of each crucible had barely any aluminum. When you got down to the layer next to the liquid you stared getting aluminum in the scoops with the dross, very similar to a normal scrap melt. You should try separating those last few scoops and either start the next crucible with them or run one or two more crucibles at the end with just those scoops. Basically the trash pile is only the stuff off of the very top that barely has any aluminum.

certainly difficult to justify the time/effort/resources, but the concept is still cool. one day a hobbyist has to come along and create the monster 55 gallon drum melter foundry (gonna search to see if it's been made already now that I think about it)

You weren’t kidding about a lot of recoverable metals in the dross! Good video!

This one is better than last week and last week was your best ever! You are killing it! Well done!! I get you can't do this every week, but people like big melts. Very cool!

I am amazed how much AL you got from the slag. That salt trick really worked.

Great video! Love the color changing death cameo lol

I truly and thoroughly enjoy your videos...They're amazingly relaxing to watch! Considering how annoying it is to pick up all those lumps of dross by hand, though, have you considered getting an ash shovel? Like one that'd be used with a wood-burning furnace, or fireplace? Some of the older ones have a fairly narrow, long pan, and a good amount of length to the handle that'd make for less bending during a job such as this.

Leave the mold on top of the furnace between pours. Not only will it ensure there's no moisture, the ingots will have a cleaner finish. They'll just take a bit longer to go off. I know the finish isn't that important but a smooth ingot with less cooling dip is always nice to look at. Wait until you have enough gold to pour your first gold bar, you'll lose your mind 😁

Love the videos! You should do some fire ant hill casting!

You are real pro. Just starting out myself at almost 58 learned a great deal from you. I like the way you operate thank you.

Strangely compelling 😎👏🏻👏🏻

I wonder if pulverising the dross before re-melting might help in separating the metal constituent from the non-metal that will then naturally float to the top being lighter in weight? Adding flux is a good idea. The only down-side is that it adds to the dross once it's spent.

Sweet recovery buddy! I would love to do a melt like that! Great stackin! Keep it up! Thanx for a great vid!

Ahhh, yes. Grandma’s old recipe: home-souped cans.

New subscriber here. Great video here sir. The video where you melted the 1000+ cans was also great.

That’s a lot of dross. Great recovery of good metal. Awesome video 👍

I'm amazed how much you got from what looked like junk.

Love your vids! Thanks for the bars a while ago!

Watching you is like fishing it's very relaxing. Thank you.❤🎉

75 years later, this guy will not only refine his stacks for the 3rd time, but will also refine all his dross to usable metal with little remaining leftover dross

I wonder if keeping the wok with the next batch of dross/slag over the top of the burner to keep them warm using the exhaust gasses, would result in a faster/easier melt? The idea I had in my head was a ring that would attach to the lid, and it would be far enough away to not melt from the exhaust port.

Amazing job ❤

Since most of that dross is guaranteed to be aluminum oxide, and that comes from heating the metal in an environment w/ oxygen, the best way to get rid of the dross is not to generate it in the 1st place. Crushing the cans as tightly as possible, using a flux to cover the cans at the start, keeping a lid on the crucible to exclude O2 from the melt as much as possible between additions of more crushed can "ore" should cut down on waste production. Since you can't refine aluminum from bauxite originally w/o cryolite, I'd see if that can be used safely as a flux by the hobbyist as a 1st step.

You certainly have patience. Nice video.

Good use of the oil filter pliers there

Very cool ! I suppose the obvious question is, does the reclaimed aluminum equal the cost of the fuel used to melt it down? How about if you factor in the 10 hours of time, at say minimum wage? I'm sure this has been asked a million time before, but this is new to me.

Great video! I have a lot of slack to melt as well.. ;-)) Kind regards from Treasure Island!

A lot more came out of the dross than I would have guessed.

WOOT, I suggested this on that 8000+ can video ! :D I wonder if a larger crucible would reduce waste material when doing larger batches or if it would be pretty much the same.

It's amazing how many more bars you got from that slag....

Just Found the channel. I'm curious as to what the start up costs are with this? Not necessarily the cans or materials smelted, but the equipment costs. Also, is there anything in particular you do with your materials after use, or just collect? I'm astronomically stoked to have found this channel!

Love the sounds the firge makes when its starting, its the same thingvthat happening in. A pulse detonation engine.

a nice recovery from all that dross looks better on the shelf than in the garbage can

Your stack looking good 👍😎

Now THATS a hobby I could get into!

Finally someone's using the correct terminology for it, not slag.

*little deth falling* *me*: noooooo dude: WHOOSH *me*: yeeey

I think if you pre heat the mold before pouring, it will be a more evenly shaped ingot

I'm not going to lie. Those DC shoes are fire

Damn 20 seconds. My best time ever!!

Crazy to see what “would’ve been” thrown away.

That was a lot of aluminum recovered from just dross. Never thought there was that much aluminum left in there. That’s crazy😄👍

Excellent Recovery. 👍😎👍😎👍😎👍😎👍😎👍

yea moisture is rlly bad when working with molten metals. i heard a story from my shop teacher about some kid spit in the the furnace when it had molten alluminum and it splashed all over and got on his shoes. he took off the shoes in time but still

I appreciate your unique Metal intros. \w/ \w/

Wow brother impressive👍

Love the shoes. Dc is my favorite and the only sneaker I wear

Nice recovery! Do you think the salt worked to separate the impurities?

I have to say gold is expensive + your videos with the liquid aluminum is so satisfying to watch as it goes from molten aluminum to a dry ingot😊

I want to subscribe, but I’m already subscribed… your videos are fire! 🎉

That’s a lot more than I thought you were going to get…surprised for sure

All I can say is WOW!!! That was a bit of recovery. I still think you could get away with moving to waste oil. Restaurant vegetable oil works best, but used automotive oil works too. The process is significantly cheaper and you don't get that Tank backache...lol still working on my Stack, Didn't even think about using Salt as a flux. Look's like that really worked well for you. Lots of work and as long as you're having a good time, that's about all that matters. I know I had fun watching...lol Great Video Bro!!! The stack looks AWESOME!!!!

watching the melts and pouring is satisfying to watch, but i've been curious about using molds to make parts that can be put together. Example - could you make molds of LEGO pieces and make metal LEGO from recycled cans? Would they fit with the ABS plastic ones or only with themselves? I've been wanting to make an articulated robot toy out of real metal for a long time and i'm always curious about the melting and molding process to make parts for it

Like those DC shoes

I JUST realized what you used to pick up those blocks. LOL

This guy is going to be the Jeff Bezos of bartering when civilization collapses.

Got any friends who do amature masonry? They would probably love all that fly ash you produced.

Greta Thunberg: "OMG, he's using so much gas! How dare you!!!!"

nice melt matey

New to the channel very cool where do you get you forge and supplies from ty

Jeez so much slag how long have you been building up that pile!? Super cool vid so far can't wait to see how much you get back!

It may be a pain with how much time it takes to complete, however even by halfway through the video, the recovery rate of aluminum material is so worth it already!

It would be interesting if you put the value of what you melted at the end, always curious what you’d yield from your melts.

Really enjoy your videos! Also love cast iron. That’s a beautiful disk, wish I could find one. What’s the music in your videos?

Now you can make a bit of cash from the remaining dross after all it's aluminium oxide a superb abrasive and can be used in grit blasting. Brilliant video, many thanks for making it.

Good video

i gotta know what torch are you using to heat up your molds?

Starts sweeping im like yeah , then he sees aluminium parts n bits 🤣🤣🤣🤣

You know you wanna melt the dross' dross, and then the dross' dross' dross. There's gotta be nothing left but carbon, eventually.

I reckon most of that dross is aluminium oxide. Very difficult to refine into aluminium. If you have an oxy-acetylene torch and it is aluminium oxide then melting it over 2000'C could well produce sapphire.