Al melts @ 1220 F. Good job. I did this once, with my Dad's brand new grill and a shop vac/blower. Bad idea, since the grill was made of thick cast aluminum. Not only did I blast furnace a hole in the back of the grill, I set the back yard on fire to boot. However, it did guide me towards a career. I have been a firefighter now for 28 years. I fixed Dad's grill with a piece of metal road sign and some self-tapping screws. He was still awful pissed off at me though. There is just no pleasing some guys. Cheers from Texas.

Very cool crystals on the aluminum. I really like your videos. I hate all the people worried about safety... Just a bunch of unadventurous people scared of their own shadow!

I've just gotten interested into melting metals and making ingots and a lot of the videos I've seen have made it look really hard. This video on the other hand, made it look very easy and actually possible, so thanks!

Nice try ;) I've worked in aluminium casting industry, it's pretty fun^^. For safety, I strongly recommend to dry the cans before melting them. a single drop of liquid in the crucible can make it explode (it happens at my work once in a 40 tons furnace, over 6 months of maintenance stop for the furnace, the loading machine and some equiments around. 14 years after the accident, you can see some marks on the walls and the ceiling of the foundry, but fortunately no one had been injured).

In my experience if you sorta skim off that slag periodically you get a better ingot at the end, I used a steel spoon for that. However, that stuff is protecting the rest of the molten metal from oxidation, so leave a layer on there until it's time to pour. Fortunately it floats. I NEVER do this because I HATE safety dinks, but brother, you gotta wear some shoes. Sometimes it pops and little (or not so little) bits of molten aluminum go flying, and if that hits bare skin you'll be very unhappy. And sometimes you dont see where the drops land, and then you step on them in the grass, and well, it hurts. Ask me how I know this.

Nice work. You should mention that aluminium melts at 660.3°C or 1220.54°F

For just slapping some things around the house ya have, it worked surprisingly well, I love things like this where its barebones but effective for some experimentation

This the best KZfaq video. Who would of thought something this simple could cause a riot, must be all the positive energy. Keep up the good work.

Amazing - never thought about it with the amount of cans we use at my house. Thanks I am going to give this a try!

How the hell did i get here?

Wife- Honey what happened to my hair dryer. Husband- nooooothing

If you pour the aluminum while it's still hot you get much more turnout. What you said was slag looks like it's mostly cooled aluminum

If you use the metal tubing and the silicone hoses and hose clamps from a front mount inter-cooler setup for a turbo car as the pipping it will be a lot more secured to the hair dryer, and a lot more reliable. Other than that good idea, it seems to work really well. As for what shoes to wear, Mack Boots are awesome, and I've had the pair I'm wearing now since 2008. They still have plenty of rubber grip left, nearly like new actually, and I did security in them for 5 years. They breath very good, and I never get sweaty white spots on my feet from them, but as soon as I wear cheap sneakers for a day it's another story. I love my Mack Boots. Totally worth the $140au I paid for them.

Ever since the beginning of the human race, we have been fascinated by fire...

you are so creative by using a hair dryer. AWESOME!!!!!!

every time we go camping (every once or twice a year) i get all the soda cans in a pile and feed em one by one into a steel soup can and when it cools i usually find that its just a stack of crushed cans that can be pulled apart with a tiny bit of melting going on at the very bottom, I'm thinking about taking an air mattress pump and a steel pipe and feeding it some air, bellows would be way cooler and wouldn't need batteries or be loud as shit, lol I'm the type of guy who will hand make my own bellows out of whatever, car tires and stuff, that should get that camp fire aluminum ingot i wanted all along

When making a fire hot enough to melt aluminum always wear shorts, sleeveless shirt and bare feet. :)

Also be careful with the fumes. Aluminum Oxide is not something you want getting into your lungs! That, plus the other unknown fumes from the surface of the can - paint, plastic, etc. Also, try this with copper and see if you can get an ingot. I suggest getting strands of wire from any nearby construction project. Cheers!

I have been looking into metal smelting for some time now, and your video has helped me out a lot. Even giving safety tips and precautions (like shoes). Also have you considered cast iron cup in place of steel?

Im with you lot, I'm so making one of these on the weekend!!

your feet will heal, if you burn up a good pair of shoes, that's a hunnert bucks. I do everything barefoot

me in summer : Im gonna do this me back from summer: What a minute..... i forgot to do something

man what a cool video you have here, thanks. As soon as I leave this apartment, Im going to be doing this for sure. Dont worry bout the shoes man, people get to excited over any little thing these days. Take care!

Well done capturing this first experiment on video and achieving some melt. I love how every back yard melter invents a slightly different setup based on what's lying around😁. I've been using an air mattress inflater with limited success, I need a hair dryer!

03:13 His happy Evil Genius laugh... Lmao...

You should cover the top of the device. It will melt your aluminum faster by trapping heat.

This is the simplest melting video I have seen that worked

That giggle was worth watching the video alone.

Safety 3rd

I made something like this at home and it works. computer hard drives melt down well in this setup.

I love the shoe disclaimer/warning in the description :) I like your style.

As kids, we had many regular campfires into which we'd toss our soda cans and watch them melt. We always thought that was super cool.

don't forget to inhale this stuff.. aluminium particles is really really good for the brain

Dink enough soda cans, and make enough ingots, and you got yourself a house made of tin. The world's financial crisis is solved!

As you said at the end, I really enjoyed your video throughout. Thank you very much.

probably the most simplest method I've seen thanks M8

Try building a rocket stove out of some cinder blocks and put your charcoal chimney on top of it.You may get enough draft through the rocket stove and you may not need the hair dryer.Or you may be able to eliminate the charcoal chimney altogether and melt the cans right on top of the stove.

4:30 - but you forgot to spray the the cookie sheet with Pam!

Why so many haters!if he choses to lose his eyebrows in the process of making a KZfaq video that just increases ratings anyhow! Nice video!

By far the best smelting video I've seen and u also said how it was made

when i was doing this i messed up and had my tongs touch my elbow and left a pretty cool burn mark

I donno if anyone has said this yet but you really need to wear a filter mask when doing this aluminum fumes are very toxic I know this because I am a welder and I have worked with aluminum for years. Go to a hardware shop and ask for a mask that is raited for aluminum welding.

nice and simple experiment, good results! I want to try it...

I'm amazed that this worked because without any refractory your furnace has zero insulation, most of the heat is probably wasted leaving little of the energy to actually melt the aluminum. As far as safety goes, I'd suggest long handled tongs to keep the heat away from your hands, thick gloves, a full face shield, maybe a welders helmet with a good dark visor to protect your eyes from the glare, and that makes it easy to see how the melt is going on. Perhaps a leather apron (like a blacksmith might use), well you get the idea. Oh, make sure your mold is sitting on dry sand. If any molten metal falls on a wet surface the resulting steam explosion will send hot molten metal flying, that's when that leather apron will come in handy!

3:13 the can spat on you for putting it there!!

imagine how much aluminum foil is in land fills.

3:14 his laugh made me smile...lol..great video sir.👍🏿 will try it out myself

Thanks so much for the help I went and bought every thing I needed for this design and made it then I went to the local school dumpster and food a TON of cans so far I have about 8oz of aluminum Thanks again bro!!!

You have the crystals because you didn't remove all the slag.

goo job

Hey man. I love how simple your thinking. Spot on with the hair dryer. heres a vid that I used to make this Furnace last longer :) Blacksmithing Part 18 Making a Brake Drum Forge

that's awsome man! Nice job.

Ah, molten aluminum. Perfect for pouring into ant nests.

how much mounten dew do you drink man

Thanks for the simplicity. keep it up.

IT WORKED!!!! awsome thanks for sharing it

Why not just crush the cans first. One at a time placed in to gradually soften and collapse, seems inefficient.

nuuuuuuuuuh not the mtn dew m8

We had a charcoal grill with aluminum grates. I did a cookout. When I was done I closed the lid on the grill and left it. The next morning there were chunks of melted aluminum under and the in the grill. The grates were gone. I didn't intend to melt them. I don't remember how the wind acted during the night. I'm sure it played a roll in the melting of the grates.

This is a great video. Along with melting metals (which is always fun), it reminds me that I still need to get chemical glassware for home use. Anyway, I noticed that you seem to have aluminum oxide (or remnants of the alloy, I'm not sure which) and am curious if you've tried a Hall-Héraolt cell to purify the sample.

i like burning thing too 0o

I like the cobbled together nature of your little foundry. Screw the safety Nazi's, i get them all the time. the reality is the safest thing you can do is NOTHING at all. Your feet, your choice. keep up the good work!!

Glad I found your video! I am doing the same thing, just a little different setup. What got my attention was the camping cup. I wasn't sure it would be thick enough but bought it anyway just to try. I know now it will work. Thanks for sharing!!

I like it, even without your shoes. very easy and rewarding, thanks

I'm gonna try it naked.

Lol i was just about to comment "Man you should really have worn shoes" but then I noticed OP will delete shoe related comments

I can't believe the PVC elbow didn't burn up more! I love it. Simple.

The laugh is the best. Love the video. I have tried this before and I can tell you it works better than you think. Aluminum has 1221F melting point which you can easily accomplish with oxygen force. Anything above that I think you would need other chemicals to get to higher temps.

just curious, what would be the purpose of doing this? thanks.

I'm not sayin' wear shoes next time, but.........wear f*ckin shoes next time!

Great test of the low cost, simple concept. I’d like to do some smelting and casting for machining.

Love your approachable style bro.

I think it would work much better if you used a ceramic crucible and it fit closer to the size of the opening so not as much heat got past the crucible

the 2015 ford trucks will be made out of aluminum maby you can melt a ford truck in 2015.

to reduce slag, add common table salt. I found that it reduces the slag tremendously. I am about to rebuild my furnace ( old 20# LP Gas tank, past its last fillable date) with 1-inch thick fiber fire blanket (2600F) from amazon cost $7.00. cannot wait to start casting stuff ... and who care what people say about YOUR SAFETY. its YOUR SAFETY not theirs !!! you want to wear shorts, or be nakid so be its YOUR FREEDOM to do so !!! OOH RAH !!!! Your idea of the hair dryer is pretty good, I will have to add that to my rig! (thank you for the idea)

Thanks for telling us about those alloys! I was always wondering what the crap I kept getting from my aluminum was. And you really don't need shoes for this, I think that you'd burn right through them if you touched any of that stuff! Water soaked rags work WAAAY better.

Seems you are well protected incase accidents happen

The plastic gloves you are wearing are a bad idea is is the idea of no shoes. If you splash aluminum on those gloves, they will melt and stick to your hands, causing a much more severe burn than if you had no gloves on. You should stick to all leather gloves for handling aluminum. No shoes is probably better than laced up shoes. Metal down the laces can really burn you because you cannot get the shoe off easily. You will get a better yield on you aluminum if you crush the cans first. The method you are using exposes the surface to the air as it melts and allows it to oxidize. Crushed cans will allow you to put several cans in at the same time. A top on the melt pot would help keep oxygen out. It would be a good idea to use a refractory coating on the steel pot you are melting in. That will stop the aluminum from sticking to the steel and eventually eating a hole through it. Lacking real flux, you can use table salt on top of the metal to slow down oxidation, just skim it back before pouring or use a skimmer and remove it first. The salt is lighter than the metal and will float.

Just wat I was looking for great vid

I've ordered a hair dryer. I've been trying this for months. I understand your happiness

The hair dryer was free!? Good find :)

you should have had a lot more aluminum, keep the fire going longer next time

Why is it so satisfying to watch aluminum melt

I used my garden blower and a metal pipe to put air into an old potbelly stove. Worked well.

its a good thing it didnt splash out of there or POP and burned your bare feet. Safty first dude.

I weld barefoot in my shorts. No problem that keeps you safer anyway. Lol.

Wicked Cool! Thanks and well made video!

i find it hilarious that this man has been looking for comments about shoes and deleting them for almost a decade

why do you apologize yourself due to omitting some safety precautions? It's your business... ;)

put a full can in!

Quick question when your smelting aluminum what could you add or do to ensure .999 percent aluminum?🤔

That was amazing.. thanks for posting...

brah get some shoes nah just joking good video keep it up subscribed ;)

and this video is sponsored by Mountain Dew

I'm curious what kind of pie sheet that is. That looks amazing for making bars of metal bullion. Can you tell me what it is or where to buy it?

Next time I would suggest having two furnaces. One for meltdown, the other for the mould. After each melt, I'd suggest transferring the molten aluminum into the 2nd preheated mould furnace held at a higher temperature so that it will stay molten. I was aircraft metals tech in the Air Force. One thing I can say is that what happened to those cans is a reaction called eutectic melting. Basically, 90% of applicable aluminum is an alloy called copper aluminide, or AlCu. The aluminum is trapped inside a matrix of copper which is what gives it its strength. Kind of like microscopic honeycombs or a cobweb. Now what you're seeing when you quenched it is an uneven and rapid cool down. If you insulate the 2nd furnace with firebricks somehow, you'll get better results with the finished metal, especially if you can control the cooling more gradually by turning down the air supply for several minutes. It won't be perfect but it'll be better. By quenching the aluminum, the copper and aluminum rapidly trap in place. The copper has a lower melting point than the aluminum, so if you cool it gradually, the aluminum will set in and harden and allow the molten copper to re-matrix, and you'll end up with a better, more consistent product throughout. Happy moulding!

Very cool now how can we make moulds to make things. I love youtube and people who try to keep ingunity alive instead of using computers all the time. Barefoot might well be a bad idea but in most countries they do far worse barefoot a glass of whine anyone?

Shouldn't that be done in a low-oxygen enviroment to prevent it from being turned into aluminumoxide? Aluminum oxidizes really easily, but when in a solid state, it will form a protective layer on top of the pure aluminum and the oxidisation will stop. Because of aluminums low melting temperature, pure aluminum is the most enviromentally friendly material of those used widespreadly, but because stripping oxygen from aluminum takes a shitload of power (about 10 times more than remelting), remelting should be done in a big facility where the conditions are controlled. :)

very nice :) my furnace has an inflatable bed pump instead, using a solar panel as well as the power source- it doesnt work as well as yours though as mine takes way longer to melt aluminum, great video!

cool test run. thanks for the tips. keep it up.