Smelter

[dumpdigger]

Are there any plans out there for building an aluminum smelter. Something for small mower engines and such. Thanks

 

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[pygmy]

Can't see the point on this scale because of the low profit to power used ratio.
Anyway it only takes about 30 min. to strip down the mower to the chassis.
Also as I've said in another post here, scrap yards don't like taking lumps of metal
as they can't be sure of its purity or what might be concealed inside the ingot.

Overall the idea of smelting on this scale is impractical.
However if you want to melt small amounts for the purpouse of making for example small trinkets then a blow-torch will do the job.
Try this site for small objects like religious trinkets.


http://www.instructables.com/id/Waste-Oil-Furnace-For-Melting-Metal/

 

[dumpdigger]

Thanks for the info. The yard I use the most will pay more for it that way. They told me of a few small engine shops that have smelters and sell it to them in ingots. Some items I pick up take some time to take apart, That is the main reason I was thinking about one. Again, thanks for the info.

 

[pygmy]

What you say doesn't look right.

The power needed to smelt the odd engine block for just scrap purposes is too much unless the engine shop you speak of is a "chop shop ". This is due to very low price of scrap in general. I've spoke before here about melting scrap to hide theft.

Purity is also a problem for the yard. I can't see them doing specific gravity tests or chemical analysis when we are talking about peanuts profit. It just isn't a yard thing to do anyway.

Just ask the yard who these shops are . See if you get a straight answer. You might discover something interesting, maybe worth a reward.

 

[dumpdigger]

Thanks again for your imput

You bring up some good points. I will ask those questions next time I go up. With these prices that might be awhile.

Years ago I tried to build my own smelter to cast some backyard railroad parts. I never could get it hot enough but I sure went through a lot of propane.

Thanks again

 

[skippy]

If you melt the aluminum away from the steel and iron inserts, it goes from irony al to cast aluminum.
In this day and age that's like 5cents a pound to twenty cents a pound, at least around here.
In the good only days you would have gone from 20 cents a pound to maybe 70 cents a pounds.
I could almost see it being worthwhile, it would make an ass load of smoke though, maybe in the country.

It might not be a bad idea, if you have faith in scrap prices. Run around picking up scrap irony aluminum for next to
nothing and convert it to nice stackable ingots for the future. Hmmm... how much aluminium could you fit in a
shipping container... :-)

 

[pygmy]

Yeah, in your dreams.
Maybe Dumpdigger should also have asked for plans for a backyard nuclear reactor to power the smelter.
Then perhaps with the power left over you can operate the plant for extracting platinum from CAT converters.

 

[skippy]

Melting (not smelting, smelting is turning ore to metal) aluminum in your backyard is easy (relatively).
It doesn't take all that high of a temperature, or all that much energy, as long as you have your furnace insulated well.
See backyardmetalcasting.com. People do it all the time. Really.

The problem with melting aluminium in large quantity for money is that you need to process huge volumes of aluminum
to make it worth your while. Also melting huge quantities of scrap covered in oil and paint means you need emissions controls.

I remember reading about someone breaking up transmission cases with a log splitter, maybe dumpdiger you could crush up the
aluminum like that to the point where you could pick out the iron bits.

 

[silversaddle1]

Keep your eyes open for a smelter called the "Firecone 500". It's just what you are looking for. There used to be tons of them around. Have not seen one for some time though.