What do you do with your "waste" material?

[irving2008]

Not worth saving for scrap... you'd need a lot to make it worth the petrol to take it there...

I'd suggest making a small furnace and making your own ingots. For complex shapes that you plan to make many of its sometimes better to cast the rough shape then machine it; especially if you end up milling out more material than you leave...

[Ricardoco]

I'd suggest making a small furnace and making your own ingots. For complex shapes that you plan to make many of its sometimes better to cast the rough shape then machine it; especially if you end up milling out more material than you leave...

Thats what i did irving, after all when you first start you do tend to make a lot of scrap lol, 45,000BTU burner, old damaged propane tank,cut for purpose perlite and fire cement liner,1ltr crucible bit of welding and hey presto!!

I will say it does take a lot of chips to make a decent size ingot..

Rick

i will post some pics if i get the time to take them..

[Washout]

Thanks Guys,

So not so crazy an idea afterall, although the wife will probably have a differing opinion ;-)

I also have a bunch of other reclaimed and "waste" aluminium form other projects and house related DIY I can add to the mix (I'll stop short of cruising the local accident black spots with an engine hoist and cutters).

Would be most interested in your furnace pic Ricardoco.

Cheers


Chris

[JAZZCNC]

Off cuts melt ok but Swarf or Chips make poor quality cast and it's messy loads of dross, plus like Rico says need lot n lots of them. Best not botherd with IMO just separate and take to scrap when dust bins full.!!

[Ricardoco]

Off cuts melt ok but Swarf or Chips make poor quality cast and it's messy loads of dross, plus like Rico says need lot n lots of them. Best not botherd with IMO just separate and take to scrap when dust bins full.!!

Again i could not agree more, but i did make about a ton of chips before i managed to make anything, I would have cried real tears if i didnt at least try to make an ingot from it Lol...

Rick

[Jonathan]

Agree with Jazz here, you hardly get anything from melting down the swarf as the surface area to volume ratio is so high and the surface is aluminium oxide which obviously doesn't melt.
I take the swarf to the scrap place and keep the offcuts for when I eventually get round to melting it....

[Ricardoco]

Agree with Jazz here, you hardly get anything from melting down the swarf as the surface area to volume ratio is so high and the surface is aluminium oxide which obviously doesn't melt.
I take the swarf to the scrap place and keep the offcuts for when I eventually get round to melting it....

Again i agree but im not sure that a max of 5nm of oxide per surface is the problem if your chips are cut correctly rather the burn off.