Hi,
I got some decent crucible tongs and a pouring ring fabricated, and tried my first alunimum melt today in my home made foundry.
Everything went well, I melted a few hundred coke cans and fished out a ton of dross, and was left with a few pounds of good aluminum. :)
I'm having a problem with my ingot molds though. I first tried a standard 6 cup muffin tin for my test melt of lead, and one of the lead ingots soldered itself to the bottom, requiring me to mangle up the tin to get it out.
So for this Alumnium melt, I got a new tin, this one made from stainless steel, with 24 tiny muffin indents. I figured the smaller ingot size and the stainless steel should keep the aluminum from sticking.
I was wrong. I now have 12 tiny aluminum ingots soldered firmly to the stainless steel mold. I didn't even thing aluminum would stick to stainless.
If it comes to it, I can always make clay molds out of rammed cat litter, but I really liked the idea of using a muffin tin.
Any ideas?