He has a nice thread about it. http://forums.thehomefoundry.org/index.php?threads/casting-aluminum-bronze-c95400.46/
So, Dave, did you end up pouring something? Back yesterday from my trip to the lake. A successful molting and mental reset! I believe I can now endure another year at my office job without trying to melt down the building. I think I will start considering my annual late September camping trip to be my New Year's. Robert, I played around with it a fair bit and it seems to me that grinding an edge on it THEN peening it works best. It stays sharp enough and hard enough. It is possible to file or grind it a bit sharper after the peening is done but I recommend a light filing only or just peening it last, because if you take off too much you lose the hardness, and one thing I know for sure is, you will discover it pretty quickly when that has happened. I had trouble looking up proper techniques for doing this (couple of scythe sharpening videos and a few mentions on forums about not trying to beat the hell out of it when peening was about it), so much of this is from my own experiences with a trial and error approach. Jeff
No just made an little ingot. Couldnt drink the beer fast enough to get enough aluminum to make something with...
I was waiting for an account of discovering a bauxite deposit, then a cryolite deposit over the next ridge and using it as a flux to refine aluminium from ore.
Ha ha, nope. Only discoverex some water when I got up in the morning. Fire pit with crucible were totally submerged...
Makes me glad I switched over to hammock camping. Add a rain fly & a zero degree bag. Toasty & dry. Tested it all out last Spring in the Shenandoah State Park. Overnight got down to 32 with light snow. My son & I woke up warm. Cannot say the same for the others. One kid got up at midnight & put on every bit of clothing he hiked in with, still shivered all night.
A couple of the guys in the group I go camping with do the hammock thing too and really seem to like it. It's tempting - what's not to like about hammocks? Jeff
Some people say that they cannot get comfortable sleeping in a hammock. I say they didn't play hard enough, or hike far enough. It takes some planning, & adjustment of strap tension, but I slept like a baby. Of course, 12 miles, mostly up hill, will make most sleep well.
