Very new to casting and intend to do various projects with the lost pla method however I'm unsure as to where I can get my hands on decent quality aluminum or even any at all. I live in New Zealand and all the scrap yards in my area don't do retail so I can't purchase of them. Any idea of where I could get my hands on some that wouldn't be too expensive or poor quality. Thanks for any help, Lachie
Visit your local tyre shop and buy damaged alloy wheels, most are cast aluminium with a few being forged aluminium. Ideally the wheels will be give away or low cost, say $10 a wheel for around 8Kg of castable aluminium alloy . Make it clear they will be melted down and not welded up and sold again. It can be a pain to cut them up into crucible sized chunks, ideally with a bandsaw.
Same here. When I got rejected from purchasing in the scrapyard, I just parked at the entrance and waited for a scrapper to drive up and bought rims from him before he entered the yard. Also, let your buddies know you're casting. I've had rims just show up in my yard.
My latest haul was from an engine performance shop. I walked in and told the owner of my hobby and walked out with 50 lbs of scrap heads. There was some work involved in cleaning the grime and cutting them up and separating the steel, but it was a winner. Transmission shops are another possibility. Power tools are helpful. Pro tip: beat the scrap yard by going to THEIR source. Pete
I work at a factory that uses cast and ground aluminum tooling plate for shop-built fixtures and accessories for the manufacturing lines. As plates are sized for the projects there are many offcuts. We have a 'keeper' rack for pieces right behind the aluminum-only bandsaw and a scrap bin for the bits that are too small or otherwise more time than money to process like decommissioned fixturing. The machine shop guys let me pick from the scrap bin and use their aluminum-only bandsaw, which they keep in top shape with sharp blades. My contribution is an occasional box of donuts or a run to Taco Bell to get their breakfast food orders for the morning break.
A carbide tipped blade in a table saw or circular saw makes quick work of aluminum, this was done with a table saw and took maybe 5 minutes to get to this point. Word of warning though, if you do this, the aluminum chips produced are quite sharp and get everywhere so due caution and appropriate PPE are an absolute must!
important note on this the lug nut holes are occasionally reinforced with steel insert. DO NOT cut into them . bad day in the neighborhood!!! V/r HT1
That wasn't the case for these VW rims but your warning is noted for future reference. I'll be testing any rims I plan to cut with a magnet first. Thanks.
I've noticed a few steel inserts at the bottom of the crucible on a couple of occasions lately, fortunately they don't seem to come out when pouring and I have to upend the empty hot crucible to get them out.
Absolutely fully covered PPE including face shield. You'll find out why right away. Shards are also hot enough to ignite the sawdust under your saw, so start off clean. When I'm cutting flat material I lower the blade so it doesn't quite cut all the way through. That eliminates most of the airborne debris. Pete
If you have an electric motor rebuild or small engine/motorcycle shop around they usually have scrap aluminum. 'Free' ads on Facebook or CraigsList also can score aluminum objects as well.
If you are not doing large parts, another nice source of nice clean casting stock is hard drive frames.
I got some Mercedes aluminum. Lady in her Mercedes took out a street light pole. Got 50 lbs of aluminum marked as 356, already smashed into smaller chunks. The field crew kindly looked the other way while I loaded it in my car.
Tried it with a circular saw with a carbide blade once. The irregular shape caused lots of kickbacks and really beat up my hands. Not recommended.
The key to that is to not cut all the way through. Leave a tab small enough to break with a sledge on all the pieces. Especially on the outside rim. I learned the hard way too.
