Subject: Melting Al castings

From: [email-masked] (Bill Webster)
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993 13:08:27 GMT

Someone mentioned using the cast aluminum from old hard disk drives.
Excellent re-cycling idea.
Now for my question, at what temperature is it likely to melt?
And, how fast does it cool?  Or, should it be helped in the cooling
process?

Thanks in advance.

Bill Webster ([email-masked])

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: 2 Dec 93 08:45:48 PST

> And, how fast does it cool?  Or, should it be helped in the cooling

I don't recall the temperature it started to melt at, but I
think we poured it at about 1400 degrees F.   The speed it
cools at will depend on the mass and shape of the piece you
are casting.   The pieces we were casting were about a pound
or three (pieces for the Gingery lathe).   We waited about
20 minutes before shaking them out, but I am told that it
could be done sooner.   At that point they were still much too
hot to touch.   When they got down to around 300-400 degrees F,
we cooled them in water.   This didn't seem to cause any 
problems.

--  Alan E. Frisbie               [email-masked]
--  Flying Disk Systems, Inc.
--  4759 Round Top Drive          (213) 256-2575 (voice)
--  Los Angeles, CA 90065         (213) 258-3585 (FAX)