Subject: Novice questions on melting Alumin(i)um

From: [email-masked]
Date: 12 Jan 94 16:22:21 -0600

I am putting together Gingerys charcoal furnace and have several questions
about aluminum stock preperation prior to melting.

Since it is too cold to play outside with the furnace I have turned my
attention to gathering various forms of aluminum castings, extrusions, etc in
anticipation of warmer weather.  

My questions are:  How clean does the metal have to be before it is melted?
Does paint have to be removed? grease? How about the decals on aluminum cans,
or their residual content? (does beer improve the quality of aluminum?) 
Will any impurities rise to the surface of the melt to be skimmed
or will they contaminate the metal?

thanks in advance

Barry

-- 

Barry B. Wolinetz             |   Opinions, etc.... mine, not those of the 
Northern Trust Co.            |   Northern Trust. 
Chicago, Il                   |

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From: [email-masked] (Andy Dingley)
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 00:59:35 +0000

In article <1994Jan12.162221.1@tntvax> [email-masked]  writes:
> How clean does the metal [aluminium] have to be before it is melted?

If it's burnable (ie. paint), it will come off in the slag. If it's 
burnable, it *may* also not be the sort of stuff you want to be around...

If it's metallic, it could be an impurity you don't want in the final melt.
Odd bits of steel won't melt, but if you melt down old castings & auto parts
you might find yourself with the odd steel bolt as an unwanted inclusion !

BTW - A mazak (pot metal) casting that slipped in with all those nice alloy
ones will really foul things up.