Make your own Brass?

[MidFloridaTech]

I was wondering if anyone here makes their own brass or bronze alloys or if this is common to do. I figured out that a pound of 1982+ pennies (97.5% zinc) costs about $1.80 and scrap copper runs around $4, both are available close to me. If I want brass though its approaching $7 per pound and I have to drive 30 minutes each way to get it as drops from the local metal supplier. (If I bought 20lbs this puts it at around $7.5 per pound.) I am doing cosmetic castings only so it seems like I could start a puddle of copper, figure out the alloy I wanted, and using pretty simple math fairly accurately make the alloy I want weighing out the pennis and copper on my postal scale.

How does this idea, sound? Is there a better way to go about this? How do you do it? Is there a way to cheaply get tin to make bronze?

[RBrandes]

Yellow brass is bringing about $1.60/pound at the scrap yard in Dothan, AL. I suspect you can get all you want for around $2/pound if you look some more.
For copper, contact plumbers and ask about their copper scraps.

Now, yellow brass (and red brass) is a pain to cast. It is dirty and looses it's zinc the longer it stays melted. For the prices you are quoting you can get silicon bronze which pours really nice and is what is used for statues and things.
Regards, Ray in FLA

[steve323]

And a pound of pre-1982 pennies (95% copper, 5% zinc) are only about $1.50. You should be able to just melt pre and post 1982 pennies to make brass.

Steve

[Cyclotronguy]

Looking into a crucible full of molten brass is like looking into the mau of hell. Not at all like casting Al, which is a walk in the park.

Make sure you've aluminized outerwear and a dam between you and the molten metal if the crucible or mold break. Good luck

Cyclotronguy

[dang]

You realize that melting US currency is illegal, don't you? It's punishable by up to 5 years in prison and $10K in fines.

[jphagen]

Melting coins is not unlawful.
Counterfiting them is.
Look at this way if we melted them all down, the dollar world
go up in value.

[Harryman]

Melting US coins is no longer against the law.

I've bought hundreds of pounds of 90 percent silver coins to re-alloy into Sterling over the years.

Casting brass is messy and full of nasty fumes as stated earlier, the zinc just burns away. Unless it's got to be brass, I'd suggest bronze. Soooo much nicer to work with.

[nenetwork]

I made Brass a few times but because of the Zinc fumes it just wasn't a good idea.