Source of casting AL? .... Auto Mag Wheels etc?

[sailandoar]

Looking for a good source of Aluminum for casting.
What should I be worried about (? MG content ?) when using recycle stuff and how do I avoid those problems? I prefer to stick with recycling stuff that is cast under the assumption that the alloy is a good one for casting and also wish to avoid lots of little bits (million beer tabs) because of all the dross. I have read the thread about identifying Alum and Mag but that does not really address Alum alloys with a MG content.

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Auto Mag Wheels:
Are most auto mag wheel a good hobby casting alloy?
I have had folks offer me stacks of old cast car wheels and I turned them down because I was worried about Magnesium content.
Since then I have run across comments on the web saying that the alloys are good for hobby casting and that 'pure MAGS' are just an exotic racing thing. I have read the thread on this forum about identifying magnesium using (a) silver nitrate, (b) acid, (c) duzall flux ...?acid?, (d) density calculation but that does not explicitly address AL-Mag alloys.
The Mag Wheel are clean metal that is easy to chunk up with a sawzall or heating to 'hot-short' and breaking up with a small sledge.

Pistons:
I had always read about pistons being good and they are available but are not as easy to find as I had hoped.

Outboard motors:
I have access to a big pile of old outboard motors and they seem likely to be good material but there is a lot of paint to burn off , .. UGH!!! The heads would be nice chunks and easy to deal with.


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I am getting started casting ... well at this point I am really just melting things but the melting is starting out fairly well. Alum in steel crucibles and a primitive brick pile at the moment but refinements are in the works. Ceramic wash in steel crucibles, clay-graphite, SiCarbide crucibles, proper furnace, hopefully lifting body design. Crude dabbling with bronze so far where I seem to be overheating and generating way to much dross. One of the gleams in my eye is from reading the web sites of the hobby folks doing cast iron. Seems that is not as impossible for the backyard person as I had been led to believe. Not easy but possible.....
http://www.imagestation.com/members/georgelewisray

[beone]

Try your local recycling shops. I now use 6061 bar ends that I get for about $1.15 a pound. Makes very nice castings. Theonly problem is taking a bar of 1 inch dia rod 6 to 24 inches long and forcing myself to put it in the crucible.
Dave

[robinl]

car parts are good.pistons.intakes;etc
watch out for the mag

[holbieone]

pull tabs from a beer can , drink up

[epineh]

Originally Posted by holbieone pull tabs from a beer can , drink up

I like the way you think...lol

If you wanted to cheat you could use the cans as well. heh

Broken aluminium frame camping chairs are another source, also maybe busted ladders.

Russell.

[toneV8]

sailandoar: How much gas you spend for melting one 60 lbs block like on pic.

[sailandoar]

The 60lb blocks are LEAD used for ballast in our schooner. I melted/cast a bit more than 2000 lbs and used about 20lbs of propane. A bit less I think. If I start doing large quantities of Aluminum and Bronze, I will likely change over to a waste oil burner.

e.g. http://www.artfulbodgermetalcasting.com/index.html


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Edit: I got to thinking and realized that I may have used two or three 20lb propane bottles for the 2000+ lbs of lead. I should have kept a logbook but I didn't. Because I have slept since then and I'm over 50, there is that fuzzy_memory/uncertainty thing happening.

[toneV8]

So melted/cast 2000 lbs ( 907.1847 Kg ) with 20lbs ( 9.07Kg ) of propane. How is that little spending of propane for that quantity of melted/cast alu.