Beer and soda cans

Home enthusiasts discuss their Foundry & Casting work.

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Enconorth
Posts: 16
Joined: Sat Jul 09, 2011 1:06 pm
Location: Maine and Florida

Beer and soda cans

Post by Enconorth »

Does anyone know what kind of aluminum is used for beer and soda cans ??

Going to try melting some down soon and was wondering what I'm going to end up with.

Thanks

Bob
chucketn
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Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2008 8:15 am
Location: Jonesborough,TN

Re: Beer and soda cans

Post by chucketn »

Beverage cans are said to be pure aluminum with a plastic coating on the in side. Trust me when I say you are much better off selling your cans and buying/collecting previously cast aluminum.
If you aren't convinced, go ahead and melt a couple of large trash bags of crushed cans and see what you get. More dross than useable metal. If you live under an interstate bridge, and your only source of aluminum is the cans the passers by litter your front yard with, then go for it.
I have collected dead lawn mowers(Freecycle is your friend), car engine parts, aluminum wheels, and the like, and some scrap yard finds, and melted them into ingots. A 3 year collection barely fills 2 5 gal. pails. But the same amount of cans would have taken years to collect and months to melt. Plus the dross would have buried my house.

Chuck
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NP317
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Location: Northern Oregon, USA

Re: Beer and soda cans

Post by NP317 »

I agree with Chuck.
Having run a teaching foundry at the University of Washington, aluminum cans were useless for casting work. The surface area to mass of aluminum cans is simply too high to prevent massive amounts of oxides from forming, not to mention the plastic and paint pollutants.
~RN
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steamin10
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Location: NW Indiana. Close to Lake Michigan S. tip

Re: Beer and soda cans

Post by steamin10 »

I have posted before about the dismal material cans are for the home guy. Your best bet is to visit a transmission shop and offer the going rate for their damaged cases and such parts unusable to them. A few cents premium is not a big deal to get what you (need) want.

Generally speaking, whatever was cast material before will be superior to any screen door frames and such extruded materials, that make for gummy castings, and low detail capture. Keep you metal clean, no paint or oil if possible ( hydrogen in the heat) and remove all fasteners of steel, as iron makes the aluminum pasty, and unusable.

Turn your cans and siding in for the few cents a pound you get and be happy. It is basically worthless for home casting.
Big Dave, former Millwright, Electrician, Environmental conditioning, and back yard Fixxit guy. Now retired, persuing boats, trains, and broken relics.
We have enough youth, how about a fountain of Smart. My computer beat me at chess, but not kickboxing
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Harold_V
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Re: Beer and soda cans

Post by Harold_V »

On the topic of steel in aluminum---one is strongly advised to use proper crucibles when melting. All too many melt aluminum in an iron (steel) vessel. That's acceptable if it is protected by a refractory wash, but melting directly in such a vessel leads to less than desirable qualities in the aluminum, as molten metals are strong solvents of other metals. As an example, platinum melts at over 3,000° F, yet it will report in an assay that is fired well below the melting temperature of platinum, with litharge (lead oxide) used as a collector/oxidizer. The molten lead dissolves (as opposed to melting) the platinum.

Harold
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Enconorth
Posts: 16
Joined: Sat Jul 09, 2011 1:06 pm
Location: Maine and Florida

Re: Beer and soda cans

Post by Enconorth »

We'll OK guess you learn something new everyday..
Thanks for all your insight and comments.

Bob
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