Things rarely go well the first time something is done. This is no exception. I have been wanting to start melting aluminium soda cans and learn the skills I need to do metal casting in my back yard. I have a basically continuous supply of aluminium from soda cans.
Coffee can crucible filled with aluminium cans in fire.
This attempt failed, but just barely. I used a steel/iron coffee can crucible to hold the aluminium cans as they melt. I built up a good coal base from wood logs and forced air into the fire with a stand fan. This got the can a nice glowing orange and the cans did start melting, but it didn’t get quite hot enough. I never got a good molten pool of aluminium.
Aluminium stuck in the coffee can.
In the end, I took a hammer to the can to try to extract the aluminium from the coffee can crucible, but this failed and just crushed the can. I think that next time, I will use some of the charcoal that I have made to get things going hotter than this time.
As The Bees Fly 