Melting down old aluminum window frames in the furnace. Burn, baby, burn!

This furnace consists of a trash can lined with 2 inches of refratory material for insulation, a mesh grill for holding charcoal, and a 5 HP shop-vac to provide a continual jet of fresh air. It takes about 5 minutes to get started, and will melt down anything made of aluminum in a matter of minutes. For example, the window frame shown above melted down at about 1/2" per second.

I used it mainly to experiment with sand-casting, making aluminum parts using the 'lost foam' casting technique whereby a foam mold is buried in a box of sand, and hot aluminum is poured into a small inlet on top. The molten metal then runs down into the foam mold, instantly vaporizing it and taking its place. Then, when the metal has cooled, it is in (roughly) the same shape as the mold used to be.

More pics coming soon!