As a challenge to myself I decided to make a very simple foundry setup for melting and casting aluminum.  I have a larger more involved equipment but I thought it would be interesting to revisit some of the methods I used for my first castings.  I also wanted to explore some new ideas I had for setting up a simple aluminum foundry.

If you have ever thought that you might like to try doing some aluminum casting “One Day” my “One Day Foundry” web page and the accompanying video may be of some help.  The steps I used to accomplish the task were intended to get to the end result quickly with few tools.  There are many ways to accomplish the same end result, I present only one.

I carefully selected my supplies and hand tools before I started and took the picture shown below.  After I had the necessary items I did all of the preparation work using only hand tools and an electric drill.  When I started casting aluminum I did not have much more than those simple tools in my possession.  Below is a picture of the tools and equipment I started with.  The only items that I did not have laying around the house were the two 8 foot 2×2 boards, fire clay and fine sand.  Wood and sand were obtained at a big box home improvement store.  The fire clay is a little more difficult.  I went to Continental Clay in Minneapolis and purchased the clay (Hawthorn-50 mesh fire clay).  They do sell by mail order but finding a local source is probably worth the trouble for most people.

I was able to complete the project in less than one day.  I captured the build in the video embedded  below.  More details, including tools/parts list, can be found on the project page: One Day Foundry project page.

And the resulting casting.