I Tested Pouring Molten Aluminum in Wood

I'm a metallurgist that has poured aluminium. A couple of things that I noticed... The aluminium you were given is wrought aluminium, not for casting. Casting aluminium, like cylinder heads and cast pistons flow a lot better. Secondly, it might melt at 1200°F but you should take it to 1400, flows better. Thirdly, yes, tiktok guy did a big pour. The first pour you did, starts to solidify right away because everything around it is relatively cold. Worse if a metal plate is used as a backer, really sucks the heat out. You'd have to find a way to use a sand base as it's more insulating than a steel plate. As the layer of poured aluminium gets thicker, it acts as a bigger and bigger heat sink. You won't fuse any of the layers together very well at all. That should have been one large, single pour. So, you need a much bigger furnace with bigger crucibles or just more of them and a lot of guys pouring at the same time. Not sure what to do about your warping wood, though. Still an entertaining video.

To anybody thinking about melting aluminum, DO NOT keep buckets of water on standby. Molten aluminum and water equals explosion

Always Fun to watch First Time Casters....😀👍

Honestly, think you should partner with someone like Alec Steele and give this another run. Biggest challenge here was the scale of molten metal and the hobby smelter that was used. In short, try again please!!!

I respect that you had the dedication to put finish on your polished turd.

You should get a hold of the guy who did it and go see how he does it in person. He's definitely doing something that is making it work.

I think an epoxy pour with aluminum dust mixed In Would give a similar look. Great effort!

Another idea if y’all want to try this again is to use tin instead of aluminum.. it has a much lower melting point so it won’t burn the wood as much and you could melt it faster so the layers would be better combined

as the other commenters mentioned - i think there's a "trick" (or a few) to this pour going well - however, if you do try this again with a deeper dive into the "how"; when you're polishing metal you need to go WAY higher than 400 grit. I get that 400 grit for wood is polishing level but for metal you can go up to 2000/3000 and then a polishing compound on top (jewellers rouge for example) which is about.. 5000 to 6000 grit if you were comparing to sandpaper. Otherwise it will just look like you're "polishing a turd" with 400 grit paper. Just ask Alec Steele and Will Stelter about hand sanding 🤣

One of the problems you were having is that as the AL hit the wood, it created a lot of steam and that would cause voids and other issues, Wouldn´t it have been better to pre-char the wood? Also, like others have mentioned, you would have to have a lot bigger pours.

I believe that clip your talking about was a much more involved process. 1. Reo bar between both sides of the wood to hold it together. 2. Much thicker steel base but was also lined with clay so aluminium wouldn't wander under the wood 3. Thick steel ends screwed to the wood and also edges done with foundry clay 4. Pour in MUCH bigger batches to fill it faster 5. I believe he milled a TON of material off the top to get it level Have seen it done a couple of times and the secret seems to be the foundry clay reo bar connecting dowels. Also if you make walls out of foundry clay along the top sides,it stops the rest of the top catching fire 🔥

I love how this community comes to the comments with their expertise and suggestions. It adds a lot to the experience. ❤

This was really cool to see the trial and error. Even though it wasn’t perfect, it was still super interesting to watch the process.

Love the idea! Part of the issue might have been was if you were using different alloies of aluminum causing adhesion issues also. I do like some of the ideas of using aluminum dust I'd resin to get a stardust look around all pockets. It would have made it look like a nebula. Love the fact that your not afraid to try anything just to see if it would work! Hope these videos inspire many young woodworkers out there! Keep it up!

I think a way better way to do this that doesn't involve having to buy a big smelter and finding a ton of aluminum is using aluminum powder mixed into resin and then pouring that into a river table design. You could even burn the inside of the river first to make it look like it was made with molten aluminum.

Love that you have the stones to try stuff like this. Very fun to watch.

I was thinking along the lines of creating a silicone mold of the inside "river" shape, then using that to create a concrete mold for the aluminum pour. Surprised this worked as smoothly as it did, and while not a perfectly clean result like the source video, I think it deserves more respect than a "polished turd." Regardless, it was entertaining to watch and see your approach!

If you want to try this again with molten aluminum (instead of the Al/CA or Al/epoxy suggestions), consider flooding the area with argon gas the way MIG/TIG welders do.

Awesome effort and thanks for sharing all the highs and the lows.

I really look forward to watching your videos, when I'm eating breakfast on Sunday morning! All your dedication and squirrelieness!!!😊