Dentists used to do a lot of their own metal casting for crowns and bridges but now we leave most of that up to dental labs. Consequently I was a little disappointed that that was a very small part of our education in dental school. Also, I saw a video on YouTube of someone melting down aluminum and pouring it into an anthill. After excavating it they had an aluminum casting of an anthill that looked so awesome it immediately went on my bucket list. I haven't found any suitable anthills yet but when I do this kiln will be waiting.
I decided to use an old propane tank for the shell. I started by bleeding the tank outside to get it down to 0 psi but I was still scared to cut into this thing with an angle grinder. I decided to remove the top valve first so I could fill the tank with water and guarantee I had evacuated all of the propane.
Turns out these things are glued in place and extremely difficult to remove. I ended up using a 10 foot breaker bar to get it moving.
The inside is insulated with cement
I opened a smaller propane tank to form the crucible
A simple blow dryer works as a blower to pump oxygen in.
The crucible goes down in the middle and I use charcoal as fuel.
It goes well above the aluminum melting point and has a pretty glow to it when it does. Let me know when you find a good anthill for me!
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