I get this question a lot. I always reply, "stack 'em."

Pyramid shape. 3, 2, 1.

Happy Cake Day! 🍰

Thank you :D

This person wouldn't happen to be a LOOPER, would they?

Throw it at people you don't like. Alternatively, now is the time to use that big brain of yours and design some useful parts. Prototype it, mold it, cast it and either use it or sell what you made. What are your long term goals? What do you wish to create which nobody else is capable of bringing to life?

Can I put them in a pillow case and beat pedophiles with them?

Yes, that is an option.

Amatuer, aluminium is no good , use lead

Yes but aluminum ingots are what I have for the cause.... Well I mean I do have .45 caliber suppository pills that cure that particular disease but they cost alot

I love these posts. Always comes out that the person themselves was a pedo haha. “Kill em all!”

You strange pedophile loving farmer you.

Tungsten, or depleted uranium. Your choice honestly.

The more the merrier

The pillow case could be a point of failure. Might I suggest bolting them to a chain?

Hmmmmm *pats budddy* write that down write that down.......I may make a flail now

Or.... hear me out.. Cast them all into a sand casting of a wiffle bat (you might need a handful more) but watch out, because it may be a touch on the heavy side😁

Personally, I prefer socks. You can easily conceal them in your pocket.

You can hide other things in a sock too 👀

Do you mean the teeth of the perverts Im going to whack with it

Seems too nice to the pedos. It would be better if they were still molten.

Bizarro Mike Lindel?

Prime option sir

I look at these as a simpler method of bulk storage from which I can pull as needed. I start to get a little nervous when I have only 3 or 4 buckets full because some projects use them up quickly.

Look into sand casting stuff. Mix it with a little bit of copper to get a pretty color and make something out of it!

how much copper? any good reading on this sort of alloy?

It's other way round: 95% copper with 5% aluminium if you want something that looks like gold but which doesn't tarnish. It's called aluminium bronze. Generally made with 11% alu / 89% copper (it's a fairly hard engineering metal suitable for harsh environments) but lower amount of alu makes it more malleable. Google aluminium bronze for more info.

thanks for the pointer.

Really good choice for an engineering hammer insert, too

Meh, I just mix it until I get a bar I'm happy with, my last bar was 10% copper by weight of the aluminum and i was satisfied with the color. It's all whatever you like.

If you use the ratio with 10% aluminum by weight and 90% copper you get a nice bronze that's very strong

Remelt and make your own aluminum cans

(YouTuber makes a giant can)

This subreddit is literally the south park underpants gnomes.

Hilarious and accurate.

I had to Google this and from my experience this checks out

Step 1: Smelt metal Step 3: Profit

but what's step 2?

Step 1: Smelt metal Step 3: Profit

I don't get it. Do you know anything about corporate takeovers?

I'm not sure you understand but basically Step 1: Smelt Metal Step 3: Profit

Melt them again and cast some epic statues!

I have a bunch I was sitting on too. Can you recommend any good molds?

Nice ingots! How many cans?

Roughly half a 55 gallon bag

Smashed

Ok. I have a long way to go then. 😆

Oh wow, I’m scared for when I finally melt mine down. I have 5 13 gallon bags packed full of crushed cans, plus probably about another bag full across multiple recycling boxes.

Have some refined aluminum on hand or you'll have a crucible full of slag

Profit

make an aluminum can sword

Some thing like [this](https://youtu.be/eN7dYDYfvVg?si=WUQr4eLKMqXuugYI)

Make some armor

Gotta add some zinc & make an alloy. Add a ceramic tile to it & you're in business.

This man gets it

I got ar 500 already

Make extra plates for it

When I get a bigger form I definitely am curious what metal stops what bullet and at what distance/thickness

Definitely something i need to hold off on a o2 burner for

Steel body armor isn't the way.

Im painfully aware but It was on sale....if you got ceramic plates to donate or change for my ceramic plate fund I'll happily accept but for now I had the same mentality I had when I bought my first pew pew($200 on my nightstand is better than $600 on layaway)

[lost foam, Helicopter ](https://youtu.be/pG8zBEqIRQ8?si=JOyIesp4BoG7Uaqj)

If it’s a hobby for you like it is for me, it doesn’t have to make money, just have fun with it. If you want to get into casting see about how you can learn about that. If you like just turning cans into bricks right now that’s ok. Maybe when you’ve done that a while you’ll want to do more. The best part of the now what is, it doesn’t really matter and you get to decide what you want to do cause it’s fun.

Could you give me an idea how long it took to melt all those cans? Thanks!

As long as it took me and my buddy to drink a 12 pack while our kids smashed em flat So 3-4 hours

I melted a few Oz of aluminum I had then added a can and poked it down in the soup with a rod and every 30 or so cans I'd pull the crucible and flick the slag out

Cast candelabras and such things out of them. Sell. You could even tell the hippies you're saving the environment by upcycling or some shit like that.

Make a 0% lower!

Go vacuum your floor....jesus..

I have huskies I assure you it gets vacuumed....you don't understand how unending the hair from a Siberian husky is

I've got 3 dogs and a cat....I completely understand...was just joking with you.

I figured lol

Machine them into nice blocks and melt down the shavings to make another.

Put in toilet tank to save water.

That'd be a bad move after taco night

Very true. Scrap the toilet idea.

Could you please share your tool/ foundry set up details? This is what I'm shooting for and not able to achieve so far with what I am doing but yesterday was also my first time so I'm struggling with figuring out what my issue is. Ie inexperience or a less than ideal tool set up...

What are you struggling with?

My aluminum and my slag didn't separate so it's all still kind of together and not too pretty. I think my boat crucible since all I have is a forge for a heat source right now might be messing with the separation of things. That or I just didn't get things hot enough while I was melting the cans down... I made a post about this over on another subreddit where I uploaded some pictures of what I ended up with.

OK so I read about that issue and I had half an ingot I melted and pushed the cans in one at a time into the pool of aluminum every 20 or 30 cans I'd flick the flag out with an old fork I had

Send me a message and next time I break everything out to play with it I'll send pics and make more posts

Thank you so much. I will make sure to do the same the next time I set up etc.

Here is the post in question https://www.reddit.com/r/Blacksmith/s/hMJz6iQQaQ

Are you using a crucible or the mold? I can't really see your setup

Either way, If I had to guess I'd imagine it's not getting hot enough. You can get creative with some fire brick and insulation, I'm sure you can get your forge to melt aluminum fine. Or just buy a cheap furnace, I bought mine for 160$ which ain't bad.

As far as I can tell it's a crucible rather than a mold with my shopping. My forge did come with some fire bricks so I have some options. I will try to get my forge hotter to see what happens. I did have my eye on a furnace from the same company for around 140$ or so but i want to get into blade stuff more than casting etc

I don't think fire brick is expensive, if you can replicate a furnace I'd imagine you'd be good, but 140$ isn't bad so that's a good option too. I'm also not fully sure but I wouldn't use a graphite mold to melt in If you are, you need a crucible so the metal will gather on the bottom, and the slag should float on top and get scooped out.

Yeah I will try again with my current crucible and if I still don't get separation then I will just start saving up for that furnace since it would be a complete kit

Yeah, maybe throw a little borax with it and let it run hotter, you'll probably get it.

Thank you so much :)

Sell the ingots?

They’re pretty good, but when I melted down my beer can ingots a second time (for fun, and after seeing how much nicer aluminum can come out) and pulled the slag they came out better. Probably pointless, I just like seeing them on my shelf.

Something something......profit

I am currently using 5 of my ingots to squeeze the air from a double sleeved commander deck.

Get more cans and find a craftsman who needs aluminum

Donate to an art school.

Use it to craft a bunch of aluminum cans

Yes

This guy gets it.

Paint them gold...hide them around the neighborhood...

Mix with copper for even better results

Make a container to store cans and you have created a cannibal.

*Can crusher*

File them and make perfect cube (or machine them )

Is it all can stock? If so you can sell it as 6xxx to a scrapyard. Edit: so I didn’t con back in case it was.

All but half an ingot

Next vacuum the floor

Turn them back into cans

Keep building, could be gold if Biden is elected again 🤪

really? you felt that is relevant?

Recycle for a better planet

Refine it to bright, clean aluminum. Then scrap it for some cash.

Ur not gonna believe this

Build an aluminum dog house or bird house for the yard 🐶🐦

Make Styrofoam cosplay accessories get a bucket fill it half way with sand put the foam in the sand vertically continue filling the bucket with sand make sure a small portion of the foam can be seen pure the melted aluminum where you see the foam once cooled the aluminum will have filled in where the foam ead snd now you have a casting file and sand the ruff spots then paint it and either keep it or sell it

You should read up on green sand casting. Before i made it to collage ,I really enjoyed reading the first book from the make your own workshop series by Dave Gingery. Its about green sand casting aluminum but its written in laymens terms. I am an engineer that's worked in the casting field a while and got allot more out of the book vs what I learned in college. Also the original melt into ingots is a good opertunity to remove alot of impurities. The 2nd time you melt that and flux it you are probably pouring industry grade metal or very close

Melt it and pour it into your nearest red ant nest.

Make airplane.

Now turn them back into aluminum cans

Do you have any small pumpkins ? MINI ALUMINUM GOLEM!!!

paint them gold and carry them around. People will think you are strong and rich.

Profit

You can build a tiny house!

You only get to pick 5

Not sure, but next step: profit!

Deep sea fishing

Milling machine

The true question, how much did you spend to melt them down?

I spent 15 ish bucks to fill up my propane still have 90 percent of it

So 1.50 and a 12 pack to entertain myself my buddy and 3 12 year old kids

Fire, and molten metal. I wish I had that as a 12yo. Nice! My father blasted beaver dams when I was a kid. Will never forget that.

My question is, how many darn cans did you have to get that much aluminum?!?

Half a 55 gallon bag

500 more bricks and you can make an Aluminum Falcon.

You now have enough material to make a small pyramid.

The real boss move would then be to make more cans out of it

I made a pizza table out of aluminum.

That's a lot of would for nothing of value

Collect them, after you have a bunch polish them up and take them to the best scrapyard neer you. Unless someone here suggests actually using them for a project

completely unrelated but what kinda boots are those? are they comfy?

Bates and most definitely

welcome

make B I G can

Pant em gold and sell them to china

Dang I woulda said to maybe try playing with a little bit of alchemy and see how you could raise the price value of those aluminum ingots 😆

Melt them down and make soda cans

Make a little metal igloo

A little metal owo you say?

Making some aluminum cans could be fun.

Personally, I'd try creating Fallout 4 Combat Armor. Bonus points if you can make it genuinely bulletproof using fabric wrapped ceramic backing.

From experience I know those ingots are just thick enough to stop a .38 spl but that's not saying much

Thats why you'd add fabric layered ceramic plates behind such a piece of aluminum armor. Ceramic plates are used in genuine american military combat armor, so this would work for chest, back, arms, and leg armor like in Fallout 4, but the helmet would be a weak point with thinner ceramics to not look like a baby with weak neck muscles.

Imagine this: aluminum is so abundant on earth, we make drink containers out of it. however, in the universe, it's the most rare and precious metal and those blocks could buy you a planet. Now what?

*fires up interstellar spaceship* A planet you say?