I have been meaning to experiment with aluminium to see how it compared to tin and zinc.  Problem was that we didnt have any aluminium cans in the recycling bin so I put that on the shelf for a while.  Luckily our friends from up the road came round for dinner and left me 4 rtd cans to play with.  I remember seeing a video on youtube ages ago about some dude making an aluminium furnace in his back yard using a pot plant pot so figured I would give it a go. The theory being that the aluminium would melt down and fall through the hole at the bottom into my crucible thingy.

It looked like it was going to work in the beginning – the cans all melted and flopped down into the pot but alas, I ended up with a lump of compressed can at the bottom.  Oh well, I thought, at least it fits in the crucible thingy now… so I set about melting it again. Fail! My torch mustn’t be hot enough. It was not turning into a puddle.

I also decided to remelt some of my tin things into some new carbon bowls hoping that I could make asteroids instead of slugs to match my new grand plan. Success! Got some very nice results and a weird half poured sputnik thing.  Might try to make more sputniks next.