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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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 🤣

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

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

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.

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.

Not mercury. Memetic Poly-Alloy. Basically, metal nanotech that allowed the T-1000 to change shape and color.

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.

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!

You can just melt and pour an alloy called "Cerrosafe". Melts below the boiling point of water. You can also try Babbitt metal or 50/50 solder which are easy to get and melt lower than 500 degrees. The trick would be to pour it and cool it quickly to limit the char. Babbitt #1 is available and works well, but it's pretty pricey. You can reduce the cost by filling the void mostly with steel. The steel will bond with the Babbitt well and be suspended in the middle, so it won't rust. Make sure to pour enough on top to reduce the effects of shrinkage.

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!

Cam at blacktail studios did an epoxy/brass pour. I think if you took your polished turd (which honestly awesome to see you guys do) and did the brass epoxy to fill in/ finish - it would be a neat finished product

Probably used pewter or indium. Wood variety helps too, hickory will hold up to heat better