Aluminum for MgAl from cans

[THEONE]

I have some mg scrap metal and i was planning to make some mgal 50/50 with it. Will just the various soft drink cans, from Coca-Cola for example, be suitable as a source of aluminum? since they can be found everywhere fro free.

 

Thanks

[NeighborJ]

Aluminum cans contain 1% manganese and 1% magnesium so there shouldn't be any issues with that alloy. The cans are coated internally with a food grade sealant which would cause the bigger issue. I wouldn't know for certain but it may be necessary to smelt the Al into bars first so the coating contaminant can be eliminated.

[Arthur]

Read up all you can about molten metals and metal fires. Get full PPE for a metal fire and full PPE and work methods for dealing with molten metals. Check that you have lots of space and lots of fire extinguishers for metal fires -research the specific extinguishant powder for Magnesium and Aluminium.

[THEONE]

I have made some mgal in the past too but a few grams only.

[Piccaso]

I would choose a different source for your aluminum although it is possible to do it that way the coatings on the can will produce a lot slag and you will have to melt a whole bunch of cans to get much aluminum. As previously posted read up on melting magnesium as it catches fire easily and is almost impossible to put out once it get going.

[Arthur]

Just work out what weight of metal that you want, then find enough cans to make that. Melt the aluminium scrape the slag off then add the magnesium which will dissolve into the mix with heating. Use the right fluxes and do it in a place where a total burn up will not harm you or anyone or anything else. Then pour the mix into cold water straight from the crucible.

 

OH! then you have the issue of milling granules of MgAl which is not safe either.

[memo]

when you melt the cans there is a lot of slag. clean it up real good. my al is a mix of all kinds of al. like window frames and such. it works fine for magal

[FrankRizzo]

Like others have suggested, melt the cans first and make clean ingots. Cans make a *lot* of slag and your alloy calcs will be pretty far off if you attempt it in one step. A steel muffin tin or even some appropriately sized depressions in damp sand make good molds for the ingots.

[Guest PyroManiac1]

Cans are a very poor source of aluminum. I had to melt down 20-40 aluminum cans to produce 3 mini pure aluminum ingots or 3 mini metal muffins.

[FrankRizzo]

Yes, definitely not economical unless you've got no other source. If you can source magnesium, you should also be able to find good aluminum. Scrap aluminium electrical wire is a great source.