Helter smelter

[Bastet]

http://digg.com/video/what-you-get-when-you-pour-molten-aluminum-into-an-ant-hill

[Jack]

That's awesome. Want one.

[DirtDawg]

So do I!!

Nice!

I wonder how many worthless pours it takes to get one that cool.

[odeon]

How many ant colonies did it take?

[Parts]

I have made a furnace to melt and cast aluminum before but didn't think of doing this and am considering it for a future project. 
The first one is using charcoal briquets and a blower the second one is with propane.  Everything I used was easy to find at Home Depot and Kmart and the aluminum was just scrap I found.

[Pyraxis]

That's awesome. It's like a robot zombie.

[Icequeen]

That is really neat.

Pulled up his website, he did a few of carpenters ant colonies too (plenty of those buggers around here), not nearly as cool though.

[Jack]

am considering it for a future project. 

Be sure to post it if you do.

[Bastet]

It is an awesome way to get back at those nasty fire ants ans possible mmake money from it.

[Gopher Gary]

OMG!! I want one!!

[DirtDawg]

Beautiful, Parts!!

[DirtDawg]

I have made a furnace to melt and cast aluminum before but didn't think of doing this and am considering it for a future project. 
The first one is using charcoal briquets and a blower the second one is with propane.  Everything I used was easy to find at Home Depot and Kmart and the aluminum was just scrap I found.

Ya know, I have looked at your "furnace" a couple of times and I am still wondering about it.  It looks dangerous.

You used sand in a bucket to create a crucible? You needed a source of additional oxygen in the fire, so you used a heat gun?

[Semicolon]

I have made a furnace to melt and cast aluminum before but didn't think of doing this and am considering it for a future project. 
The first one is using charcoal briquets and a blower the second one is with propane.  Everything I used was easy to find at Home Depot and Kmart and the aluminum was just scrap I found.

Ya know, I have looked at your "furnace" a couple of times and I am still wondering about it.  It looks dangerous.

You used sand in a bucket to create a crucible? You needed a source of additional oxygen in the fire, so you used a heat gun?

It looks like cement.

[Parts]

It's a homemade refractory cement made with Portland cement, fire clay and perlite.  There was a top with a hole in the middle  also that was not on in the photo made of the same stuff all of which I let dry for a week before using.  The refractory only lasts a dozen firings or so before you have to replace it but it's cheep.  That's not a heat gun it's a blower that I used dog food cans with both ends cut off to hook to the furnace   I like trying to use whatever I have at hand in my projects spending as little as possible and most of the parts come from my  collection of salvaged items

[Semicolon]

It's a homemade refractory cement made with Portland cement, fire clay and perlite.  There was a top with a hole in the middle  also that was not on in the photo made of the same stuff all of which I let dry for a week before using.  The refractory only lasts a dozen firings or so before you have to replace it but it's cheep.  That's not a heat gun it's a blower that I used dog food cans with both ends cut off to hook to the furnace   I like trying to use whatever I have at hand in my projects spending as little as possible and most of the parts come from my  collection of salvaged items

I assume that that isn't working well for the furnace.