The first iteration of this style foundry that we made was simply a #10 can with holes in the side for air flow and a smaller can in the middle that we melted the aluminum in. We experienced much success with this simple foundry and we were able to make three casts in one pour with plenty of aluminum left over. With this successful pour behind us, we decided to try and cast one of the larger dragon molds that we had, and for this we decided to hold the coals in a three gallon bucket and melt the aluminum in the #10 can instead. This, however, did not turn out as we wished, because of the larger space that had to be heated the aluminum did not melt evenly and too much ash entered the crucible, so many of the aluminum cans were not able to fully melt. Because of this problem, we decided to make a more permanent version of our first foundry by putting the #10 can inside the three gallon bucket, lining both with high temperature mortar, and pouring concrete in between both of them. Due to an early failure of one of our tin can crucibles where we accidentally pushed the bottom out of one of the cans we were using and lost most of the aluminum, we also made some changes to our crucible design. For the improved crucible, we took a taller can, filled the bottom with the high temperature mortar and pushed a shorter can inside to finish it off. It has not been tested, but it should take care of our problems for now.
