What's up guys we are casting metal PokeBalls today
So this is a true story
I was trying to find my mini metal foundry
And it just disapeared, I checked my sideshed
I checked my workspace, and it was gone.
I was about to make a new one and last night it finally hit me
You know what I did with it? I stuck a plant in it
And turned it back into a plant pot
And I know that's what it's original purpose in design
But it was kind of funny that I lost track of it
OK, so let's jump right in you remember in the last video
We took wax PokeBalls and incapsulated them with
Plaster and paras, and then I baked those in the oven
To melt the wax and leave a cavity where we could
molten aluminum. So, next item of buisness
Let's get back to the stove, pull out our plaster molds
And see if we can cook up some molten aluminum
today. Woo! these things are toasty warm
And the cool thing is these are completely hollow aswell.
All the wax that was in there melted and dripped out
Upside down, and I removed that wax, and I let them cook overnight
At about 325 degrees Fahrenheit, so
Most of the moisture is cooked out now
And these things are nice and warm which is really good
But I do have a little bit of a concern though
In a previous video, I tried making a plaster mold of
Han Solo, and poured in molten copper, and the heat of
Was enough to vaporize materials in the plaster
Which left bubbles and pockmarks all over
The final casting. Will it turn out with a reasonable result?
I have no idea, this is entirely experimental
So, you're seeing this the first time, as I do
And if any of you are experienced metal workers, and
Know of a better way to do this, please let me know
Cuz I'm here for the experience and education aswell
They're really warm, and starting to burn my hands
So let's go whip up a batch of molten aluminum
Pour these molds and see if they actually work
Now, this is a brand new clay graphite crucible
And technically you're supposed to run it through
a cycle of warming up, and cooling down, or there's
A chance it could split, but I'm not really that
Patient, so let's just throw this thing in, fire it up
And hope it survives.
OK, so for aluminum scraps here I got some of my
mini metal biscuits. I've also got this old aluminum
Master sword, it's a little bit bent and wonky
So, we're gonna melt that back down, and use it to
To make some PokeBalls today.
Right on, time to fire it up
So I just got this out of the oven it's extremely hot
But, I'm still expecting the molten metal will probably
Crack the plaster, it's just what it does
But it's completely cleaned out now,
So, let's set this thing down and pour some metal in
OK, this thing is molten
Don't wanna spill it that would be very, very bad
Still lighting on fire
Ya, that plaster is still burning, I was wondering if it
Gonna do that
So, I'm wondering if that's gonna cause imperfections
to the metal
I'm hoping that has a chance to settle down
Before it cures
Maybe we can get a little bit more in there
That was a pretty good pour, I have to say:
I'm pretty impressed with myself for not spilling
Even though I cooked these things overnight at
350 degrees, you can see the plaster is still
releasing flamable gases
So, I obviously didn't cook it all off
And we're getting a nice big crack here as the metal
Starts to cool, but I do have my fingers crossed
I'm hopeful that we're gonna get something good here
Got a crack around the side of my crucible so we're
going to have to do this quickly
Oh no I'm out of aluminum!
No! That's not good!
Oh no it just broke in half!
You got to be kidding me! There's 40 bucks down the drain
We're just gonna salvage as much of this as we can
Another cool design of the mini metal foundry
I should have done that earlier though
That thing has cooled down to much for too long
K, so update guys, this is why you follow directions
The crucible maker told me I needed to warm it up
And cool it down, or it may crack
I was expecting to have some little cracks, I wasn't
expecting it to break in half, holy heck
And that may have cost us one of my PokeBall castings
So check it out guys we've let these things sit for
About an hour, they should be nice and cold now
And you can see, the plaster has stopped burning
And it's left a nice black residue everywhere
And surprisingly this metal is very warm to the touch
Not so much down here, but up here is still really warm
Unfortunately, I cracked my crucible, and lost half of the
Aluminum before I could get this poured
I think the mold is full but I'm actually not
Sure what to expect, I am curious to get inside this
And see how it turned out, so let's take these bad boys
Grab a hammer smash 'em open, and see what we got
It took so much work to make these plaster molds
And now we have to smash them open
They are one time use, you only get one shot
So you're seeing this for the first time as I do
This thing filled up completely with aluminum
The only way to get our medal mold out now is to smash it with a hammer
Let's get to it
One shot! Check that out
Oh my goodness, you know what?
That kinda worked out
The first thing I noticed is that the cracks and crevices
Are all full of plaster, but I'm thinking if we just took
Something like a screwdriver we could probavbly chisel those out
Even after an hour to an hour and a half of cooling down
This thing ss still ridiculously hot
Oh, and just as a point of interest there's a point of my hand where the
Liquid nitrogen burned me 2 weeks ago,
Randomly, out of nowhere it started blistering
This thing seems to be in pretty good condition
There was a little bit of shrinkage here apparently
When the aluminum cooled down, so we don't have a perfect
Sphere unfortunately, but the rest of it looks to
Be in pretty good shape
We got one solid PokeBall
Now, I'm excited to see the second mold here
Either we have a solid PokeBall, or we have
Two halves that are joined together
But did they fuse together, or will they fall apart?
I guess it's time to find out
Sweet
Look at that
It almost looks the the technodrome
If you're a ninja turtle fan from the 80's
Got like the eye on the technodrome there
This stuff is so brittle I can probably just pull it
Apart with my hands
Well, look at that
So what did we get here?
So far it's actually looking pretty good
Every screw we cast, we get air bubbles trapped in the top
I'm not sure how to avoid that
So, you actually see the seem where the two medals
Join together, this first pour went up to here
And then the second pour joined in there
Let's see if we can get these things cleaned up a little bit
Shall we?
There we go, I'm gonna use a little wire brush here
Oh yeah, look at the way that just falls away
It actually looks pretty sweet
These things might cleanup relatively nice
O-ooohhh
I'm starting to see potential here guys
So here's the difference at 30 seconds of the wire brush
It's already pretty dramatic
It looks like it turned out great
I kinda like that dirty look to it though
Just cut off the base, round it off a little bit
Have ourselves a cool little paperweight
Solid metal PokeBalls
That's awesome
So there you have it guys, I'm
Actually super suprised that casting in plaster is a
viable option
And I think if we're to take our silicone molds
And our wax sculptures
And make them a little bit more perfect
I think those results would show up on our end product
What do you wanna see me cast next?
Put your comments and suggestions down below
Maybe I'll pick one of 'em and uh put it to the test
In a future video.
Thanks for joining me in this series, it has been
awesome hanging out with you
And I will see you in the next video, talk to you then
Cool! The world's first gummy PokeBall