The Bronze Alloy as Tough as Steel! (almost)
Today I make some ingots of aluminum bronze in my fire brick furnace! Aluminum bronze is an alloy of copper and aluminum with some pretty amazing characteristics. It looks like gold, resists tarnishing, work hardens like nobody's business, and i hear it it can run a 5 minute mile. Ok, i may have made that last one up, but it's still pretty awesome.
Want to learn sand casting using your 3D printer? I can teach you!: paulsmakeracademy.mykajabi.co...
I'm making this alloy for sand casting. My first project will come next week, and aluminum bronze hammer for blacksmithing. I'm doing this alongside fellow youtuber SWDweeb, his alloying video can be found here: • Making aluminum bronze
I built this furnace and burner, videos available on my channel somewhere. I can't be bothered to find the link. I'm sorry.
Ok fine, here's the furnace video • How to Make a Fire Bri...
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You have exactly 91.3% copper to 8.7% aluminum that is a rather strong alloy. You could have added nickel and made C95500 aluminum bronze which is exceptionally strong. Currently I am making a 7075 aluminum alloy for a nonspark wrench.
It might be too late to ask, how much nickel lol
@@Freddy-bx6sf Aluminum 10.0 - 11.5% Cu, Copper 78.0% Fe, Iron 3.0 - 5.0% Mn, Manganese 3.50% Ni, Nickel 3.0 - 5.50% Other 0.50% This is manufacturing grade composition for C95500
@@thegreatders344 thank you. When it says 0.05% other is that for rounding errors? Is that like byproducts or something?
@Freddy-bx6sf other mixtures like phosphor or beryllium can be added on that 0.5% but ignoring it is fine
@@Freddy-bx6sf 0.50 accounts for the impurities you can basically never entirely resolve. There's a patent for Nickle/Aluminum/Copper that gives values 10-12% aluminum, 2 - 10% Nickle, and the remainder copper from whatever percentages you're using. Manganese can be anywhere from .01 to 5%. Iron can be substituted in at values of 1 to 6% in place of copper. This is specifically advantageous because it allows the stress relieving heat treatment, or tempering, of the resulting bronze without causing it to become eutectoid. So its retains a martensite structure while being stress relieved, thus resulting in a greater body ductility. Such tempering should be done in the 800F to 1050F range of temperature.
refreshing to not be drowned down by heavy metal music with such videos. I really appreciate it.
WOW!!! Every time I watch one of your vids I'm amazed. A ratio of 10 percent aluminium to 90 percent copper is very tough stuff. I never knew that!! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks! It's a great alloy. Very tough, corrosion resistant.
Lol, "all cratered up like the surface of the moon, or a teenager's face." XD That line had me rollin.
Thanks for your vids, I'm looking forward to getting involved in the video community and sharing knowledge and results. Your channel is like my second favorite when it comes to these casting projects.
this was awesome, thanks for the lesson on the aluminium bronze, I found that very interesting.
Your welcome! Glad you enjoyed
Thanks for the video, really helped a brother out on an engineering assessment. Funny too!
Dude, your channel is great! I love your great sense of humor!
Thanks!
Good video. I love seeing someone so passionate about the content they are creating!
Thanks! Playing with fire is a lot of fun
Hereafter u will be burnt into ashes i promised u🤣🤣
Another great video. I am looking forward to seeing the hammer. Merry Christmas.
Thanks! merry christmas to you too!
Sounds like a great alloy!😃👍💛
It is!
Another awesome video Happy holidays to you and your family
Thanks! same to you!
I guess you know by now that your mix was 9.09% aluminum bronze. To get 10%, you need 1 part Al and 9 parts Cu. But your mix seems to have amazing properties, sort of more like steel.
So very cool my friend.
Another great video 👍
I just finished my first copper melt and pour, and I didn't realize how much you were flinching from the heat the first time I watched this, but now that I can relate, I was chuckling to myself as I watched you dance around the heat. It's crazy how much more radiant heat comes off of molten copper than aluminum.
Great video, thank you.
When there’s a new Paul’s garage video 😍😍
;)
Randy Rodich m
Catching up on some old ones. Nice. 👍
Thanks!
This one is more informative than Swede dweeb's but you both have good vids and I'm enjoying learning with you guys. I had NO IDEA aluminum bronze was harder than copper!! Amazing! I need to make some for sure!
You're very likable, keep making videos.
Nice to learn this kind of stuff I'm thinking of going to the metal business myself maybe make some castings for people who knows it's good learn these things from people like you
Was not expecting hard material from two soft materials, very interesting video Paul
Glad you found it interesting! Aluminum bronze is awesome.
This is great. Thanks
Thanks for sharing
Thanks for watching!
I always wanted to do this, but couldn't find much info on it. Those turned out great man, cheers!
Thanks!
You're funny as! I'm definitely subscribing!
This will be good to know when I start making my machine shop machine tools next month.
Good luck!
That’s tough stuff!
Cool project
Thanks!
Looks like some super tough material I like it didn't fracture didn't bend not too soft not too brittle
haha loved it, great video.
It's been So long and I'm So glad to be able to watch one of your videos calmly, again. Hey, my Salandit named after you . . . There's these fire, toxic and melting based content. Salandit is a Poison Fire Type. This is awesome.
I definitely like types of fire, that's for sure :D
I work in a CNC shop and just got done making aluminum bronze bearings. It is a very hard bronze.
I'm making Aluminum Bronze now!!!!! 92.5/7.5 ratio and a light wire wheel job.
It's an awesome alloy. One of my favorites
I don't know if aluminum bronze reacts like other copper alloys, but if you want to shatter the puck try hitting it while red hot as copper alloys tend to be "hot short". Meaning that it breaks into gravel if hit while hot
Fit the lid on perfectly, use a marker to make one line going through the top and side, then two on the next side then three etc. These will act as registration marks to perfectly align your lid every time. Or weld brackets with holes on the bottom and pieces of rod to slot into them to the lid.
Just a safety thought. Might want to invest in some torch goggles
Good idea, it was never this bright before.
The brightness, UV and IR radiation will kill your eyes, good post...
I was going to say the same thing 😊😊😊
3-5$ from ebay china, have a look
Interesting good vid my dude.
Thanks!
Wow... you are ultra-close to Chicago!
I am a machinist, and I machine aluminum bronze fairly often for guides and things. I use an SFM of 120, similar to stainless or A2 which works pretty good.
Thanks for the info!
No problem, also if your not using carbide tooling the work hardening aspect of it can become an issue when machining. to get around it instead of using multiple passes, go full depth using a slow feed rate.
swdweeb send me over. Very cool collaboration project!. Cool channel Paul , new sub
Thanks for coming over!
I run a 5lb bronze furnace. I get 2200F with a passive Bernoulli draft induced by propane injection into a simple pipe. I melt 5lbs in about a half hour. No electricity involved.
"that you don't want blowing up at random because that's really inconvenient"
Awesome!
Dude I get a kick out of watching your videos! Good job.
Thanks!
"They look amazing, google it sometime" is what the quick caption says
I love it! I wanna make myself a knife!
it would look amazing. I would probably buy an industrial aluminum bronze alloy, though. The industrial stuff has some iron in it and can be heat treated super tough. They make non-sparking hammers and wrenches out of it. It's amazing.
@PaulsGarage can you imagine telling people you have traditional bronze aluminum alloyed knives and stuff I mean how cool is that! I don't need the toughest thickest knife to go out I'd love to have a cool Outdoors knife that was made from super old tec that actually lasts and looks awesome
Ok, clearly I'm going to have to go get a hair dryer. It takes me something just short of a lifetime to get hot enough to melt copper. Pretty impressive young man, pretty impressive.
Forced induction makes everything better, even mustangs ;)
Also I think the hair dryer worked so efficiently because it not only forces the air in but preheats the hell out of it. So the base temp into the combustion front was way higher than it otherwise would have been.
I'm planning to make some of this stuff and casting a set of custom knuckles dusters with it
Can’t wait to see your hammer head design and see it cast. And just a second on the protection for your eyes. Torch glasses. Ave just did a video on it as was mentioned...
I’ll have to get some kind of eye protection. I’ve never had the thing this hot before.
I've seen aluminum bronze obelisks for international border monuments- only place I have seen the metal. It is pretty cool stuff.
You might be able to make some cool bullets out of that alloy. Copper and brass bullets are available but the alloy should penetrate better.
Forced air furnaces are the best. I use a shop vac for my furnace. It is kind of out of commission, because I kind of melted the steel burner.
Thats unfortunate! Good sign that it was hot enough thoigh
Always look forward to your vids as you remind me of my best bud-he was there after my transpplant, he kindly told the nurse I was awake so she could come over and turn the Morphine back on while I am screaming mentally at him "I'M FINE! CAN'T YOU READ MINDS?!?!? Oh, you Diiii....." but you're not him. I wonder how flexible this stuff is-been wanting to cast a bracelet, I can use Silver [[will eventually]] but wanted to get the first done cheaply and Aluminum is too tough to bend. [[Stupid Aluminum]]
Haha that’s awesome. Cast aluminum won’t bent but pure aluminum might, it’s a bit softer. It work hardens though, so you would have to keep annealing it
Forced air is seriously a MASSIVE difference. I use a shop vac in reverse with an inline speed control knob turned all the way down and the hose intentionally misaligned to prevent too much air and I've sheared off my pipe that serves as torch end in the furnace at least 5 times now. I'm thinking about running an O2 concentrator instead, as it's lower velocity and highly flammable
OMG hair blower, that workd great... Cool paul remember glasses you can dameged or eyes... 😁 what bar, psi was your gas at???
the hair dryer is awesome!! forced air is the best. I don't have a gauge so i'm not sure exactly what PSI i'm at, but at max the thing is around 30psi (2 bar).
Hi mate... I am looking for a pure metal OR alloy that has a silvery look but is not Nickel or Silver. I need to replace those too for a project. any ideas ?
Teenager face killed me😂😂😂😂
This would make for one cool Khopesh Sword.
I remember forging down a large-diameter round bar of aluminum bronze. Didn't know it WAS aluminum bronze. Heated and quenched it to anneal. Swung my hammer down. Every single tooth in my skull rattled. Found out later that it hardened when quenched. Mystery metal lottery....
Sounds like a tooth shaking good time
@@PaulsGarage I think you can quench harden and temper it to around 50 Rc, which is good enough for steel swords and plenty for smithing hammers.
Use the face shield next time you do a metal pour. Keeps the heat off your face. You can’t get tinted ones too to protect your vision.
This may be a silly question but, did you have the heat function going on the hair dryer going or was it just blowing regular air? The reason I ask is because I have an old vacuum cleaner motor and moves a ton of air but with no extra heat…I would assume the propane is sufficient?
Sir, you are funny and melt metal and have tools. You are success at life.
Such a fun and funny channel and I learned a lot about forging. I want to make an aluminum sword and I was looking for ways to add metals and make an aluminum alloy so that way the sword can be light but also strong and durable to take lots of hits. I do stage and film acting and I was looking for ways to make my own weapons so we can use them on stage not risk the weapon breaking or hurting myself and it be light and easy to use.
finally got it right I used a small amount borax idk if it helped or if I got it right but I was thinking could not hurt got a nice bar tried several times and failed
Does the badass Tweed jacket also serve any safety prurpose? Also where can i get 1?
It’s wool which resists burning ;). You can get all sorts of wool old mans jackets at goodwill
I would like to have Paul as a neighbor so he'd help me move some giant things around.
I need my spine to heal a bit first! :D
Weld a line to match to for the top
Cool
Eyyy nice work man! Finally got your gold :D What else do you plan on doing with aluminium bronze?
Havent decided yet, but probably something like an axe? Tobho mott already did that, though
Do you know if this alloy will turn skin green like straight copper? It would be interesting to alloy it and try some jewelry smithing
I don’t know for sure. The reason it resists corrosion is the aluminum in it forms a protective coating of aluminum oxide, so it might not turn skin green. I don’t know for sure, though.
Just wondering because I'd love to make some of this but since the melting temperatures are so different wouldn't melting the aluminum in the copper destroy the aluminum since the temperature to melt copper needs to be so much higher? How does it mix when the melting points are so different?
Good question. It doesn't hurt the aluminum at all. They are both liquid at that temperature, but the aluminum might be better described as dissolving in the copper. The thing you're describing does happen with brass, however, as the melting point of brass is above the boiling point of zinc, which is the main additive to copper in brass. That results in white smoke (zinc oxide) coming off the surface as the zinc evaporates. This doesn't happen with aluminum bronze.
Wait carbon is made of carbon?
I’m 95% sure, can’t be absolutely certain though
Paul's Garage I think it's made out of hydrogen
So is carbonara sauce, it's just arranged differently
i cant say it is wrong
JAG827 casting Carbon, being an element, is what it is. Whether you’re referring to soot, nanotubes, buckminsterfullerene, graphite, graphene, glassy carbon, or diamond, it is still carbon. Just like why phosphorus can be a brick red powder that is often found on the sides of matchboxes, but the same element can also be a yellow wax-like material that spontaneously ignites if you let it sit out too long. Either way, they are allotropes of the same element.
Hey Paul, I checked out swdweeb, and he seems to be a nice guy with some cool content. I am planning to cast some aliminum bronze grinding media for my ball mill. Do you have any idea about how to get the alloy aa hard as possible? Quenching vs not quenching? Casting only in moonlight while chanting Norse battlehymns? Any thoughts?
The higher the aluminum content, the harder and more brittle it is. Not sure how that will effect it's use as a grinding media, though. There are ways to heat treat it too, but i'm not certain what those are.
Ha ha ha! Loved the video! Very informative. Especially with the brittleness tests. Was curious, did you use a grinder at all to it? Also, what was the weight? As it has Al in it , it would weigh less. Also, how hard is it to cast? I'm curious about it for replicating period weapons. Lastly, go to Harbor Freight and invest in some inexpensive Oxy - Acetylene gas welding goggles. #5 shade should work out just fine. Great teaching!
It casts easier than copper, probably not quite as easy as tin bronze or silicon bronze, though. I didn't take a grinder to the ingots, but I did use the grinder on the hammer that i cast later. I didn't think it was that tough on the grinder, but then it shot flames and stopped working... I guess it's hard on grinders LOL
If you are still into this -Can you make arsenic bronze (while keeping yourself safe) in proportion same as what Bronze Age people made and check how it compares with aluminum bronze and tin bronze you made?
If you can get it try adding 3% Beryllium to the alloy. Th addition of 1-3% to a copper/Bronze alloy makes it as strong and tough as tool steel
Because they have different volume to weight values true percent would by by volume and not weight!
dude you just answered a new question that’s been bouncing around in my mind since I built a foundry. I want to make a hammer like you, since I’m missing a hammer and anvil. Do you think aluminum bronze is dense enough to make an anvil ? New sub from me, this is an amazing art and great video !
With the right alloy it's probably tough enough for anvil work, but that would take a LOT of aluminum bronze! I'm not sure if my alloy is all that great, as most home brew alloys arent great, but I'm sure you could make quite an anvil out of the stuff. One advantage of any copper alloy is the density. While tool steel, properly treated, can exceed aluminum bronze in toughness, copper is actually denser than iron, so bronze alloys have more mass for the same volume. Basically a forged steel anvil is probably tougher, but a bronze anvil of the same size is heavier. That anvil mass helps when forging.
To protect your eyes from the brightness and heat you could drop ~$5 on some shade 5 goggles. I know I’m a couple years late but it’s a lifesaver if you don’t have any by now!
I am wondering if it might be possible to add a dimmer to just the motor in a hair drier to adjust the speed on it? It would work if it is a brushed universal motor. Also I guess it depends on how the motor is wired in the hair drier. Well, do you even need the heating coils in the hair drier? I'm thinking no.
It could be possible. So far i've just been cranking the thing to max. I haven't tried taking the thing apart either, i suppose i could remove the heating coil. I've just been running it with the heat off.
Yeah I didn't think the heating coil was doing much. Some people also use gate valves to control their air flow too.
HEY I've never heard of "AL. Bronze" but I'm interested in "sci.-tech." and I'm wondering about the thermal conductivity properties of this alloy and if you could create a superior kind of CPU heat-sink with this material I was wondering if it would be even better if you threw a bit of silver into the mix say a silver dime or quarter. Silver being one of the best, thermal conductors in of it self or what if you Silver plate the whole thing I'm sure it'd look cool as hell. Just an idea I'd love to see a VID on the topic.
That sounds interesting but im sure it would be less effective than just pure copper. Silver alone is better yet and I think gold is even better. Aluminum only gets used as a heat sink/heat exchanger because its light and cheap by comparison. Perhaps a tiny bit of aluminum in copper would help reduce the weakness issue with copper with a minor loss in thermal conductivity, but i doubt it would be worth the insane increase in production difficulty that comes with aluminum bronze. You're probably onto something with coins, though. If any alloy could cool better than aluminum or copper it might be a silver/copper alloy like found in coins. Maybe a sterling silver? Pure silver might be great but its insanely soft, like butter soft. It is very ductile but good luck with the weakness. I have a feeling aluminum and copper are the best balance of production costs, materials cost, and effectiveness. My PC for a while had a big honking cpu heatsink with 2 fans. More area and more airflow is probably easier to achieve than a crazy alloy.
Totally flipped when I saw this. Forgot it was Friday.
TGIF indeed
To get a torch that hot and have it heat up the foundry that quickly, you probably had a near max effeciency burner. Propane with pure oxygen can reach near 3600 degrees farenheit. Good job
Thanks! It definitely got crazy hot really quickly. I didn’t expect a burner made of 10% duck tape to work so well
I've been having some hard time with melting down aluminum cans, I always end up getting absolutely no dross once im finished melting them all down. Is there anything you think I can be doing wrong?
No dross, what do you mean
Jordan Howard There is absolutely no black dross that you get when you melt down cans, it only started happening to me recently, and whatever i do it won't produce the dross and get the impurities out of the aluminum until i melt it down again, and then I have a harsh smell of plastic coming off of the aluminum
When I melt cans I get just the opposite effect. It smells bad and smokes as it is burning the paint off the can and I feel like I get about 50% dross off the top. I just recently started adding "light salt" to the aluminum after its melted. It produces a dark liquid on top. If I stir that in I get a little more dross out of the melted aluminum but not a lot. The ingots that I make produce very little dross when remelted. I think you're always going to get oxidation and some dross unless you've figured out a way to bathe it in some inert gas. That sounds like a lot of work and expense for very little benefit though.
swdweeb I can only get the plastic and paint out in the 2nd melt and it comes only out as a very syrupy liquid at the bottom of the crucible and I use the morton light salt but all that does for me is completely mix the dross and aluminum together, but everything is still a liquid. Its a very strange thing, and I can't seem to find why of how it happens
That is a very strange thing. Sorry, wish I could be of more help.
Paul I have to Admit although very uninformed or ill equipped you manage to give us some good content! Keep at it Man!!! haha I get your jokes by the way , funny!
Does bronze smell when you're melting it or no?
Wonder if you could make a sword out of this? Mabye like a shorter one, but still, it would be kinda cool, especially ingraved with a mirror polish.
Like "Dirilyte"? Cool.
what kind of weapons can this material make?
Could you do a comparison between Copper/Tin and Copper/Lead based bronze? From what i understand,Copper/Aluminum bronze is good for weapons/tools but i am interested for jewelry,what's the best combination? it needs to be a little softer so i can work with it
not sure i've ever heard copper/lead referred to as bronze, i've only heard it called leaded copper. I just made some tin bronze, actually, and i compared it a bit to aluminum bronze. Not much of a comparison though, if i'm being honest. that video should be out friday. The main difference from a jewelry perspective is probably color. Aluminum bronze just looks like brass, but brass is easier to cast, so probably just use brass for jewelry. tin bronze is a different color, i have a shot of them side by side on my instagram page if you want to see the color contrast.
my bad, i was referring to a copper/tin/lead alloy :)) Doing ancient reenactement i found lots,and i mean lots of ancient bronze artefacts that were decorated by punches. Seeing how hard aluminium bronze is...i am 100% sure that i will break my tools :)),this is why i am searching for a softer type of bronze In ancient times they used lead in everything....gold,silver,bronze...etc :)
a..yea...the colour....it looks too much like brass :)
you should cast a hood ornement for your van
An aluminium bronze hammer would make an interesting ornament. Many people would probably whine that a hammer is not pedestrian friendly, but the front of that van isn't really any softer.
If someone gets hit with a van, the hood ornament is the least of their worries! Aluminum bronze badges and stuff would be pretty awesome now that you mention it...
I LIKE YOUR VIDEO I WISHE MY HALF AS GOOD HAS YOUR LOL
Also ave posted a video about uv and ir sensitivity in different materials. Would your forge be putting out any ir radiation?
Nuclear_ Nube it would. And a lot of it. Inferred radiation is a by product of heat.
That's where the face melting power that he witnessed comes from. Radiant (infrared) heat can be felt quite far away from the source. Welding goggles not a bad idea, otherwise one may end up with cooked retinas.
Nicely explained it helped me slot thank you my name Rahul
Hello Paul ;is it possible to make your own ferro titanium ?
Maybe? I wouldn’t know how though
Put in nickel also ! Nickel Aluminum bronze is great for sea water exposure.