Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Experiments with molten metal


Here's a video I like by The Back Yard Scientist:

After watching several videos of metal casting and pouring metals into water (such as the video above by The Back Yard Scientist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj7S_DNFgEU), I decided to try it myself. For the metal, I used lead solder. One of my previous posts goes more in depth into the melting process I used. I poured my molten lead into a 5 gallon bucket of water, and it solidified almost instantly. It made interesting shapes. It made some long, bumpy shapes, and some small discs and pellets. I can remelt the small ones easily and try again. It reminds Mom of dropping batter into hot oil.
Before I knew I could melt metal easily, I tried something similar with hot glue. When hot glue drips into water, it floats. Metal obviously sinks. The hot glue shapes were smoother and less three-dimensional because hot glue floats and has a higher viscosity. It also doesn't cause the water to boil like the lead does.


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