Backyard Aluminum Casting

Build your own aluminum casting foundry. Cast bicycle shift levers or whatever else you have in mind. Learn to melt and cast scrap aluminum for profit or just for fun. While much of this book discusses the Bike Shift Lever project (read more at OneStreet.org under Programs, One Street Components), readers will learn how to cast just about anything using scrap aluminum and make a profit doing so. In addition to casting, the book also offers guidance on product marketing and sales. Starting with foundry and casting basics, readers learn how to build an inexpensive charcoal-fired furnace using a flowerpot or fired-clay bricks. An entire chapter is dedicated to sorting and melting scrap aluminum so that readers will always have an ample supply of quality metal for casting. The book wraps up with product marketing and sales, using Bike Shift Levers as the example, but showing how any cast aluminum product can be profitably produced in a backyard foundry. In the back of the book, readers will find: – a detailed table of aluminum alloys to help them sort their scrap, – the design drawings for the Bike Shift Lever. For readers interested in making Bike Shift Levers, they will learn how to become one of our license partners and receive a permanent casting mold that will hold up to many, many castings. License partners are critical to this project as we work to provide affordable, durable, and repairable shift levers to people worldwide who rely on their bicycles everyday. We also offer our license partners ongoing support for foundry solutions, marketing in their area, and bulk purchases of foundry and shift lever supplies. Backyard Aluminum Casting is for anyone who wants to try casting scrap aluminum into Bike Shift Levers or just about anything else that can be made out of aluminum.