Scored a bunch of metal....

[Harry O]

Not lead --- Aluminum.

I inherited a South Bend lathe and a light duty Walker-Turner mill (a heavy duty drill press with an x-y table) a while back. I decided to find some aluminum to learn (or practice) on. Most of the crap I ran across was from siding or pot-metal-aluminum from window frames. It was not worth bothering with.

Then I came across some high-quality scrap aluminum that a guy agreed to let me buy. I was only planning to buy 20 to 30 lbs, but once I dived into a 45' x 8' x 8' bin of scrap aluminum, I ended up with 90 lbs of the stuff. Various 6061-T6 plates from 0.135" to 1/2" thick. Some 6061-T6 pipe (1-1/2" to 6" OD) and a round (1-1/2" OD). And some channel and L-shaped 6061-T4 extrusions. All of it was originally certified. All of it was from a tank-trailer manufacturer (formerly Fruehauf).

Even better, it only cost $60. That is less than some people are charging for lead now. Anyway, last night, I hacksawed a piece off of one of the plates and practiced milling the edges until it was square. Next, trying partial depth milling of a piece to reduce some of the thickness.

[imashooter2]

Nice! Don't forget to save your chips and sell them back at almost what you paid for the plate.

[Buckshot]

.................When I got my lathe-mill combo back in the mid 90's, I turned many bolts and other scraps into swarf, just for the pure fun of seeing it happen :-) Seems like magic then, and still seems like magic now.

..............Buckshot

[Linstrum]

Omigosh! You just discovered one of the best kept secrets around, making chips is better than se----, well, almost as good.

Don't forget to practice making your own simple moulds, getting your cutting tool exactly half-way between the two block halves is a good exercise. Get a drill chart so you can find out which drill sizes are close or the same as boolit diameters. Not all calibers can be matched but a few can come close enough and the castings can be run through your sizing dies to get the correct boolit diameter. When drilling mould blocks use oil, run your drill slow, and feed it in about 0.005" per revolution to get a good finish and the size wanted.

Interesting thing about caliber sizes, many are based on pi-inches in 1/32, 1/64, and a few in 1/128 of an inch increments then rounded off to three places. The 0.308" diameter of our .30-06 and other .30 calibers is based on a circumference of 31/32", 0.96875 divided by 3.14159 = 0.30836. The .303 British's 0.311 size is based on 125/128" or 0.3108". The 0.358 of our .35 rifle/.38 pistol calibers is based on 1-1/8". There are more, but you get the idea.

Have fun!

[richbug]

I started on bolts, then moved to old unserviceable gun barrels, now I am on to salvaged bits of farm machinery.

My most recent piece was a 1 1/2" diameter disc harrow axle, about 7 feet long. Lots of chips in it. Seems better that I give it a new life than sell it to the scrap guy for 5 cents a pound.

Presently I'm trying to make it into muzzle devices(brakes, flash hiders and the like).



I have a line on a 5" diameter piece of Non-magnetic stainless shafting , 10 feet long. The guy only wants scrap value for it. He was going to use it for a Mailbox post. I think a couple pop can cannons would be a better use.

[Shotgun Luckey]

It's amazing how man turn into boys when they get a new toy....I'm headed out to the toy store