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So I’ve accumulated a few hundred heatsinks from ewaste purchases. I’ve been melting them down and pouring bars because…. Why not?

My question is: what, if anything do you do with handmelt aluminum? I know most yards don’t take them and it looks like there’s a small market for them on eBay, but what do you do with it?

melt then back down and make stuff with them. You can make almost anything with a good sand mold. Or just scrap them as dirty alu or cast alu if you a lucky.

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austin86 said it all. That said your only two options

That said, you can buy burn off paper outlines you use to pour into sand.

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there's a 3rd option too. mill then smooth and to 1kg or 500g or some other weight, mark them as such and sell them for a over inflated price on ebay. but what's this about paper outlines? I never heard of that before

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I hesitate to even mention this alternative use, as it may offend someone who practices Jainism, as it commits violence against living creatures, and some people might jump at the suggetion without having a proper understanding of the dangers involved.
I have seen and acquired metal "ant trees", or tunnel casts where one pours molten lead (too heavy and breaks too easily) or molten aluminum over an ant mound (after scooping out a shallow basin to pour into which will form the base for the ant tunnel sculpture once the pour is excavated and cleaned. It is a use for old aluminum melt. I do not recommend it as it is dangerous, as molten metal and soil that is even faintly damp pretend it is dynamite or a bomb, and boom is neither artistic nor a recognized musical note. While Paint splatters on canvass by Jackson Pollock are pleasing to the eye and sell for big money, molten metal splattered on your skin and eyeballs are definitely not in demand. Since SE Tennessee is relatively close to aluminum smelters, most local buyers pay good prices for any types of aluminum, Some will buy cast aluminum as cast and make no distinction of the "
pot metal or diecast alloys", while others allow basically anything aluminum to go into a "old sheet" category. Some of my local yards also buy heat sinks as extrusion at nearly a dollar a pound, while others call them 18 cent aluminum breakage. Want to guess where I sell them?

I done that before, got a big problem with ants in my yard and the bug man can't seem to put a end to them. I started using my own mix of bleach and other things to kill them but that was hell on my yard so one day I pored aluminum down one of the ant hills. I would not recommend this if you live in a area that gets a lot of rain or in a place with a high water table... you live and learn as I always say lol, long story short the aluminum hit water underground and when poof and I was left with a big hole and lots of aluminum all over the place.

That being said the casts do look really cool.

I should get a pet ant eater...

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This sounds incredibly fun.

My neighbor is telling me to make throwing stars lol, may try some fun stuff with sand molds

look up local laws on throwing stars, many places out law them. same with caltrops.

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yea I am not advocating for this at all and everyone should follow the local laws but I couldn't really care less if it is "illegal" or not. I'm not really worried about the cops kicking down my door over some throwing stars lol

I would not ether, but if you get caught with them it could be some jail time or fines, more likely fines but crap happens. I remember a case not to long ago that folks were getting years of jail time over a credit card with a outline of a AR15 part that looked a lot like the part needed to make them full auto... the card could not be used to make the AR15 full auto any better then a string hack would make a gun full auto. Heck I would say the sting trick would be more reliable. dumb laws with even dumber punishments are more common then one thinks.

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Sent from your deceased grandmother's rotary phone.