Molten Aluminum meets fire-ant hill

[Mark A]

Houston for me. Turned into a big fight. Me, and a whole bunch of them. I'm still not sure who won.

For some reason this cracked me up. Not that it happened but the way you conveyed it.

Mark

[Handsome Rob]

If the cops could figure out a way of shooting these little bastards from a handgun, think how many tazer batteries could be saved.

I got my first taste this summer in central Florida. Made me dance like a 3 year old at a hillbilly wedding.

[Guest TankerHC]

Have been hit with them numerous times, the worst was last summer in MS. There is a guy South on 49 who sells work pants, overalls and stuff like that from his front yard, was driving by and decided to stop. 

 

The ants did their "OK Guys, all at once..." thing.   I was standing directly on top of the hill, which was directly in front of his overalls, and I was wearing a pair of sandals with no socks, got hit almost all the way to the knee.

[BrasilNuts]

My first taste was in Brazil in 2001, it's been a love hate (I hate them and they love to bite me) relationship ever since.

In 2002 I was in the Amazon translating for a group of volunteers building a church. When we got there the corners had been staked and the line for the foundation was strung by some of the locals. I noticed that there was a rather large anthill, at least 4 times bigger than the one in the video, right under the one of the lines. I mentioned it to the guys that were going to be digging the footer, by hand, and got a gruff "We've done this before" response. A few days went by before they got to the back wall where the hill was. I had been waiting with great anticipation, you see, in the Amazon the soil can be sandy so they use these 6' long and 10" wide heavy hoes to dig footers so I knew by the time their feet got to the hill the ants would be everywhere and ready for battle. There was only one problem with my plan, one of the guys digging was a very nice older gentleman, we'll call him Bob, and I really didn't want him to suffer.

I walked over to where they were digging and when they took the first chunk out of the hill with the hoe I stopped them and asked Bob if he would mind helping me with another project. Bob hopped up out of the trench and followed me to where we had all the bags of concrete stacked up. I sat down, Bob looked at me confused and said "What do you need me to do?" I handed him a bottle of water and said "Sit and watch."

It was glorious.

Robs "dance like a 3 year old at a hillbilly wedding" fits pretty well. Edited December 12, 2013 by BrasilNuts

[viscero]

Wow, up to $2,550 now on ebay.  

[Dennis1209]

I got to admit that's pretty cool. That would be a great piece for the living room and a conversation piece. What do you suppose he used to melt the aluminum?

[peejman]

I got to admit that's pretty cool. That would be a great piece for the living room and a conversation piece. What do you suppose he used to melt the aluminum?

 

 

Something hot.

[JAB]

The final product is pretty cool.  Looks like a cybernetic coral reef, to me.

 

I have never done aluminum casting but I once met a friend of a friend who did and apparently sand is a great casting medium for aluminum.  In fact, that is what this guy used.  He would carve what he wanted out of wax, bury the wax carving in sand with a channel through the sand down to where the wax figure was and then pour the molten aluminum through that channel.  It would run down the channel, melt and replace the wax and leave him with an aluminum copy of his wax figure.  He just had to snip off the part that was cast in the channel he used to pour the metal.  He showed me a really cool, roughly fist-sized dragon head he had made using that method.  I keep wanting to try to make a really cool walking stick handle that way but never have gotten around to it.  Not yet, anyhow.

 

Come to think of it, it seems like I remember something about Lodge using negative sand casts to make at least some of their cast iron cookware but I might be mistaken.

Edited December 12, 2013 by JAB

[peejman]

The final product is pretty cool.  Looks like a cybernetic coral reef, to me.

 

I have never done aluminum casting but I once met a friend of a friend who did and apparently sand is a great casting medium for aluminum.  In fact, that is what this guy used.  He would carve what he wanted out of wax, bury the wax carving in sand with a channel through the sand down to where the wax figure was and then pour the molten aluminum through that channel.  It would run down the channel, melt and replace the wax and leave him with an aluminum copy of his wax figure.  He just had to snip off the part that was cast in the channel he used to pour the metal.  He showed me a really cool, roughly fist-sized dragon head he had made using that method.  I keep wanting to try to make a really cool walking stick handle that way but never have gotten around to it.  Not yet, anyhow.

 

Come to think of it, it seems like I remember something about Lodge using negative sand casts to make at least some of their cast iron cookware but I might be mistaken.

 

 

Look up sand casting and "lost wax" or "lost foam" casting.  Been around for ages.

 

 

Note that this casting the ant hill thing only works in dry, sandy soils.  If you tried it in east TN wet clay, you'd have a mess. 

[Garufa]

Look up sand casting and "lost wax" or "lost foam" casting.  Been around for ages.

 

 

Note that this casting the ant hill thing only works in dry, sandy soils.  If you tried it in east TN wet clay, you'd have a mess. 

 

Reckon it'd work on the chipmunk labyrinth around my house?

[BrasilNuts]

Reckon it'd work on the chipmunk labyrinth around my house?

You better contact Alcoa for a bulk purchase.

[Guest Bonedaddy]

I'd like to see where the damn moles go when they ain't tearin' up the surface.

[mikegideon]

[media] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgztUzqaL3E [/media]

[Hershmeister]

If you zoom into the pic of that cast anthill you'll see millions of these guys:

Edited December 13, 2013 by Hershmeister

[whitewolf001]

Not gonna lie, I literally LOLed just then...

[Jonnin]

The final product is pretty cool.  Looks like a cybernetic coral reef, to me.

 

I have never done aluminum casting but I once met a friend of a friend who did and apparently sand is a great casting medium for aluminum.  In fact, that is what this guy used.  He would carve what he wanted out of wax, bury the wax carving in sand with a channel through the sand down to where the wax figure was and then pour the molten aluminum through that channel.  It would run down the channel, melt and replace the wax and leave him with an aluminum copy of his wax figure.  He just had to snip off the part that was cast in the channel he used to pour the metal.  He showed me a really cool, roughly fist-sized dragon head he had made using that method.  I keep wanting to try to make a really cool walking stick handle that way but never have gotten around to it.  Not yet, anyhow.

 

Come to think of it, it seems like I remember something about Lodge using negative sand casts to make at least some of their cast iron cookware but I might be mistaken.

 

Ah, so combine all the old and the new.  a 3-d wax printer, a bag of sand, and some alum...    the potential is limitless.

[peejman]

Reckon it'd work on the chipmunk labyrinth around my house?

 

 

You better contact Alcoa for a bulk purchase.

 

 

Or highjack one of the full cauldron's that drive across town.  It'd take a LOT of metal. 

 

And a backhoe to dig it up. 

[BrasilNuts]

Or highjack one of the full cauldron's that drive across town.  It'd take a LOT of metal. 
 
And a backhoe to dig it up.

I see a plan starting to form up.

[Guest CCPT]

I saw online where that guy had to disable comments on YouTube because of all the "what if someone did that to your house" whiners...pathetic.

[mikegideon]

I saw online where that guy had to disable comments on YouTube because of all the "what if someone did that to your house" whiners...pathetic.

 

Those whiners need to be tossed into a fire ant hill. Apparently, they've never met any fire ants.

Edited December 13, 2013 by mikegideon

[Guest CCPT]

Those whiners need to be tossed into a fire ant hill. Apparently, they've never met any fire ants.

Certainly not. Maybe he should scoop up a few hills and take them to their yards for transplant. I still think it's very cool.

[56FordGuy]

Listing has been removed from eBay.

[Good_Steward]

Wonder how this would play out for yellow jackets??? I do have a hot pot and a several hundred pounds of lead......

[peejman]

Wonder how this would play out for yellow jackets??? I do have a hot pot and a several hundred pounds of lead......

Don't think it would work as well with lead. It cools too slowly.

[vontar]

That is what I call ART.