Foundry Casting Materials

For casting I wanted something that is readly available, cheap and easy to melt. The raw materials should be melted down and poured into ingots for remelting when ready to use. This tends to reduce the impurities found in the raw materials such as paint, oils, cockroaches, cigarette buttes etc. See the ingots I got from a readily available source!

Lead	Lead melts at 600 degrees F. It is available at tire centers in the form of used wheel balancing weights. It is also available from lead storage batteries but I've never tried to reclaim it. It could be dangerous due to the acid.
Pot Metal	Pot Metal melts at 900 degrees F. It is available from old tool casings and lawn mower engines. Breaking up old pot metal castings to fit in the crucible might be a problem. It never breaks when or where you want it to.
Aluminum	Aluminum melts at 1250 degrees F. It is available from beer cans (and therefore fun to collect). I also use the gutters off of my house (What a waste of money. They only work when it's raining). I also ask the local building contractors to save me their aluminum siding scraps. Scrap aluminum is all over the place in lawn chairs, pie plates road signs etc.. It takes about 75 beer cans to make one cup of melt. Approximately 75 % of a beer can is slag.
Brass Bronze	Brass and bronze melts at about 1800 degrees F. This may approach the melting point of a cast iron skillet used as a crucible. Therefore a *REAL* clay crucible should be used. Sufficient quantities of Brass/Bronze may also be difficult to obtain cheaply. I have never used this material since I don't have any clay crucibles (they are expensive).
Cast Iron	Cast Iron melts at about 2000 degrees F. Therefore a *REAL* clay crucible should be used. Use old cast iron gears etc.. I also have never used this material.

Lead