If you're going to smelt aluminium on your desktop you're definitely going to want three phase power into your house, and probably some sort of asbestos tile to put it on.
Probably quite a good extractor fan too, Shake'n'Vac isn't going to shift that odour.
Lead's pretty straightforward to work with, if you don't get it hot enough to give off significant vapour (no, lead solder won't do this at sane temperatures) it won't do you any harm. Well not unless you drop it on your foot, anyway.
Its salts, and especially organic salts, are not fun though.
Aluminium gets to be pretty tricky to work with when you want to smelt it though. You need big electric sparks and lots of heat, but if you're a little too cold it won't reduce and if you're a little too hot it'll go on fire, so there's that, which keeps it exciting.
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If you're going to smelt aluminium on your desktop you're definitely going to want three phase power into your house, and probably some sort of asbestos tile to put it on.
Probably quite a good extractor fan too, Shake'n'Vac isn't going to shift that odour.
We made some commemorative coins from lead, melted in a microwave oven & poured into silicone mold. The mold was created from a 3D printed mandrel.
Lead's pretty straightforward to work with, if you don't get it hot enough to give off significant vapour (no, lead solder won't do this at sane temperatures) it won't do you any harm. Well not unless you drop it on your foot, anyway.
Its salts, and especially organic salts, are not fun though.
Aluminium gets to be pretty tricky to work with when you want to smelt it though. You need big electric sparks and lots of heat, but if you're a little too cold it won't reduce and if you're a little too hot it'll go on fire, so there's that, which keeps it exciting.