/diy/ - Do It Yourself

[Anonymous No.1807050]

Since pennies are 99% zinc, does that mean I can melt them down to separate them from their copper covers (which have a higher melting point), pour them into ingots, and tack them to steel and iron stuff to prevent rust?

[Anonymous No.1807059]

>>1807050
yeah

[Anonymous No.1807062]

>>1807050
Waste of time. Zinc ingots can be had very cheaply. We're talking like 3 bucks a pound. You'd need almost 200 pennies to get that much zinc. Where I live you could buy that pound of zinc for 15 minutes of work at a minimum wage job and skip all the work of melting down the pennies. You'd also not have to have a smelter or burn any fuel, all to save a bit over a dollar.

In the end, you'd be losing money.

[Anonymous No.1807095]

>>1807062
That and it's illegal to melt down money.

[Anonymous No.1807103]

>>1807095
Who gives a fuck? (They'll) just stamp more

[Anonymous No.1807135]

>>1807062
>t. buyfag
Do you know where you are?

[Anonymous No.1807154]

>>1807062
200 pennies is less than 3 bucks

i think you get nervegas fumes if you heat zinc too much OP

[Anonymous No.1807158]

>>1807050
Not technically correct, either. It’s not a copper cover, it’s a zinc/copper alloy. That’s literally one metal dissolved into the other.

[Anonymous No.1807370]

>>1807158
It's not a zinc copper alloy.

Saw a penny in half and look at it closely.

[Anonymous No.1807383]

>>1807095
its illegal to melt it down for the scrap value.

[Anonymous No.1807445]

Why not just use whole pennies? Who cares if there a touch of copper in it.

[Anonymous No.1807463]

>>1807383
>have a million dollars worth of pennies
>melt them down
>have 1.4 million dollars worth of copper

Yeah sure makes a lot of sense right?

[Anonymous No.1807471]

>>1807383
>Illegal
>Argument
Grow balls

[Anonymous No.1807550]

>>1807383
>Don't use money that has value
>Keep paying with valueless plastic and imaginary numbers
Also zinc fumes will kill you OP. Don't breathe anywhere near that shit.

[Anonymous No.1807555]

>>1807370
>>1807158
depends on the penny, some coins seems like a zync cover, others could be fully alloy

either way, I think you'd need a more meticulous setup to cover something up with zync, doesn't it need to be electro plated?

[Anonymous No.1807566]

>>1807062
>3 bucks a pound
>200 pennies.
>2 dollars a pound is the same as 3 dollars a pound and would apparently cost more.
Anon I-..

[Anonymous No.1807656]

>>1807445
Well copper is a more “noble” metal than iron so if copper and iron were in contact the iron would corrode instead of the copper.

[Anonymous No.1807776]

>>1807656
Iron fags btfo
>b-but me steel and stainless
Copper was pure from birth, not something you peasants would understand.

[Anonymous No.1807793]

>>1807550
>Also zinc fumes will kill you OP. Don't breathe anywhere near that shit.
You just get late-stage parkinsons for two days before it clears up and you're back to normal
t. Foundry syndrome veteran

[Anonymous No.1807796]

>>1807793
If you have enough that you get foundry flu afterwards, it can and has killed people.

[Anonymous No.1807900]

>>1807566
Sorry, let me explain it to you in like you are a fucking 4-year-old. This is a textbook definition of being penny wise, pound foolish.

Time costs money. 15 minutes of work at even a shit-tier job in the developed world earns you enough to buy a zinc ingot ready to go. This requires no additional labor, refining, tools, or materials. Done.

The dumbass method requires about $2 worth of post-1982 pennies and the time to sort them and clean them of contamination. You then need a forge, fuel, PPE, and the time to melt the coins down and cast them into an ingot, assuming you got a decent yield and didn't fuck anything up. So, you are 2 bucks in on materials alone and god knows how much on equipment. You have completely lost money on time by this point because you would need to do all that in under 5 minutes to match the price of the first method. Do you see now why no one lets you handle sharp objects?

So, I heard you had a poisoning incident recently. How is your recovery doing? Did your caretakers finally put those child-safe latches on the clean supplies cupboard under the sink?

[Anonymous No.1807923]

>>1807900
>I am getting paid to sit at home
>Every minute I'm not working is a loss
>The experience gained from this task is not worth it
>this isn't /diy/
Not only wrong but an absolute faggot

[Anonymous No.1807949]

>>1807923
You seem like the target audience for this tool.

[Anonymous No.1808094]

>>1807949
You seem like the target audience of one of these

[Anonymous No.1808126]

>>1807923
Im not the wise anon telling you not to do this, but im curious
>>The experience gained from this task is not worth it
What sort of experience do you feel will be "gained" from this endeavor, how would it ever be useful to you?
Im being serious, I dont see the appeal or the upsides in any form or fashion.

[Anonymous No.1808193]

>>1807050
Yes zinc anodes are used on boats all the time, yes you can make it from pennies. Yes, it is more efficient to just buy some zinc
Yes this is /DIY
No that does not mean you have to DIY menial stuff like a zinc anode and be prevented from making something cool like a boat to protect with it.
No you weren't going to anyways
Yes that's ok

[Anonymous No.1808206]

>>1808126
I'm not either of those guys either, but casting metal is kind of fun. Just googled it and zinc melts at less than 800°f, which is fairly low. There's a lot that could be learned by using it: how to ram up a sand mold, which is the cope and which is the drag (I STILL don't know that...), how to effectively vent and gate your patterns, how to create a pattern that actually works (as far as draft and shrinkage are concerned)... All of this would be a fairly cheap, and a little safer, way to learn about casting something out of aluminum or even brass in the future.

[Anonymous No.1808239]

>>1807062
>$3 a pound
>200 pennies

[Anonymous No.1808241]

>>1808094
lol

[Anonymous No.1808331]

>>1807095

it should be illegal to be a faggot like you

[Anonymous No.1808390]

>>1807095
This is false

[Anonymous No.1808392]

>>1807158
Wrong !!!

[Anonymous No.1808426]

>>1808239
It’s almost like saving one dollar isn’t worth melting down 200 pennies you fucking retard.

[Anonymous No.1808430]

>>1807050
You can buy a zinc ingot. They are used on metal propellor boats to stop them from corroding. Not worth the Hassel to melt. Plus zinc fumes are highly toxic.

[Anonymous No.1808509]

>>1808426
thats why i get 200 pennies then pay some mexican 50¢ to melt it down for me
i wind up saving 50¢ over your dumb idea

[Anonymous No.1809432]

>>1807154
>>1807566
>>1808239

he isn't wrong :

200 pennies = $2.00
gallon of propane for crucible @ $3.00 a gal
one cheap loaf pan to wreck for project plus time and gas $12.00
time and material to BUILD furnace @ $30.00 ( locally sourced harbor freight weed burner $ 20.00 )

this is a low estimate , but that pound of zinc from those 200 pennies is now costing $47.00 .

[Anonymous No.1809496]

>>1809432
200 pennies = $2
Furnace built out of a spare bag of concrete you had lying around
crucible is your old steel camping mug
cast it into a mixture of sand and cat litter you got from your mums
fuel furnace with a hair dryer and some wood
200 pennies for two dollars
You guys belong on some other board

[Anonymous No.1809507]

>>1809496
Well, the only way this would work is if you did it. Why? Cause your a fucking retard and your time is worth nothing. Anyone who's time is worth more than a dollar would be losing money. Go back to huffing gasoline.

[Anonymous No.1809511]

>>1809507
What is a hobby you fucking idiot?
Why do you come to /diy/?
Does everyone in your life know you're a miserable cunt?

[Anonymous No.1809529]

>>1809507
this idiot will just buy everything because his time is more valuable and then when supply lines go to shit or the world ends or whatever the fuck he'll be worthless cause he's never actually put anything together just bought things. why are you even here nigger

[Anonymous No.1809697]

>>1809529
>this idiot will just buy everything because his time is more valuable
Yes, he will be spending his time ACTUALLY casting with the bought zinc, making your ACTUAL casting skills much better.
Instead you are immediately putting a barrier in front of you before you even start. All that time and effort with the variables of having poor materials from the beginning. When your cast fails, is it because of your inexperience, or because you have shitty zinc you didnt melt and separate well?

> when supply lines go to shit or the world ends or whatever the fuck he'll be worthless cause he's never actually put anything together just bought things

In all reality, he will have vastly superior casting skills and experience, and it will aid him in putting together usable material from scraps if he really needed it.

>why are you even here nigger
It always amuses me when people say this.

This isnt the /poorfaggot/ or /junkyardPrepper/ board.
You want to start something new and gain new skills doing it? The best option is to absolutely start with proper materials.

>>1809496
>>1809511
>You guys belong on some other board
>Why do you come to /diy/?

Once you guys start a career making actual money, and you have some experience in the real world under your belt, youll understand.
Trying to "build a skill" by dumpster diving like a 13 year old or a meth head scrapper is a very poor idea and rarely works out. It just wastes your time. Some people actually like building things useful, and finishing projects.

Others like to play around in the trash like idiots, piling up junk that never works or worked very poorly, then after realizing they wasted a bunch of time then end up buying the shit they should have in the first place.

[Anonymous No.1809704]

>>1809697
/thread

[Anonymous No.1809763]

>>1809697
>once you get a career amd start making money
The excuse of every drop kick ever. I used to work away from home 6 months of the year and would still come back and spend my time on "cheap" projects, from cars worth less than $500 to melting scrap metal from work or restoring a piano some one was about to throw out. You don't need to spend hundreds of dollars to get the "perfect" tools to work on your hobby when you're literally just starting out and don't even know what you're doing. Once you get your bearings you will have a better idea of what tools you need to suit what YOU want to do and can avoid buying pointless shit to throw in the corner of your garage never to be used again.
You are literally the bane of /diy/ and go against everything this board is for. It's not only about the outcome.

[Anonymous No.1809768]

>>1809496
you're wrong

getting the the ingots cheaper because you just had some extra ones laying around like every /diy/er should

you DO have zinc ingots in your workshop right?

[Anonymous No.1809779]

>>1807656
;looks like its in he green,to me.

spoiler alert im a drunk asshole and barely read the chart. could be wrong.

[Anonymous No.1809784]

add a dash of aluminum as a kicker to control any passivation / oxide formation.

Watch your cooling rate as well, you'll want a finer grain structure. Large grain structures without properly fluxing your melt will result in chunks of zinc falling off and not being effective due to preferential corrosion at the intermetallic boundaries.

[Anonymous No.1809809]

>>1809763
>You are literally the bane of /diy/ and go against everything this board is for.

I know you may think this is /kipkay/ the board, but its really not, at least for most people.
You may have pride in starting a bunch of half assed projects, then half assing them, then coming out of it with a half assed end product with no actual good experience gained.
This is exactly why you will always be posting your hunks of shit here >>1790342 instead of being able to show off any work youve done worth a fuck.

The real bane of this board are the idiots like you who think that pallet furniture threads are great.

[Anonymous No.1809855]

>>1809809
>you half ass your projects
Did you not read a word I wrote?

[Anonymous No.1809857]

>>1809768
You can never have too much zinc

[Anonymous No.1809874]

>>1809855
Yeah
You explicitly said its OK to not procure proper tools and materials needed for a project because "you dont know what you are doing" and "you are just starting out"
Somehow this isnt highly detrimental to your project and somehow this isnt half assing things top to bottom.

[Anonymous No.1809905]

>>1809874
Wow, a "just buy it" fag who can't read or comprehend the basics of DIY. How unheard of.

[Anonymous No.1809916]

>>1809905
>Oh, you think DIY is your ally. But you merely adopted the DIY; I was born in it, molded by it due to being a poorfaggot. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me because I had already wasted years by refusing to do anything by the books because I dumpster dived for every single project

We get it, you grew up working on your moms double wide so you have this skewed pride in just getting by with bare minimum. Somehow you havent grown out of that, I bet you dont see the growth in your skills that deep down you truly want to see.

[Anonymous No.1809933]

this thread entertains me
somthing about it's quite poetic

[Anonymous No.1809958]

>>1807135
Part of DIY is knowing what's stupid to DIY. Many things are wise to DIY, many things are wise to partially DIY, many things are quite stupid to DIY. If you fail to learn how to sort activities wisely then DIY becomes a stupid act instead of a liberating, productive act. There is much more play value in setting a mental benchmark of useful DIY than being the equivalent of a retard smearing shit on its chest because it can.
Begin with a goal and work back to the best way to attain it. Processes should not generally be goals. Sacrificial anodes work in water i.e. marine environments. If you get enough cheap zinc then casting custom anodes might pay off but they're quite common in the boating industry (freshly destroyed by the economic crash) and old anodes are often replaced during maintenance. If I wanted to make anodes I'd first check with a local marina etc for scrap and melt those because it's much more efficient. I'd never melt coinage.
Someone should point out the fascination with melting is fine for toddlers but it's usually the least productive metalworking hobby activity with the exceptions of bullet casting and jewelry.

[Anonymous No.1809965]

>>1809529
>this idiot will just buy everything because his time is more valuable and then when supply lines go to shit or the world ends or whatever the fuck he'll be worthless cause he's never actually put anything together just bought things. why are you even here nigger

Your anger indicates you're stupid. What he can learn doing it right is much more valuable than starting off doing it wrong. (Ancient mechanic, weldor, hobby machinst, trainer of many techs yadda yadda here.) The way to learn most efficiently and get much more out of your experience is not to begin fighting your way through shit methods trying to reinvent the wheel. That you think the world will end etc is extra retarded. REAL examples of third world shitholes abound with people doing it right and being far more productive, and doing it right permits learning the process without imposing extra barriers so one can improve skills instead. Focus on the goal.

For example instead of scrap metal fondling can get right to casting which requires considerable effort to master when casting useful things. That speeds the learning curve. In SHTF metal will remain abundant (unless some alien metal devouring virus shows up) but skill will be the rarity.

BTW piddling with zinc is a waste of time when aluminum is much more useful. To succeed, begin by copying success then work back to scrap obsession if you must. Study metalworking seriously for maximum hobby pleasure. If you learn processes in useful order you'll get much more done. Copy success instead of assuming you instinctively know what to do, because you do not.

A good first process to learn is welding because that is most versatile for DIYing your own shop equipment and rapidly pays for itself. A cheap AC stick welder (240V much preferred!) can be had used and will serve for a lifetime. You can even make a baby arc furnace out of the industrial sort which can often be had for a song. Your welder lets you make crucibles for casting.

[Anonymous No.1809974]

>>1809965 continued

This Anon is wise:
>Oh, you think DIY is your ally. But you merely adopted the DIY; I was born in it, molded by it due to being a poorfaggot. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me because I had already wasted years by refusing to do anything by the books because I dumpster dived for every single project

I've seen that happen multiple times including one of the most talented bros I know. A brilliant autodidact, he made the terrible mistake of hoarding (runs in his family, they're insane trailer trash) and dividing his efforts trying to make everything from scrap. He's damn good at it but still a hopeless poorfag with little to show for his efforts because he'd rather stop a project then buy any new parts, though he'll piss away money on lottery tickets and junk. Assumption is the mother of all fuckups and obsession with process instead of results is self destructive and more importantly, interferes with success.

DIY is one option among many and most effective in combination with intelligent buying and selection of processes and equipment. HAVE A STRATEGY.

Want to work metal? Make first goal tools and equipment. Poverty is not much barrier if you hunt used gear wisely & work on it yourself. A basic AC stick welder builds shop equipment (crucibles from pipe, rolling cart for your foundry, copes & drags et. You can weld ingot molds to make ingots from your scrap. You can make everything mobile and easy to handle. Next should be a torch or torches. Torches will melt small amounts of metal for casting, heat steel for bending, braze, solder and gas weld. You can never have too many torches from jewelers size to classic OA torches to weed burners.

Classic casting reference: https://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/

Welded ingot molds: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?259483-DIY-ingot-molds&s=ee4f1c261bcb372439ecea5f2593518b