This section I decided to do a mini engineering project with my partner Liam. We at first decided that we wanted to do something involving metal. So, we set to the task of brainstorming what to do. Finally we decided we would melt some pennies down, and make something out of the melted metal. We chose pennies due to the fact that we both had a lot.
To do this experiment it took us two tries. The first try was unsuccessful because of an error we made. We set up a bunsen burner apparatus and put our pennies in a stainless steel pot approximately 1.5 inches away from the flame. Earlier in our research process we had determined that the material we would use from the pennies would be zinc. Pennies made after 1982 have a zinc core and a copper skin. We wanted to use zinc because of its lower melting point at 787.2 degrees fahrenheit. The error that we made was that we neglected to put a cover on the pot which would have allowed us to melt at a much higher temperature. This caused many pennies to stay solid at the sides of the pot because there wasn't enough heat to melt the copper skin off. Thus when we poured the liquified metal in our mold only a small amount of zinc poured and the rest stayed solid in the pot. In our second attempt we fixed this error and added a cover to the pot. We also moved it closer to the flame. This made a drastic difference. When we poured it the second time, it did not instantly solidify but instead all poured into our mold. It worked exactly as we thought it should.
After we poured the metal, we let the zinc cool down in its mold for a day. We then got it out of the mold and began grinding the shape down on concrete to take uneven patches and burrs off of it. After doing this we polished it up finally with steel wool. Our finished product is a rectangular shaped ingot with rounded corners. It looks very good and I think we did a good job on it. I also think that my choice in my partner was good because Liam and I both did an even amount of work and also collaborated very well with each other.
If we were to do this again a change that I would make would be to have a better mold prepared so that we wouldn't have to grind away so much metal. One thing I would not have changed was my partner as we worked well together. Possibly in the future we could further this experiment by making other objects than an ingot out of our metal. I enjoyed doing this project as I learned how to smelt metal and also how to clean it by collecting slag off of it. It is a great skill to know as many things in our life are made out of cast metal. I really enjoyed doing this project
To do this experiment it took us two tries. The first try was unsuccessful because of an error we made. We set up a bunsen burner apparatus and put our pennies in a stainless steel pot approximately 1.5 inches away from the flame. Earlier in our research process we had determined that the material we would use from the pennies would be zinc. Pennies made after 1982 have a zinc core and a copper skin. We wanted to use zinc because of its lower melting point at 787.2 degrees fahrenheit. The error that we made was that we neglected to put a cover on the pot which would have allowed us to melt at a much higher temperature. This caused many pennies to stay solid at the sides of the pot because there wasn't enough heat to melt the copper skin off. Thus when we poured the liquified metal in our mold only a small amount of zinc poured and the rest stayed solid in the pot. In our second attempt we fixed this error and added a cover to the pot. We also moved it closer to the flame. This made a drastic difference. When we poured it the second time, it did not instantly solidify but instead all poured into our mold. It worked exactly as we thought it should.
After we poured the metal, we let the zinc cool down in its mold for a day. We then got it out of the mold and began grinding the shape down on concrete to take uneven patches and burrs off of it. After doing this we polished it up finally with steel wool. Our finished product is a rectangular shaped ingot with rounded corners. It looks very good and I think we did a good job on it. I also think that my choice in my partner was good because Liam and I both did an even amount of work and also collaborated very well with each other.
If we were to do this again a change that I would make would be to have a better mold prepared so that we wouldn't have to grind away so much metal. One thing I would not have changed was my partner as we worked well together. Possibly in the future we could further this experiment by making other objects than an ingot out of our metal. I enjoyed doing this project as I learned how to smelt metal and also how to clean it by collecting slag off of it. It is a great skill to know as many things in our life are made out of cast metal. I really enjoyed doing this project