Here at
TardHaus, we like to recycle our aluminum cans. In typical
TardHaus style, we don't do it the same way most people do. Instead, we melt the
aluminum (using a charcoal-powered blast furnace) and use green-sand molds to make whatever we want. The extra melted aluminum goes into a muffin pan to make "ingots" that can be remelted later and made into more stuff.
I took a couple of these ingots and decided to try them out on my
CNC mill. It's an
EMCO F1-
CNC milling machine that was retrofitted by students from Vermont Technical College with new stepper motors, gecko drivers, and Mach 3 software.
![](//1.bp.blogspot.com/_dAJjsxUJyGU/Sm0eHmlLlmI/AAAAAAAAAA0/vt6Zld3PwXI/s320/DSCN3778.JPG)
After milling some flats on the sides so my vise could grip the ingot, I milled the face and then played with cutting a circular pocket.
![](//3.bp.blogspot.com/_dAJjsxUJyGU/Sm0fTkXRSBI/AAAAAAAAAA8/6ijARbD7eJQ/s320/DSCN3775.JPG)
![](//2.bp.blogspot.com/_dAJjsxUJyGU/Sm0f0o44MPI/AAAAAAAAABE/FaIpUNnfcbk/s320/DSCN3777.JPG)
Then I played with machining
heatsink fins.
![](//2.bp.blogspot.com/_dAJjsxUJyGU/Sm0geDJanfI/AAAAAAAAABM/HD39b50igKI/s320/DSCN3783.JPG)
I plan to mount some high-power LEDs to this heat sink and make a more permanent lamp for the CNC machine. The current lamp is a single CREE X-Lamp star that Aaron hacked together for me. It does a good job, but I'd like more light.