How to Make Metal

Humans have been using metal for thousands of years. Metal is produced by crushing and melting metallic ore and casting it or shaping it using tools. If you are interested in how to make metal then there are a few basic steps that you will need to learn about. These steps are applicable to smelting just about every known metal on Earth.

Things You'll Need

• Metal ore
• Smelter
• Mold

Instructions

1. Acquire metal ore. This can be done by panning for gold in streams, digging in a mine or buying raw metal ore from a supplier. You find a listing of metal ore suppliers on the website Alibaba.

2. Crush the ore into a fine powder, and melt it in a smelter. The melting point of metals varies depending on the type of metal ore you are working with. For example, the melting point for aluminum is 660.25 degrees C, the melting point for gold is 1,064.58 degrees C, the melting point for tin is 232.06 degrees C, and the melting point for silver is 961 degrees C. Once melted, the impurities can be removed, and the pure metal can be poured off into a mold.

3. Remove the impurities and pour the pure metal into a mold. Allow it to cool, and then "unmold" the metal, or take it out of the mold.

4. Shape your metal to meet your manufacturing needs. To do this you will need to reheat the metals so that it is pliable and workable. If you plan on casting the pure metals, then you will need to re-melt it before you pour it into your molds. If you are interested in creating an alloy, then you will melt your pure metals and mix them together to make the specific alloy you want. For example, you make brass by mixing zinc and copper together.

Resources

• alibaba.com