One summer evening some years ago, a friend and I poured half a gallon of white gas down a ground bee nest hole and tossed a lit match on top .... 8' jet of flame torch with sparklers! The cop who rolled up on us wasn't impressed.
8:07 This is a great real-life example of the Leidenfrost Effect. Watch how the water appears to roll around on the super-heated aluminum. Why doesn't the water instantly turn to steam upon contact with the aluminum? Just something I found interesting. Mostly, what a beautiful casting! Thanks!
This is so cool, no matter how many times I watch these kinds of videos!!! Naturally sculpted beautiful pieces AND gets rid of intruding insects! *WIN-WIN* !!!!! 👏👏👏
@@SuperNovaHeights_ a long time ago i have hear some word that's propably can prove something that's "Everything is Possible" You just need to find out :v
I don't think you are talking too much at all. I like you narrating what you are doing. You have a pleasant, calm voice and I find what you are doing fascinating. I've never seen anyone do this before. Thank you for sharing.
That turned out outstanding! Some free advice, feet always on the ground. Uneven ground, it only takes a moment. Protective boots are a good thing. Lastly larger plate for Crucible again safety. Lastly, when you find an ant mound. Pour some sugar water down the mound, a few days prior. The ants will remove the sugar water, making a better finished product. It also helps the colony recover. Place some food for them in the hole before filling the hole up. Great job. Be safe.
I want to do black smithing. I'm going to move back on my grandpa's land after college. I'm gonna get a forge, and do this. The fire ant hills in southern Alabama are massive.
anthill casting is an underrated art. i never found out what people do with the slag at the end (slag for those who dont know is a byproduct of metal smelting and is the stuff he was slapping down next to the crucible and what was getting stuck to the tongs)
Be kind to all gods creatures.... Be a good steward of the earth. God loves all of his children? God made animals? People are the reason animals left the garden and came to earth. For us. To keep our ecosystems healthy?
@@Koalaparks6678 I like to make all my sentences questions? I really don’t care about your comment? The man is just trying to be funny? Please go to some other website you snowflake?
FIRE ANT SCOUT: I found the perfect yard. We could build the BIGGEST ant mond yet! Fast forward a year and a half later; SAME ANT SCOUT: I am so proud of myself for finding this spot for my fellow ants new home. Oh look there's a human over there playing with fire and big shiny blocks. Humans are so stupid....
Same ant scout: wait a minute he's not playing with them he's melting them he's bringing that unmelted metal thingy out what's he up too oh dear ant Gods *screams as the aluminum is being poured into the ant hill*
That is so kool what your doing. I used to work for Alcoa Aluminum for 18 years. Forge aircraft parts to aluminum rims. Even where they made aluminum baseball bats. Last division I worked at. Where they melted aluminum. There's alot of ingredients to make certain alloys.
@@NolansAnthillCastings that is so kool. Don't think I'm crazy? But i do miss it. Truck rims 7175 alloy. It has zine,copper, lead and 7075 pig in it. Then they put it in 80,000 lb blast furnace!! Lost 35 pounds in month. Lol
i always love seeing these! tho now im wondering if setting up an ant farm in a five gallon bucket would make this easier to produce. you could even strategically things in the bucket to try and get the ants to dig around them.
I should buy an anthill casting one day. I don’t have room for one anywhere at the moment, but dang those things are pretty. It’s like looking at silver corral.
Man, that was a great one. I have been wanting to do more of these so bad, but we are always getting rain, so the ground conditions are not ideal. The last one I tried to do blew up on me, and that was several day with no rain. Its always dry and hot, except this year cause I want to pour some ant mounds lol. Keep up the awesome work, love to see these works of art.
A copper or brass pour would be awesome to see too, one of those would look good next to an aluminum one, good contrast. If it was copper you could chrome it, that would be cool too. Shiny ant nest.
@@NolansAnthillCastings out yeah I forgot about that. I haven't done any casting for years, forgot it's kinda syrupy. I'll be looking forward to the AL/bronze video!
It's a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming. On days like these, ants like you... S h o u l d b e b u r n i n g i n a l u m i n u m
That's cool! I would love to make one here. Our land is full of rock and red clay, we live in the gold country of northern California, so i imagine it would make an interesting casting. I don't see it actually happening though since I don't have any of the equipment necessary. New viewer here, subbed.
Thank you! Check out devil forges website. My furnace cost me 350 bucks. You can also make your own for cheaper if you do some research. This hobby is a lot of fun and there is a lot more you can do with it than just anthill castings.
On these big castings like this are you able to melt all the aluminum you need at once? Do you have to do multiple melts and pours and if so how do you know if you fill the whole mound?
So, on this pour I thought it was only going to take one crucible full but it surprised me with how much aluminum it took and i ended up needing to do another full crucible. The anthills are deceiving on how much they will take. You know you’ve filled it though once the aluminum starts pooling on the surface. I use the surface aluminum to create a base for the casting as well. I was worried that the two melts wouldn’t fuse but they ended up fusing pretty good, there’s a couple spots where it didn’t fuse well but it’s strong enough to hold its own weight if it flip it upside down. You can always use brazing rods and a propane torch to weld the casting together if it doesn’t fuse or if it breaks while you dig it up.
That’s an interesting idea, I’m planning on doing an aluminum bronze casting and I could try this out. I’m not sure how well different metals fuse together. If you did copper first the top of the casting would be copper and then the bottom would be aluminum with a clean separating line where they connect up. They probably won’t fuse but they might if you do aluminum first since it has a lower melting point. I will definitely be trying this in the future though!
@@NolansAnthillCastings Hi! Another idea would be to grind some brass up until it's flakes, and then pour the flakes into your melted aluminum, sort of like sparklers. I don't know if that would work either.
About how long does the aluminum have to set before you dig it out of the ground after a pour? Also, what is the usual cost to purchase one of these castings from artists like you?
It takes about 5 minutes to solidify and then I cool it down the rest of the way using a hose. Then I start digging. I don’t sell mine anymore however, I sold a piece similar to this for 400 dollars.
I used to be mad about videos like this because I thought they would hurt the environmentaround the ant hill, but then I realize there’s over a quadrillion ants in the world
Disclaimer: All ants were harmed in the making of this film.
Harmed? Lol, its complete annihilation
@@abhinaavsaikia2203 You mean ant-nihilation.
@@buzzard6410 lol, it's more than harming is wat I meant
Invasive species of ants too
I missed seeing a small nest the other day, in a few seconds they bite the shit out of my foot and ankle.
He keeps the camera down so the ants can't find out who he is. That's smart.
Lol
LOLOLOL!
Ants: and that's why we are afraid, once we find him we avenge our fallen friends
yes
Cause they can only see the camera and everything else is just a void.
OK I'm from Colorado and I have to ask. What does it feel like, emotionally, to dig a hole that big and not hit any rocks?
I bet it's freeing. Exhilarating. Like a shot of heroin compared to digging in Colorado hahaha.
I'm in central texas and I know exactly what you mean. Can't go half a foot without hitting limestone.
@@roberts3741 Here in Michigan you hit clay about a foot down.
talk about southern california mojave desert, i cant get 1 straight shovel without it being 70% rock
I'm from Florida, id also like an answer to that
Having accidentally stood on an ant mound when I was a kid, I approve of this retribution.
Well, that was kind of your fault but you do you ig
U do realize u kill about 1bil ants when u do this and the ants were only trying to protect their home?
I don't have a problem with ants living. As long as they don't live in my damn yard. Then I'll be giving one of these guys a call.
Fuck Ants.
Exactly.......day desserves to feel the shivering *sting*
*guest walk into house and saw that*
"Wow that's cool how did you get that?"
"Genocide"
Ya
Good riddance to pesty ants!
*I poured it into ground.*
One summer evening some years ago, a friend and I poured half a gallon of white gas down a ground bee nest hole and tossed a lit match on top .... 8' jet of flame torch with sparklers! The cop who rolled up on us wasn't impressed.
@Nite & Day gophers have far more nerves and emotional intelligence. What a shit head.
Damn if mosquitoes had nest
If mosquitoes had nests, this shit would be a trend!
natures land mine
They would be doomed no cap
Hint: electricity and mosquito ponds can be quite entertaining
@@lamp3608 i wanna see this now.
8:07 This is a great real-life example of the Leidenfrost Effect. Watch how the water appears to roll around on the super-heated aluminum. Why doesn't the water instantly turn to steam upon contact with the aluminum? Just something I found interesting. Mostly, what a beautiful casting! Thanks!
Water is instantly vaporizing, that's why the beads of water dance around, shrink, and dissappear.
I guess those ants thought the horseshoe would bring them good luck. They were wrong.
Well it technically did since the Nolan's name is good luck
good luck to these people
This is so cool, no matter how many times I watch these kinds of videos!!! Naturally sculpted beautiful pieces AND gets rid of intruding insects! *WIN-WIN* !!!!! 👏👏👏
except if ur an ant
@@AeroliteSR isn't there like 100,000 ants per person on this planet or something? They'll be fine, they're not going anywhere....
"There are quadrillions of more ants in the world"
Guy: *Let's get down to some subtracting*
Hell yes, way too many humans!
I don’t think there’s any evidence to suggest that’s what he said. It just doesn’t make sense
@@SuperNovaHeights_ why don't you try to count how many ants in this world
@@TheUnnamed198 that’s impossible?
@@SuperNovaHeights_ a long time ago i have hear some word that's propably can prove something that's "Everything is Possible"
You just need to find out :v
I get a particular level of happiness when this is done to fire ant hills.
Something so therapeutic about watching anthills get casted and seeing the final result
I felt bad at first knowing a colony was being destroyed but seeing the end product takes my breath away! Amazingly beautiful!
Feel free to use my yard anytime...lots of huge ant hills to fill
We'll need to buy dirt to fill all them holes that's going to be made in your yard
Feel mm
I'll sell you some dirt.
It's like a volcanic eruption in reverse: pouring molten material into the earth. Cool.
Ants: *attacked people when they accidentally step on there home and show no mercy*
human: time for world war 3
Fire Ants: We get pissy and bite for stepping near us! Fear our fiery bites!
Nolan: Time to fight fire with molten metal.
Wowww how cool is that, you could put white Christmas lights in and around it, very nice
I feel like these castings would make great contemporary art pieces and could bring in a lot of revenue
Yep they do. This piece is my best one so far and it’s selling for 400 dollars
@@NolansAnthillCastings Where do you list your pieces?
crap dont ANYONE tell Antscanada about this channel
lol
K
Dan Hard so true I watch him
@@ngzninjaking5287 ya me also
That guy would have to be institutionalized if he saw this.
Ants: slowly burning to death
Nolan:
*Looks like we need some more aluminum*
slowly??? I don't think you understand the melting point of aluminum, compared to the slow warming up of an ant
More like completely vaporized
Slowly burning to death with molten metal..ok then?! Lol
At 7:56 for a moment I thought he was peeing on the aluminum! 😅
I knew it wasn’t pee, there was no blood in it 🤔
I thought the exact same thing!
"wow this guy really hates ants huh"
@Doom do you have proof? If so do show us this information
@@deano43 🤣🤣
The forge starts up.
Ants: "Why do I hear boss music?"
I don't think you are talking too much at all. I like you narrating what you are doing. You have a pleasant, calm voice and I find what you are doing fascinating. I've never seen anyone do this before. Thank you for sharing.
I have homework I should be doing but here I am watching a guy pour aluminum into an ant hill at 3:00 am
What if, and it's just a thought, the ants did ate the whole horse and one can find other three horseshoes somewhere near the nest.
7:57 Admit it, you thought he started peeing on the molten aluminum too..
That turned out outstanding! Some free advice, feet always on the ground. Uneven ground, it only takes a moment. Protective boots are a good thing. Lastly larger plate for Crucible again safety. Lastly, when you find an ant mound. Pour some sugar water down the mound, a few days prior. The ants will remove the sugar water, making a better finished product. It also helps the colony recover. Place some food for them in the hole before filling the hole up. Great job. Be safe.
Kicking a spade with soft shoes is asking for long term painful arch damage. Get good boots.
@@johnpeacocke2112 I was thinking the same thing!
You gave good suggestions
👍
Ant Colony: *exist*
"Time go make art!"
Ants were like "hey look we found a horse shoe, today is our lucky day".
THE LUCKY DAY
lol
The total weight of all the ants in the world is more than the total weight of all the humans in the world. True fact!
There are some pretty hefty human aunts.
From nature to art - absolutely flipping fascinating mate!
Needs a screaming , Sam Kinneson type dialogue..."OW ...OW...OW... FIREAnts... ! I'll show you fire...ants... burn, baby...burn !"
Wow, that’s crazy. The structure of what they do for how small they are is just whoa 😳
They work hard on the structures
Please please pleeeease make tons more anthill castings. I love these videos!
this came out looking really AWESOME! I see a old sail ship when i look at it. BEAUTIFUL!!!!
That is a beautiful, & unique piece....you should sell them! Big Bucks, No Whammies!
All the smoke you see rising out are the souls of the ants going to 🐜 heaven.
All dogs go to heaven. All fire ants go to hell.
@@eventhisidistaken They’ll be right at home. 🙃
Millions of ants died to bring you this video
*i've always liked to play with fire intensives*
I want to do black smithing. I'm going to move back on my grandpa's land after college. I'm gonna get a forge, and do this. The fire ant hills in southern Alabama are massive.
That’s awesome, it’s a lot of fun. Good luck!
@@NolansAnthillCastings ok
Then you can open up a gallery and sell those castings .
Wow! That one came out really cool! What a real piece of art👍
U aughta get yourself a decent pair of work boots. It'd be easier to operate ur shovel, at least.
And minimize accidental burns.
Red Wings
Similar to creating the Philosopher's Stone, thousands died to create a work of art 😁
6:57 - I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
This is one of the best ones I've seen . Good work.👍
how does this guy only have 800 subs, he deserves more
Thank you!!
No just no
@@NolansAnthillCastings NP
No he doesn’t. Kid is a prick
@@austinbanttari How on Earth is he a prick? He’s getting rid of invasive species
anthill casting is an underrated art.
i never found out what people do with the slag at the end
(slag for those who dont know is a byproduct of metal smelting and is the stuff he was slapping down next to the crucible and what was getting stuck to the tongs)
I just throw it in the recycle. figure they can suck some more aluminum out of it.
A work of art! Thanks for posting.
Ants be like: “Whoa, the T1000 found us! RUN!!!
Ants be like "oh what's- aaaaaa"
More like *AAAAAAAAAAAA*
Wow, that so cool! Nature's functional art.
You truly are doing God's work tormenting these evil vermin.
Be kind to all gods creatures.... Be a good steward of the earth. God loves all of his children? God made animals? People are the reason animals left the garden and came to earth. For us. To keep our ecosystems healthy?
@@Koalaparks6678 I like to make all my sentences questions? I really don’t care about your comment? The man is just trying to be funny? Please go to some other website you snowflake?
@@Koalaparks6678 bitchh please
Stepping anywhere near a fire ant hill for more than 0.47294 seconds:
Fire ants: *SO YOU HAVE CHOSEN DEATH*
FIRE ANT SCOUT: I found the perfect yard.
We could build the BIGGEST ant mond yet!
Fast forward a year and a half later;
SAME ANT SCOUT: I am so proud of myself for finding this spot for my fellow ants new home. Oh look there's a human over there playing with fire and big shiny blocks. Humans are so stupid....
Same ant scout: wait a minute he's not playing with them he's melting them he's bringing that unmelted metal thingy out what's he up too oh dear ant Gods *screams as the aluminum is being poured into the ant hill*
Nolan: “do you like my piece of *genocide*- I mean art”
Let's never forget the sacrifice that ten thousand ants made to create this artwork
That horseshoe was a great surprise. Love your videos!
7:57
Thought you were taking a leak on it for a second lol
Great casting ! Really enjoy the channel.
That is so kool what your doing. I used to work for Alcoa Aluminum for 18 years. Forge aircraft parts to aluminum rims. Even where they made aluminum baseball bats. Last division I worked at. Where they melted aluminum. There's alot of ingredients to make certain alloys.
I’ve got two rims waiting to be melted and some aircraft sheet metal that I melted a while back. It’s possible some of your work is in my work now.
@@NolansAnthillCastings that is so kool. Don't think I'm crazy? But i do miss it. Truck rims 7175 alloy. It has zine,copper, lead and 7075 pig in it. Then they put it in 80,000 lb blast furnace!! Lost 35 pounds in month. Lol
I remember alcoa when I was a kid, Grayson county tx tho
Wow, that's a beautiful work of art from nature!
7:56 hes now peeing on the ant burial ground 10/10
I know where he get his metal . . From a concert !
BuDuM - tSh!
Har har.
But... Aluminum isn't heavy. What kind of concert has light metal?
It's like the ultimate pimple video. So satisfying
Ants: Scream! Screeeeam!
Neat finished product. I think I'll try this at the ranch. There are like 8 different varieties of ants living there.
i always love seeing these! tho now im wondering if setting up an ant farm in a five gallon bucket would make this easier to produce. you could even strategically things in the bucket to try and get the ants to dig around them.
Wow that was an intricate one!
how did i end up on this side youtube
"No ants died in the making of this piece."
Ohhhhh but they did!
I should buy an anthill casting one day. I don’t have room for one anywhere at the moment, but dang those things are pretty. It’s like looking at silver corral.
Man, that was a great one. I have been wanting to do more of these so bad, but we are always getting rain, so the ground conditions are not ideal. The last one I tried to do blew up on me, and that was several day with no rain. Its always dry and hot, except this year cause I want to pour some ant mounds lol. Keep up the awesome work, love to see these works of art.
Yeah hopefully things start drying up for you soon, stay safe. Thank you!
Awesome asmr- love big stakd devil forges! Subbed
A copper or brass pour would be awesome to see too, one of those would look good next to an aluminum one, good contrast. If it was copper you could chrome it, that would be cool too. Shiny ant nest.
Problem with copper is it doesn’t flow well but bronzes do so I will be trying alumabronze soon
@@NolansAnthillCastings out yeah I forgot about that. I haven't done any casting for years, forgot it's kinda syrupy. I'll be looking forward to the AL/bronze video!
@@NolansAnthillCastings Nordic gold maybe?
@@Wilkidw Maybe, I dont have any tin and a challenge I've set for myself is to not buy metal but to find all my scrap for free.
Don’t usually comment but wow that looks great
It's a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming.
On days like these, ants like you...
S h o u l d b e b u r n i n g i n a l u m i n u m
Now that is an impressive model.
How do ants not get lost in that holy cow.
Last question - do chunks of the sculpture ever break off while digging it up?
Yes, especially the big ones since as I lift them out they have a lot of weight from the soil pulling on them.
Worker Ant: Queen.! We. Get. Aluminum. Bath.!
Queen: What. Is. Aluminum.?
That's cool! I would love to make one here. Our land is full of rock and red clay, we live in the gold country of northern California, so i imagine it would make an interesting casting. I don't see it actually happening though since I don't have any of the equipment necessary.
New viewer here, subbed.
Thank you! Check out devil forges website. My furnace cost me 350 bucks. You can also make your own for cheaper if you do some research. This hobby is a lot of fun and there is a lot more you can do with it than just anthill castings.
@@NolansAnthillCastings i will look into it. Thanks for the info.
On these big castings like this are you able to melt all the aluminum you need at once? Do you have to do multiple melts and pours and if so how do you know if you fill the whole mound?
So, on this pour I thought it was only going to take one crucible full but it surprised me with how much aluminum it took and i ended up needing to do another full crucible. The anthills are deceiving on how much they will take. You know you’ve filled it though once the aluminum starts pooling on the surface. I use the surface aluminum to create a base for the casting as well. I was worried that the two melts wouldn’t fuse but they ended up fusing pretty good, there’s a couple spots where it didn’t fuse well but it’s strong enough to hold its own weight if it flip it upside down. You can always use brazing rods and a propane torch to weld the casting together if it doesn’t fuse or if it breaks while you dig it up.
Is it possible to start with molten copper and then go over to aluminum? What would that look like? Would it even work?
That’s an interesting idea, I’m planning on doing an aluminum bronze casting and I could try this out. I’m not sure how well different metals fuse together. If you did copper first the top of the casting would be copper and then the bottom would be aluminum with a clean separating line where they connect up. They probably won’t fuse but they might if you do aluminum first since it has a lower melting point. I will definitely be trying this in the future though!
@@NolansAnthillCastings Hi! Another idea would be to grind some brass up until it's flakes, and then pour the flakes into your melted aluminum, sort of like sparklers. I don't know if that would work either.
ant: imma get food
also ant: oops wrong wa-*dies*
it's like a underground coral reef hahaha
So do they interview survivers on a show titled "Casting Couch"?
How did we all get here watching an ant hill be casted in metal 😂👍
bet AntsCanada gonna go unconscious seeing this
I was just thinking that myself 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
That was a nice cast. The horseshoe part made me laugh too.
Ant folklore speaks of the Aluminum Entity.
The ants who went back from obtaining food: Where did the colony go?!
That turned out awesome
Ant on lookout : I think this guy has a magnifying glass. False alarm it’s cloudy out.............
Cameraman's hair looks like ant hill, shadow cast on it was perfect match 😂😂😂
Art made from nature! Great job👍🏾👍🏾
So now it goes on the coffee table as a conversation piece 😂😂😂👍
I feel like this deserves more subs lol
I agree, just kidding, thank you!
About how long does the aluminum have to set before you dig it out of the ground after a pour?
Also, what is the usual cost to purchase one of these castings from artists like you?
It takes about 5 minutes to solidify and then I cool it down the rest of the way using a hose. Then I start digging. I don’t sell mine anymore however, I sold a piece similar to this for 400 dollars.
That one looks cool
Love this piece
nice technique with the sand
I used to be mad about videos like this because I thought they would hurt the environmentaround the ant hill, but then I realize there’s over a quadrillion ants in the world