From my first weekend of melting aluminum... Between all the scrap collected in anticipation, and the pistons purchased specifically for casting the lathe components, I ended up with 50 bricks, each weighing about 2.2 pounds.

The pile on the left is piston alloy. 23 full bricks weighing over 50 pounds.

The second pile was made from the running boards off a truck and other miscellaneous materials. It's interesting to see a 6 foot piece of metal drop slowly into a 9" deep melting pot.

The third pile of 8 bricks was made from 1/2 of a 12' extension ladder.

The last pile on the right is all pop cans. Considering the work involved for that small amount of metal, I won't be doing that on a regular basis!