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Notice anything different about the community today? - April Fools!

JoRatcliffe

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We are were now known as element13!

element13 Certified

element13 Certified
Joined the group of element13 insiders for the metallic redesign in 2026!

Aluminium is the 13th element, so I hope you are ready for a ductile, malleable and highly conductive day. In the same spirit, we have given ourselves a suitably shiny, metallic new look Sparkles

Leave a comment below and share your thoughts:

  • Was there a memorable project you brought to life using aluminium?
  • Do you have a favourite aluminium can?
  • Do we have any metal music fans on the community? Black Sabbath, Metallica, Iron Maiden, or other bands?

Plus, in the spirit of our rebrand, an extremely important RoadTest has just opened for enrolment for a highly innovative new product on the market…

Road Test - element13 Foil Headwave aTtenuator Dev Kit
Engineers needed to review the element13 Foil Headwave Aluminium aTtenuator DevKit
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Apply Now! 

Top Aluminum Facts! 
 is back with our DAILY aluminum facts. Which ones did you know?
Learn more here: Top Aluminum Facts! - element13  

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What was your last Aluminum Based Project? 
To celebrate our change to element13, we want to know your proudest aluminium  based projects or moments of victory! 

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 What was your last Aluminum based Project?  

Those commenting below could well receive some community-branded swag along with their important RoadTest shipment.

More Aluminum Activities will follow throughout our launch day, April 1st 2026! 

  • In related news, I saw some tartan PCBs on LinkedIn today.

  • I have been known to melt down aluminium in a charcoal furnace for making things like flywheels and letters

    {gallery}Casting

    Preparation

    Preparation: Layout is important so you don't fall whilst carrying hot metal

    Pouring

    Pouring: A metal tube helps ensure all of the metal gets into the cavity left in the same

    Ingots

    Ingots: Any metal left over is turned into ingots for the next time

    Results

    Casting: The resulting casting still attached to the riser

    Tidy

    Tidy up: Components after some basic tidyup

  • I made a nuromorphic chatbot using aluminium foil , I asked gemini that should I keep it in my maker portfolio, but I am sure it hallucinated, what's your thoughts https://youtu.be/xvFZjo5PgG0?si=FW8aZM4EuSQ6HLU_

  • Glad to see it's not "Aluminum". Very few people know, but without the "i", the conductivity drops significantly, so for electronics AluminIum is preferred. Stuck out tongue (even when my browser's spell-checker insists that I should remove the "i")


    Memorable project using aluminium? The one that comes to mind immediately is a very basic electroscope that I built as a kid, following the instructions from a book called "The Thomas Edison Book Of Easy & Incredible Experiments" (Fun fact: I read it in Spanish an eternity ago, and for an equally long time I've wrongly assumed that an English edition never existed, but alas, I just found its title in English while writing this post!). It was something like this:

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    (Image from the internet, not mine, although it's pretty close to the one I made)


    I don't think I had much success with a lot of the projects from the book, but I think it's because they ramped up pretty fast from basic things like a lemon battery (very easy) to a fully hand-made electronic lock (doable), to a working Geiger counter (huh?). Some of the radioactive material required by the experiments in the last chapter of the book proved rather hard to come by.

    But of course Aluminium is not the only metal I like. I also like Heavy Metal, Nu Metal, Power Metal, Fantasy Metal, etc.

  • Used to collect this gold aluminum wrappers from Cadbury dairy mill chocolate in my childhood, for no reason at all.

    I think I still have them kept inside some books to straighten them out lol.

    Pic Credit: Pinterest


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  • JoRatcliffe said:
    Do we have any metal music fans on the community? Black Sabbath, Metallica, Iron Maiden, or other bands?

    I like Sabbath and Iron Maiden.  Favorite albums from each are Sabotage and Piece of Mind respectively.  If live albums count, Live after Death would be right up there as well.

  • At first, I did not notice the changes because the page was under maintenance when I checked it. Later, I got the notification email from  and realized that the page had been updated. The new silver theme looks cool. Just wondering if there is any specific reason for choosing element13.

  • in reply to dixonselvan

    I remember this. The classic windows XP screensaver

  • For projects, the one that sticks out most is the desktop matchstick rockets by Grant Thompson. Such a simple idea but the results are surprisingly impressive. Rolling the aluminium foil tight enough to get a good seal without tearing it is way harder than it looks, and the first few attempts were pretty much just sad little sparks on the desk. But when you finally get it right and the thing actually shoots across the room it feels like a proper win. Highly recommend it if you have not tried it.

    Favourite can is a tough one honestly. I have a soft spot for the old Coca Cola design, just a classic shape. But from a pure engineering angle the modern standard drinks can deserves way more appreciation than it gets. The amount of engineering that went into making something that thin hold that much pressure is genuinely impressive.

    Metal music, yes absolutely. Iron Maiden for me, no contest. The Number of the Beast is one of those albums that just holds up no matter how many times you go back to it. Though Metallica's Master of Puppets is right there too. Both feel very fitting for a rebrand built around one of the toughest and most versatile materials on the periodic table!Smile

  • in reply to ntewinkel

    Depends how brightly you shine