New alloy request: Aluminum bronze

[AngryRob]

Saw this and immediately thought of vintage story. It would be a nice metal for late game decorations and lanterns. 

 

example of aluminum bronze being made, 90% copper 10% aluminum, and sandcasting:

 

 

[Bumber]

We don't have aluminum, though. Just bauxite, which can't be smelted at our tech level.

I'm not sure it'd be worth it to create assets for native aluminum, aluminum metal, and aluminum bronze just to make something that basically looks like brass anyway.

[Streetwind]

Yeah, there's a reason the guy is throwing pure aluminium into his crucible, and not bauxite.

Because aluminium is fiendishly difficult to refine from ore. Far more difficult than iron, even. It takes a humongous amount of energy in combination with chemical reduction; in the modern day we make it by sticking massive electrodes into aluminium salts (which have to be specially made in prior processing steps) and blasting them with raw electricity until they melt, because no fuel exists that could do the job. Early-on after its discovery in the 1800's, aluminium fetched as much as twice the price of gold, despite being impure, because the processes available back then couldn't purify it properly.

Given that aluminium bronze is not even that good as a tool metal - the video shows that it dulls within mere minutes of working hardwood - it would likely sit somewhere between copper and tin bronze. It makes no sense for the progression to have a metal that's harder to make than iron be required for a step before bronze. And it might even be disqualified as a tool metal entirely, and only available for making other metal objects, in the same way as brass currently is.

[AngryRob]

Hmmm.... That stuff didn't occur to me. Still going to screech and beg for sand casting however. 

 

Whats the end tech level? are we staying steam punk or are we going full color out of space? 

[Streetwind]

Unsure. Originally the intention was "maybe steam power, at the highest", but that was before they gave us Jonas parts and devices. And those clearly deviate from our world's technological progression.

[Michael Gates]

Aluminum would be an obvious component for the level 2 glider, which doesn't exist but if they DID. Or mirrors. Anyway, yeah, Al metal is much more difficult to make than steel, but once you HAVE it at all, it's really easy to work, and it doesn't corrode. Maybe find bits or chisel-able items in deep ruins?

[Maelstrom]

Seems like the humans (pre and definitely post apocalypse) were not technologically advanced enough to produce aluminum.

[Dra6o0n]

17 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

Seems like the humans (pre and definitely post apocalypse) were not technologically advanced enough to produce aluminum.

You mean they had multiple apocalypses?

[Maelstrom]

No.  Pre and post apocalypse meaning the humans before the apocalypse weren't capable of aluminum production and that didn't change for the humans that survived the apocalypse.

[Thorfinn]

On 3/30/2024 at 7:39 PM, Michael Gates said:

and it doesn't corrode.

Depends on what you mean by that. It oxidizes in seconds, forming a very thin protective coating of Al2O3. But unlike the various iron oxides and copper oxides, it does not spall or pit the metal, so it is stabilized at that.

[EDIT]

The metal is passivated. That's the word I was trying to come up with.

[/EDIT]

Edited April 3, 2024 by Thorfinn

[Dra6o0n]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupronickel

Copper + Nickel alloys is possible, both are plentiful types of metals.

[ifoz]

3 hours ago, Dra6o0n said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupronickel

Copper + Nickel alloys is possible, both are plentiful types of metals.

Cupronickel already exists in the game. It's used for Jonas devices.

[Dra6o0n]

5 hours ago, ifoz said:

Cupronickel already exists in the game. It's used for Jonas devices.

The wiki doesn't have much on Nickel yet. The Alloy was added, but nothing on Nickel itself.

[Streetwind]

Nickel has existed for a long time. The ore is called pentlandite, and definitely spawns. I saw some in a 1.12 world back when I first picked up VS.

[Michael Gates]

5 hours ago, Dra6o0n said:

The wiki doesn't have much on Nickel yet. The Alloy was added, but nothing on Nickel itself.

There's nothing useful to make out of nickel, just the ingots, or bits (by chiseling an ingot), or cupronickel which you COULD make with nickel bits but raw pentlandite works the same so there's no reason to make nickel ingots in the first place

And this is why the wiki doesn't say much.

[Dra6o0n]

The use of nickel is generally a niche, as they were mainly used to make coins and wires. When it comes to medieval era usage, it'd end up being in the same use as any other metal for mail armor and such. It is a metal harder than iron in some sense. Medieval era may have used them in some form for knives and plating though because of how silvery it looks.

So in the end it's just a cosmetically better looking iron? And Steel is stronger.

[ArgentLuna]

Better use of existing alloys before any new alloys 

[Hatrune_Cubic]

@AngryRob
Because of that post i added Aluminum Bronze (in kinda simplified way) into my mod Re-Alloy if u still want it in the game :3, i thought its going to be awesome addition for my mod. (It's craftable but not yet usable for tools i'm working on that)

Edited March 4, 2025 by Hatrune_Cubic

[Hatrune_Cubic]

Actually that post inspired me to make that mod XD