I want to make an anthill casting but I don't want to use molten aluminum. What are some good alternatives?

Question

I want to do this:

http://youtu.be/IGJ2jMZ-gaI

But I don't want to use molten aluminum. I want to use a material that's safe, affordable, easily accessible, and durable enough to stay intact when I dig it up. Plaster will probably be too weak. Concrete might be a good alternative but I'm not sure about it because I've never worked with it before. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

This is the technical article on the process of casting anthills.

http://bio.fsu.edu/~tschink/publications/2010-2.pdf

Answer 2

Both plaster and my suggestion - liquid epoxy or polyester resin - may have the same problem - they may soak into the sand so much that the shape is distorted - the resin will be stronger. Almost certainly the materials will not look as good as the aluminum because the surface will have sand embedded in it, like a sand cast candle.

And unlike the aluminum, which would be extremely dangerous in wet/damp soil - blowing metal back out - either plaster or resin is going to penetrate less with damp soil - how damp ants will work in is another question.

Answer 3

Aluminum Ant Hill

Answer 4

You can look into gallium the melting point on it is like 85 degrees so its a lot easir to liquify.

Answer 5

I used tin/lead solder. It melts at a lower temp and it was scrap from my work so it was a paste when I got it. works ok but it bends easy