Can we cast it? Yes we can!

HIS first effort was making a belt buckle from binned cola cans—forged in a furnace made of an old coal bucket and a vacuum cleaner motor.

Now innovative Lee Brooks is looking for bigger premises after his aluminium recycling project continues to outgrow the garage in his back garden.

Unique social enterprise Casting Innovations teaches kids the value of recycling—through practical workshops where they make metal trinkets from discarded cans.

Lee (44) said: “As far as we know, there’s no-one else doing this. It’s a really exciting project with near limitless possibilities.”

It started when he returned to Rotherham from Ireland two years ago to find a “diabolical” job market so decided to make a go of his idea.

“My background is in manufacturing jewellery,” said Lee. “I thought I’d try this for six months, which turned to eight, then ten and just carried on.

“It started very small scale and I could easily cope with everything in the garage. The way it’s going it will be full-time for me.

“We want to set up Rotherham as a parent company, standing on its own feet and possibly leading to franchising.”

The early forging attempts proved the theory behind his cottage industry concept and he caught the eye of Voluntary Action Rotherham, who put him on the road to a £10,000 Awards For All grant.

Lee, of Thrybergh, said: “I made the buckle out of cola cans that were in the bin. It wasn’t brilliant but it worked and helped show what I wanted to do.

“I’m indebted to VAR, who set me on the social enterprise route. The grant paid for a lot of my mobile equipment and workshops.”

A single can makes a ring or small keyring, while 20 can become aluminium door signs and 60 a wind chime.

Last year he made a scale model of Rotherham’s Walker Cannon at the request of the Mayor, which used up 100 cans and was presented to twin town St Quentin.

Going into schools sees Lee and his three volunteers work on a variety of topics.

Looking at how metal changes at certain temperatures involves numeracy and science—often without the students noticing.

Viking brooches and Roman coins help bring history of text book pages alive and gives the youngsters souvenirs to take home.

Lee said: “It’s interactive for kids, and we can do whatever the school wants. I couldn’t find anything remotely suited to a Viking project, so I researched them in a few books and copied designs and charms and that sort of thing.

“The technique is the same as it was 6,000 years ago. The Vikings would have used the same process too, it’s just that the technology has moved on.

“We can show youngsters what went into making coins in Roman times, which helps them imagine what it was like making millions of them back then without our machines.”

Cut-up cans are placed into an electric crucible furnace, heated to 1,000 deg C and mixed with titanium-boron, donated by Rotherham metal company LSM.

The liquid metal is then poured into individual moulds designed and made by the children.

Lee has applied for a waste handling licence and will soon be able to pick up donations of cans or other aluminium items.

For further details email [email protected] or visit www.castinginnovations.com.