I melted copper wire at home and made a huge copper ingot! It weighs 12 pounds or 5.7 kilograms. I used old copper wire that had been burned in a fire to remove the insulation. I did not do this. Someone else did. I melted the wire in my DIY foundry furnace and poured the copper into a mold that I made from a 3d printed pattern.

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Casting equipment
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3d printing FDM
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Metal finishing tools
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General
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Camera Equipment
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▬▬▬ WHY DID THE COPPER "GROW"? ▬▬▬

I believe this happened because the copper was left molten inside the crucible for too long. This can cause a build up of gas inside the liquid metal which escapes as the metal is poured.

I also suspect it could have to do with the oil content of the petrobond sand, however I have seen others cast large copper bars in petrobond without issue.

I'm not certain that this was the cause, its my best educated guess. Do you know?