The best way to farm aluminum in Fallout 4 is to head to Vault 95 and look for aluminum cans, TV dinner trays, and surgical trays.
You will obtain over 100 aluminum after looting all junk items in the vault. The only downside to Vault 95, is that its items don’t respawn.
Alternatively, you can also buy shipments of aluminum from an NPC.
Method 1: Looting Junk Items That Contain Aluminum
Vault 95 is a great place to start, but there are many other great locations to farm this abundant resource:
| Location | Items | Where To Look | Total Aluminum |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vault 95 | TV dinner trays, surgical trays, aluminum cans. | All-around | 115 |
| Fort Hagen Command Center | Aluminum cans, surgical trays, TV dinner trays. | The exit tunnel on the west side. | 108 |
| Corvega Assembly Plant | Coolant cap, aluminum can, TV dinner trays, hubcap, aluminum canister. | Inside and outside the assembly plant. | 104 |
| Mahkra Fishpacking | Aluminum trays | Lower levels | 80 |
| Mass Pike Tunnel | Aluminum cans | All-around | 50 |
| Vault 81 | Surgical trays | In the Secret area of the vault | 40 |
| Federal Ration Stockpile | Aluminum cans | Shelves | 20+ |
| Four Leaf Fishpacking | Aluminum trays | West side of the factory | 24 |
| Medford Memorial Hospital | Surgical trays | All-around | 20+ |
Note: Most items take around 7 days to respawn in Fallout 4.
Here’s all the previous locations on the map of the Commonwealth:
This is a list of all the items that can be scrapped into aluminum:
| Item | Yield |
|---|---|
| Cake pan | 3 |
| Surgical tray | 3 |
| Sweeper | 3 |
| TV dinner tray | 3 |
| Alarm clock | 2 |
| Aluminum can | 2 |
| Aluminum canister | 2 |
| Carlisle typewriter | 2 |
| Coolant cap | 2 |
| Hubcap | 2 |
| Inactive distress pulser | 2 |
| Industrial oil canister | 2 |
| Ring stand | 2 |
| Wakemaster alarm clock | 2 |
| Applicator | 1 |
| Cauterizer | 1 |
| Ear examiner | 1 |
| Sensor | 1 |
| Spanner | 1 |
| Toy rocketship | 1 |
| Tray | 1 |
| Tri tool | 1 |
| Tweezers | 1 |
Note: Without level 1 of the Scrapper perk, nothing will be gained from scrapping junk items.
Extra Tip #1: How to Know If The Items You Find Contain Aluminum
The “Tag For Search” option allows you to tag certain materials. Once you find an item that contains one of those materials, it will display a small magnifying glass before its name.
Follow these steps to activate Tag For Search:
Extra Tip #2: How To Transform Junk Items Into Aluminum
Tip: Don’t use the Store All Junk option. You might store something valuable that the workshop could scrap, and you will never get it back.
Method 2: Buy Shipments of Aluminum From NPCs
If you don’t mind paying a price for your aluminum, this is the easiest and fastest way to get it.
NPCs sell aluminum in the form of shipments. This way, you don’t have to carry the weight of the aluminum.
To use shipments of aluminum, store them in a workshop, just like any other junk item.
Here’s a list of all NPCs that sell shipments of aluminum:
| NPC | Location | Shipment’s Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Arturo Rodriguez | Diamond City Market | 50 |
| Rufus Rubins | Goodneighbor | 25 |
And this is their location on the map:
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7p63Nnaamq6CkwW%2BvzqZmn5mcoby2wJNmmKWtnZ67trmMn5irpZmjtHA%3D