Aluminium is something you’ll need a lot of in Fallout 76, especially when you’re repairing complex weapons and Power Armour. Luckily there’s plenty of it about, but there are few items that deliver much of it in one go. The list of items at the bottom of the page shows you which pieces of junk contain aluminium, with the scrap yield given in bold.
Breaking down some weapons and armour will also yield aluminium, but for the best results always make sure you have at least one rank of the Scrapper perk installed.
Your best bet for finding aluminium is Aluminium Cans. There are a ton of them in the game and they can be distinguished from regular cans by their shape - the aluminium ones are all bent. Another good source is Surgical Trays which are fairly common in medical tents, and the medical facilities of official buildings (such as prisons - see the gameplay link below) and research facilities. Most army camps will have at least one mobile medical centre in them. Houses usually have at least one Alarm Clock, and Blasting Caps Boxes are common in the Ash Heap area.
The list is taken from the official ‘Vault Dweller’s Survival Guide’, but it’s not always completely accurate. One interesting oddity is that the Aluminium Oil Can used to contain no aluminum at all, but this was changed in a recent patch. Aluminium Ore won’t give you any metal till it’s smelted in a Chemistry Workbench. There are a number of Public Workbenches that you can mine aluminum ore and these are also listed below.
Public Workbenches with Aluminium mineral pits
The Forest: Sunshine Meadows Industrial Farm; Tyler County Dirt Track; Poseidon Energy Plant Yard.
Ash Heap: Charleston Landfill.
Savage Divide: Berkeley Springs West; Converted Munitions Factory; Red Rocket Mega Stop.
Junk that contains Aluminium (yield in bold)
Three: Cake Pan; Ski Pole; TV Dinner Tray.
Two: Alarm Clock; Aluminum Tray; Blasting Caps Box; Carlisle Typewriter; Chez Vivi Typewriter; Clean Cake Pan; Clean Coffee Tin; Coffee Tin; Coolant Cap; Eyebot Model; Hubcap; Industrial Oil Canister; Mr. Gutsy Model; Mr. Handy Model; Protectron Model; Robot Parts Model; Robot Parts Model; Robot Parts Model; Sentry Bot Model; Surgical Tray; Tin Pitcher.
One: Aluminum Can; Aluminum Canister; Aluminum Scrap; HH-3A Capacitor; Large Glass Jar Lid; Large Glass Jar Ring; Large Glass Jar Top; Oil Can; Ring Stand; Small Glass Jar Lid; Small Glass Jar Ring; Small Glass Jar Top; Steel Guitar; Toy Rocketship; Unrusted Tin Can; Vault-Tec Alarm Clock; Wakemaster Alarm Clock.
Zero: Aluminum Oil Can (changed in a recent patch); Aluminum Ore.