BPinthemorning Posted July 31, 2007 Posted July 31, 2007 i have a rather large lump of magnesium, and i have been having truble turning it into powder. i tried a hand file and that was not very effective. what would be the best way for me to turn this into a very fine powder for flash powder. im going to try to mill it using nickels for media. Is this safe? effective? plz post!
BPinthemorning Posted July 31, 2007 Author Posted July 31, 2007 for the record, im not new pyrotecnics, but this one has got me stumped and i dont know where to post it other than here. plz dont tell me to start out small (i already have).
Tweetybird88 Posted July 31, 2007 Posted July 31, 2007 Would an electric sander work? I have no idea. I believe there was a topic like this so I would do a search. I'm almost certain that their are risks and precaution that you must take when milling magnesium.
mormanman Posted July 31, 2007 Posted July 31, 2007 You have to be very careful and I wouldn't mill Mg. I would use a palm sander but don't use a belt sander. The friction might ignite the Mg on the belt sander and thats no good. If you do use the palm sander what I would do is take breaks so it would ignite.
BPinthemorning Posted July 31, 2007 Author Posted July 31, 2007 thanks. i like the hand sander way, and i have toyed with it, but i just dont see a way to catch the dust. any sugestions. (i have done searches, and all similar posts are about magnisium flakes or shavings, and i havent even gotten it to that state yet.)
Pyroblast Posted July 31, 2007 Posted July 31, 2007 Lay out a couple sheets of newspaper on the ground and tape them together. That will collect most of the dust and then you can just funnel it into a container.
al93535 Posted July 31, 2007 Posted July 31, 2007 It is NOT safe to mill magnesium, there have been a few accidents. However, I have done it. So have others I know. What I did was use a hand file to file the Mg block and catch the shavings on a piece of paper. Then mill them for 12 hours. But you need to open the mill jar hourly. Be careful if you do it as its NOT safe, but then again, what really in pyro is completely safe? BTW, the mg doesn't have to be really fine to work well.
FrankRizzo Posted August 1, 2007 Posted August 1, 2007 The magnesium milling accidents that I've heard of all involved a potential oxidizer mixed in with the magnesium. Both Bob Forward's and Lloyd Sponenburgh's accidents involved cab-o-sil in addition to the magnesium. Because of magnesium's excellent reduction potential, the oxygen atoms on cab-o-sil (SiO2) are able to be separated. Do not mix *anything* with the magnesium as you are milling...even things like chalk (CaSO4), sand (SiO2), or rust on your milling media are potential oxidizers.
BPinthemorning Posted August 1, 2007 Author Posted August 1, 2007 thats what i thought. even though mg is an amazing fuel, accidental ignition with out an oxodizer would be rare and probubly not very dangerous. Im gonna put my ball mill gar (i dont know what else to call it) in the dishwasher to clean out any potential oxodizers, and mill it outside being shure to open it every hour. Any other advice?
tentacles Posted August 1, 2007 Posted August 1, 2007 Keep in mind that once you've used it to mill Mg, you shouldn't ever use it to mill oxidizers, possibly not any other fuels. The jar I used to mill some Mg (PVC) is permanently encrusted with Mg dust, embedded into the plastic. I *could* mill other metals in there, but there are some Mg incompatibilities that could make this unwise, especially considering the fineness of the leftover particles. Oh, and it will make you dishwasher stink like crazy(if you try to wash out Mg residue), and possibly discolor it. (read: will make your wife/gf very very angry)
Polumna Posted August 1, 2007 Posted August 1, 2007 Hi Dude, I have got a very good advice for you: Get a drilling machine and buy a sanding disk bit for the drill,then buy the sanding disk, fix it into the drill, then fix the drill to a table.Get a big bucket and hold it under the drill.Then start the drill and press the magnesium onto the sanding disk.if you apply enough pressure, you will get 100g per HOUR.Wear gloves, the magnesium will get a little hot.The magnesiumdust will twist into the bucket and you can collect it perfectThe resulting /wool has got around 200mesh. That powder is VERY good for flashpowder (KNO3 and other´s)You can mill it to the 400mesh state, I never have had accidents so far. I hope I have helped you Polumna
BPinthemorning Posted August 1, 2007 Author Posted August 1, 2007 as soon as i get money for the drilling machine...
Polumna Posted August 1, 2007 Posted August 1, 2007 Hi Just go to your grandpa and look wether he has got one.I also found the screw for fixing the drill on the table, the sanding bit and the sanding disksthereYou should really wear: Earplugs, a dust mask, and thick gloves+ safety glassses PS: you MUST try it, I grinded for about 3hours and now I have 250g Magnesiumdust laying around here.Sacrifical anodes are the best, because you dont need to grind down paint( what i need to do)What the hell should I do with 2 Yam Jars full of Magnesiumpowder And it is, of course, for free.It is really worth the effort. Pyrostar
mormanman Posted August 1, 2007 Posted August 1, 2007 Hi Just go to your grandpa and look wether he has got one.I also found the screw for fixing the drill on the table, the sanding bit and the sanding disksthereYou should really wear: Earplugs, a dust mask, and thick gloves+ safety glassses PS: you MUST try it, I grinded for about 3hours and now I have 250g Magnesiumdust laying around here.Sacrifical anodes are the best, because you dont need to grind down paint( what i need to do)What the hell should I do with 2 Yam Jars full of Magnesiumpowder And it is, of course, for free.It is really worth the effort. PyrostarYou got 250g of Magnesium for free.
BPinthemorning Posted August 1, 2007 Author Posted August 1, 2007 where did you get it? ps: morman you can get like a pond of it for like 5 bucks at military surplus stores or camping stores as fire starters. just ask for magnesium firestarters. only downside is it comes in a brick... : /
mormanman Posted August 1, 2007 Posted August 1, 2007 For real. Well piss I need to look for some military supply stores.
BPinthemorning Posted August 1, 2007 Author Posted August 1, 2007 thats how i get mine, its just hard as anything to shave it down.
Polumna Posted August 2, 2007 Posted August 2, 2007 Hi Go to your local scrapyard and get a sacrifical-anode,they are pretty common there.And grind it like I do it.Take usually 1 1/2 for a small anode, and then you have got a large amount of magnesiumpowder. Polumna
BPinthemorning Posted August 2, 2007 Author Posted August 2, 2007 another place is boat stores. they use it to coat the bottems to prevent rusting and erosion.
Polumna Posted August 2, 2007 Posted August 2, 2007 Hi I ask a heater-monteur for anodes and he gave me a small chunk of it( it was a chain anode)Now I have 70g magnesium with a wick in That mean´s, I can´t grind it with a sanding-disk.Because of the sparks! Other sources can be ebay, boat-shop´s and scrap-yards Polumna
invisibleworld Posted August 25, 2007 Posted August 25, 2007 They sell bags of turnings on E-bay for real cheap, like a pound for 8 dolla. A pound is a lot. Put them with steel ball bearings 3/4 to 1 inch diameter in a ball mill and let go for a few days. One thing you have to be carfull about, before you open the ball mill and let oxygen into it, let it cool down for a few hours. Shake it up a little every half hour. It gets real hot and if you open it to soon, it will start to smoke. I found this out the hard way. the first time I opened it, a few granuals lit up and luckily fell outside the container. Who knows what would have happened if they fell inside. Anyway I got a couple of pounds of 200 to 600 mesh magnesium powder doing it this way.
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