Making Magnalium.

[Mumbles]

Zinc sulfide is a white/yellow/gray phosphorescent powder. Think Zn/S rockets, white smoke.

[h0lx]

I've seriously looked into getting some brass round rod, and cutting it by hand with a hacksaw, or similar time consuming/jagged cutting tool.

Wouldn't an angle grinder be like 100 times faster?

[Arthur]

The cost of cutting a length of bar will reduce if you can find someone with a power shear press that will simply index the bar forward then chop it -one chop straight through. May leave a burr but a milling session will cure that!

 

There is an issue with sending fine metal powder in post/courier most vendors will send metal particles coarser than 100 mesh or a %over 100mesh

Edited March 17, 2009 by Arthur

[Ventsi]

Well i really want to make some MgAl,.

 

1. I have Mg about 3 Mg fire starter bars =100g

 

2.PROBLEM- I cant find pure Al

 

I have a ~ 5 gram piece thats %99.0 pure Al

I have alot of chunks of aluminum that im almost 100% sure is alloyed with 8% zink.

 

I know soda cans are 97.25% alumium rest is 1% magnesium, 1% manganese, 0.4% iron, 0.2% silicon, and 0.15% copper

 

Question is would they be suitable for this purpose?

With all the crap and plastic cleaned off of them?

[TrueBluePyro]

Well i really want to make some MgAl,.

 

1. I have Mg about 3 Mg fire starter bars =100g

 

2.PROBLEM- I cant find pure Al

 

I have a ~ 5 gram piece thats %99.0 pure Al

I have alot of chunks of aluminum that im almost 100% sure is alloyed with 8% zink.

 

I know soda cans are 97.25% alumium rest is 1% magnesium, 1% manganese, 0.4% iron, 0.2% silicon, and 0.15% copper

 

Question is would they be suitable for this purpose?

With all the crap and plastic cleaned off of them?

 

Haha, you are having trouble finding pure Al, I thought it should be other way around, I dont think it should matter if the al is 99% just put 51% of Mg, but I'm not sure, it couldnt hurt it to much. I dont think.

Just go to some kind of junk yard, they should have Al mostly everywhere.

 

Just on onther note:

I made my first batch of MgAl. I made 100g, and hand crushed it with a hammer and it looks great. Ooh nice and shinny . I put a few grams in a fountain.

 

MgAl Fountain video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meou--gsJps

 

Thanks APC for the advice on how to make it MgAl , but in the end, I kinda ended doing my own and thing

[rocket]

I've made MgAl a few time and just used whatever Al I could fine and it works fine.

[tentacles]

That's pretty much the bottom line - use whatever you can find, it will work okay. Old window/door frames, sheet aluminum etc. Sheet is usually 5 series aluminum, which means the primary alloying metal is Mg, so it's actually an ideal source.

[Bonny]

Well i really want to make some MgAl,.

 

1. I have Mg about 3 Mg fire starter bars =100g

 

2.PROBLEM- I cant find pure Al

 

I have a ~ 5 gram piece thats %99.0 pure Al

I have alot of chunks of aluminum that im almost 100% sure is alloyed with 8% zink.

 

I know soda cans are 97.25% alumium rest is 1% magnesium, 1% manganese, 0.4% iron, 0.2% silicon, and 0.15% copper

 

Question is would they be suitable for this purpose?

With all the crap and plastic cleaned off of them?

 

 

As noted by Tentacles, TBP and rocket, almost any Al will be fine...and Al is everywhere if you look. Don't bother with soda cans, much of the Al will be wasted as oxide being so thin it will burn up before melting.

[swervedriver]

Don't bother with soda cans, much of the Al will be wasted as oxide being so thin it will burn up before melting.

 

Does that go for the Mg addition as well? For example, I have a pile of the Mg turnings that come with MgAl powders for shipping purposes. Would the Mg curls likely just insta-burn when added to the melted Al?

[tentacles]

The Mg turnings will work fine, you'll have a bit more slag on top of the ingot but it won't be unreasonable. It's definitely a better use than tossing them out, at any rate.

[FrankRizzo]

Tentacles and I used magnesium turnings in one of our batches, and as long as you melt the aluminum first and push the turnings under the surface right away, they seem to be fine to use.

[Ventsi]

Thanks a load guys!

Ill post some pictures when i get around to doing this .

Its so hot in North CA that i could make a batch of MgAl on the drive way

[TrueBluePyro]

Ok I want to make some more MgAL, but last time I cut the Mg with a hack saw is this the only way, cause i was thinkg about using a drop saw but I thought it might light it up can it ignight from being cut? Edited April 26, 2009 by TrueBluePyro

[rocket]

It wont ignite, the shavings wont get hot enough. I've been cutting Al for the last couple of days with drop saw and notice no warmth after cutting it.

 

Just make sure you have a saw blade designed to cut metal, an aluminium cutting blade will do the job. You can pick these up from Bunnings from $84 to $115 depending on the number of teeth.

[TrueBluePyro]

Ok thanks mate, i think i will invest in one

[Mumbles]

You might want to do some research into that. I've heard from a few reputable folks that you cannot just toss a metal cutting blade on a chop saw designed for wood cutting. The RPM is simply too high.

[rocket]

The saw blades are designed to be used on drop saws, table saws and hand held saw. My drop saw doesn’t even go to the max RPM of the blade(6000RPM where the saw I've got is 4500RPM). The blades them self will cut non ferrous metals, plastic and wood.

[FrankRizzo]

Those blades are meant to cut through tubing and aluminum framing. I wouldn't trust that they would reliably cut through billet or rod stock. At over $100 a pop, that would be an expensive lesson.

 

Northern Tool often has an inexpensive bandsaw for sale in their online catalog. Plus, having a metal-cutting bandsaw around is quite handy.

[mike_au]

How big are the chunks you are cutting? For $100 you could buy a cheap 4" angle grinder and a couple of cutting discs.

[rocket]

Those blades are meant to cut through tubing and aluminum framing. I wouldn't trust that they would reliably cut through billet or rod stock. At over $100 a pop, that would be an expensive lesson.

 

I cut through a 1"x 4" block the other day and 3/4" rod with no trouble at all, like a hot knife through butter. Yes a band saw would be better but at $360 its not cheap, maybe some time in the future I'll invest in one but ATM the saw blade seems to do the job.

 

 

How big are the chunks you are cutting? For $100 you could buy a cheap 4" angle grinder and a couple of cutting discs.

An angle grinder wont cut Al or Mg as it would just clog the discs up.

[Givat]

Any one had success powdering the Magnalium with lead balls in a ball mill? or the lead is too soft?

[FrankRizzo]

Lead alloys are too soft; you'd get grinding action with linotype alloy but also substantial lead contamination. The magnalium is too hard and abrasive. I use steel (rust-free) balls.

[Givat]

Didn't need to ball mill the magnalium - I used ordinary coffee grinder.

My 2x4 kilo magnesium ingots:

my setup:

magnalium:

 

Any one tried to use magnalium instead of magnesium or aluminum in stars compositions? I found magnalium to be very cheap and easy to powder metal

[TYRONEEZEKIEL]

It can certainly be used in place of magnesium, but im not so sure about aluminum. That all depends on the specific formula. These are general ideas. It wont work in every case, but for the most part it is substitutable.

[Givat]

I tried green metalic:

barium nitrate - 52

magnesium -18

parlon - 12

PVC - 15

I used magnalium instead of magnesium and the powder didn't took fire.

 

I tried my "givat green" with the magnalium instead of magnesium and again it burnt like plastic burn and from time to time I got some green flash.

 

So magnalium can't substitute magnesium in any formula.

Edited June 13, 2009 by Givat