Ralph Posted February 21, 2011 Posted February 21, 2011 would be less brittle more dense and less reactive all 3 of which are not good things for our purposes
oldguy Posted February 21, 2011 Author Posted February 21, 2011 (edited) Antimony melts at 1166 °F, Magnesium melts at 1202°F, Aluminum melts at 1220 °F, so they are all in the same ballpark. 50/50 Mg/Al is very brittle. Antimony by itself is very brittle & at higher temperatures, will ignite and burn in air. True Mg/Al/Sb alloy would be denser, but all being brittle I assume it would mill down well. True also it would be less reactive, but would still be fairly reactive to a degree (dependent on % of each in the alloy) , thus more stable. I may give it a whirl for fun. A few days ago I salvaged a ½ pickup truck load of firebrick free from an old smelter site. Also bought a high temperature 10 inch gas burner. Plan to build a small enclosed fire brick kiln type furnace for smelting Mg/Al anyway, as burning charcoal for that purpose is taking a lot of time & getting old. Edited February 21, 2011 by oldguy
Ralph Posted February 21, 2011 Posted February 21, 2011 Antimony melts at 1166 °F, Magnesium melts at 1202°F, Aluminum melts at 1220 °F, so they are all in the same ballpark. 50/50 Mg/Al is very brittle. Antimony by itself is very brittle & at higher temperatures, will ignite and burn in air. True Mg/Al/Sb alloy would be denser, but all being brittle I assume it would mill down well. True also it would be less reactive, but would still be fairly reactive to a degree (dependent on % of each in the alloy) , thus more stable. I may give it a whirl for fun. A few days ago I salvaged a ½ pickup truck load of firebrick free from an old smelter site. Also bought a high temperature 10 inch gas burner. Plan to build a small enclosed fire brick kiln type furnace for smelting Mg/Al anyway, as burning charcoal for that purpose is taking a lot of time & getting old. how do you manage to get all of this free stuff ?
oldguy Posted February 21, 2011 Author Posted February 21, 2011 (edited) I am basically well retired, except for a few board meetings I attend quarterly. So, I have a lot of free time to ramble around. I was raised to be very frugal. My father never gave me cash as a kid. But, he gave me many opportunities to work for good money at a very young age. I salmon fished & crabbed in Alaska @ 16 years old. That got me an almost new dodge charger paid for in cash before I graduated from high school. My Dad also taught to look for value & try to recognize opportunities, most others don't usually see. For instance, if a mountain of fecal matter falls on you. Don't snivel or whine about. Learn something from it & if possible sell the mountain of fecal matter to someone for fertilizer. Meaning, I keep my eyes out for value & profit. LOL, years back at a DOT land auction sale. I bought a 1320 ft strip of land only 60 ft wide, that was excess highway right of way frontage on a river for $75K. All my friends laughed at me because it was not build-able, being so narrow. They kidded me, asking what was I going to do with it, put in a 1 row apple orchard, a one row outdoor archery range or possibly a ¼ mile row of picnic tables & rent them out. Today there is a ¼ mile long boat house moorage there, with million of dollars in high end boat houses moored at it. I could see that, others could not. I am good at start up ventures. Once they are over all the hurdles, running smooth & profitable, I get bored & moved on. I retired at a very early age, because of being that way. It's not free, it's derived from vision & experience. Edited February 21, 2011 by oldguy
Mumbles Posted February 21, 2011 Posted February 21, 2011 MgAl is brittle only because of it's crystal structure. There is a peak of crystallinity around where we use it. Adding antimony, while brittle on it's own, may kill this property by disrupting the current structure. When you add antimony to lead it does not make it brittle, even in high amounts. It does however increase hardness by some mechanism. It is probably some crystal reason again. You never know until you try of course. I think an alloy of this type may behave very interestingly in a glitter.
shagaKahn Posted February 21, 2011 Posted February 21, 2011 > "Meaning, I keep my eyes out for value & profit." Is that a hand full of gold nuggets in your avatar snap?
oldguy Posted February 21, 2011 Author Posted February 21, 2011 You never know until you try of course. I think an alloy of this type may behave very interestingly in a glitter. Stibnite, high grade unrefined antimony has a very crystalline structure. Even in an ingot of refined 99.9 % antimony, when you saw off a piece & slightly polish the cut fresh surface, that crystalline structure is very defined & visible to the naked eye. Lead although very dense is near the top of the chart of soft malleable metals. I suspect dependent on the percentage of each, a Mg/Al/Sb alloy would be very brittle. Thinking a little further down the road, if its possible to tweak the alloy by adding a small amount of a color producing metal, barium for instance. The effects as the particulates deflagrate may even be more interesting.
oldguy Posted February 21, 2011 Author Posted February 21, 2011 > "Meaning, I keep my eyes out for value & profit." Is that a hand full of gold nuggets in your avatar snap? Yes Sir, about $3k (usd) worth.Placer gold mining is another of my hobbies.
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