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Magnesium Die Castings
#1
Magnesium amazes me... only 68% the weight of aluminum, burns like hell, even under water, corrodes like crazy and so on.  Used for some Go Power wheels, certain Mac engine parts, etc.

Anyhow, this story has been all over the news, especially around Detroit, but just in case anyone missed it:
  1. Massive fire at magnesium die casting plant shuts down ALL F-150 production, putting 7600 workers out.
  2. Can you imagine the all-nighters, mandatory 100 hr weeks, etc. to get that tooling back on line??
  3. "The teams removed 19 dies from Meridian’s badly damaged facility, and in one case, moved an 87,000-pound die from Eaton Rapids, Mich., to Nottingham, U.K., via an Antonov cargo plane – one of the largest in the world – in just 30 hours door-to-door."
I guess they couldn't just use Amazon Prime to get the free shipping?

https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/f...616382002/
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#2
I recall reading one of Frank Wier's articles about a magnesium fire at Waco Tool where Hornet karts were produced.

Put a damper on production for a while.
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#3
Richard Peck explained to me some time ago how he burned down his father's factory trying to machine too many wheels too fast...
Jim Waltz, West Sacramento, CA
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#4
I had a few broken edges on my series one go power wheels had a welding shop do the welding
even though i was welding since i was 12 years old, stick Tig  mig oxy Acetylene  my basement shop
in my home its to dangerous  even machining was scary chucking the rims in the lathe i cleaned the
lathe down first took a cut wipe down the lathe again then another until the welded part became part
of the rim flush i was told treat it like aluminum w/o coolant some do use coolant  i chose not too, researched 
on the machine shop forums many shops will not even take magnesium jobs when i was finished removed
all the chips and brought it out doors and lit up a small amount and saw what i was up against WOW
the danger is when a big pile of chips  laying on the machine bed a fire can burn through a machine and
destroy it
Richard Stamile
Oceanside NY.
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#5
When I modified the Homelite XP1000 saw into a kart engine, I was in an apartment in Weiser, Idaho. I was removing a ton of magnesium from the saw's point plate/crankcase cover, and had a little pile of mag dust on the wood table. Poof! Up it went, so fast it didn't even have time to burn the table top. I had a big bright spot in front of my eyes for hours. If you were to look at a picture of the saw, you'd see how much mag I Dremeled off. Table's still out there in my garage. I don't think there's even a dark spot on the surface. I was lucky! By comparison, powdered aluminum is wimpy and hard to light off. When Pop and Grandpop closed their Sunoco station in '50 or '51, Pop brought a 5 gallon pail of aluminum dust home to his new mower shop. It had been used in the olden days to make metallic paints. We kids used to make a long cone of paper and put aluminum dust in the cone and blow it into a fire so it'd make a big flare up. It was fun to make a gasoline fire in the dirt drive in front of the lawn mower shop at night and make an aluminum flare. When Pop sold the mower shop in '86, most of the pailful of Al. dust was still there. Ted


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#6
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(05-20-2018, 08:03 AM)ted johnson Wrote: When I modified the Homelite XP1000 saw into a kart engine, I was in an apartment in Weiser, Idaho. I was removing a ton of magnesium from the saw's point plate/crankcase cover, and had a little pile of mag dust on the wood table. Poof! Up it went, so fast it didn't even have time to burn the table top. I had a big bright spot in front of my eyes for hours. If you were to look at a picture of the saw, you'd see how much mag I Dremeled off. Table's still out there in my garage. I don't think there's even a dark spot on the surface. I was lucky! By comparison, powdered aluminum is wimpy and hard to light off. When Pop and Grandpop closed their Sunoco station in '50 or '51, Pop brought a 5 gallon pail of aluminum dust home to his new mower shop. It had been used in the olden days to make metallic paints. We kids used to make a long cone of paper and put aluminum dust in the cone and blow it into a fire so it'd make a big flare up. It was fun to make a gasoline fire in the dirt drive in front of the lawn mower shop at night and make an aluminum flare. When Pop sold the mower shop in '86, most of the pailful of Al. dust was still there. Ted

nice engine and machine work Ted , i think burning magnesium was the source for the flash for early photography
Richard Stamile
Oceanside NY.
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#7
(05-20-2018, 09:18 AM)Richard Stamile Wrote:
(05-20-2018, 08:03 AM)ted johnson Wrote: When I modified the Homelite XP1000 saw into a kart engine, I was in an apartment in Weiser, Idaho. I was removing a ton of magnesium from the saw's point plate/crankcase cover, and had a little pile of mag dust on the wood table. Poof! Up it went, so fast it didn't even have time to burn the table top. I had a big bright spot in front of my eyes for hours. If you were to look at a picture of the saw, you'd see how much mag I Dremeled off. Table's still out there in my garage. I don't think there's even a dark spot on the surface. I was lucky! By comparison, powdered aluminum is wimpy and hard to light off. When Pop and Grandpop closed their Sunoco station in '50 or '51, Pop brought a 5 gallon pail of aluminum dust home to his new mower shop. It had been used in the olden days to make metallic paints. We kids used to make a long cone of paper and put aluminum dust in the cone and blow it into a fire so it'd make a big flare up. It was fun to make a gasoline fire in the dirt drive in front of the lawn mower shop at night and make an aluminum flare. When Pop sold the mower shop in '86, most of the pailful of Al. dust was still there. Ted

nice engine and machine work Ted , i think burning magnesium was the source for the flash for early photography
Back many moons ago, potassium chlorate and aluminum powder were quite common as flash powder. In later years, potassium perchlorate replaced potassium chlorate. Interestingly, potassium perchlorate and sugar can make a wicked good model rocket fuel. Pop and I tried such things when model rockets first came around, in the early fifties. TJ
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