# magnesium disaster



## jumps4 (Jun 11, 2012)

anyone besided me ever get a piece of magnesium in the aluminum melting pot.
what a mess it burst into flames belching gas and smoke, spitting
when it was over and done i had a burnt up mass of what i dont know that weighed almost nothing.
i burnt even after removing it from the furnace for a long time
dangerous stuff
steve


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## burnrider (Jun 11, 2012)

Only when the Grateful Dead was in town. Every beater VW van running to the concert was there. A few burned up nicely with mag block construction. Anyone experience with metal shavings and cutting oil causing fire? Been to a few of them using a front loader to dig out the smouldering core so we could put it out.


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## metalmaster (Jun 12, 2012)

back in the day my brother and I did some home foundry projects with a wood fired furnace.
we where melting down some old lawnmower decks.  I found one made of magnesium and threw a chunk into the fire when he wasn't looking.
it was pretty funny watching him freak out.

mike


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## jumps4 (Jun 12, 2012)

these were old lawn mower parts and other odds and ends 
steve


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## sic semper tyrannis (Jun 12, 2012)

Nothing like installing a helicoil into a late 80's gsxr 750 and having the tap shavings spontaneously combust as they come out of the hole you are tapping.

Or the kid back in high school whose car caught fire....and the magnesium wheels in the front lit off and burned AMAZINGLY hot and bright....and into the asphalt!!

That is some scary stuff.


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## Tom Griffin (Jun 12, 2012)

Been there done that.

When I was a kid, I built a gas fired furnace and set it up in the basement. I used it quite a bit and it worked well until I got hold of a old lawnmower deck for the "aluminum". When the charge ignited, it consumed my graphite crucible, burned through the bottom of the furnace and through the concrete floor underneath. It also filled the Basement full of white powder, which I assume was magnesium oxide. That really thrilled my mom and that pretty much put an end to my foundry experience.

Tom


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## llarson (Jun 12, 2012)

When I was over in Nam, we used to spotface the mounting holes on angle gearboxes that drive the tail rotor on hueys to clean up the corrosion on the gearbox, under the mounting bolts. We tossed the magnesium shavings into an ashtray and lit them, I guess just for something to do. Lit up a tray full one day just as our often less than totally sober shop chief came through the shop door, poor guy nearly became a statistic.


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