He guys be very careful when working with magnesium, as I guy who I know here in town was grinding on a magneium VW block yesterday, and his shirt became impregnated with the mag dust. He must have hit some steel and made a spark because he is now in a burn ward in Lubbock with 2nd and 3rd degree burns over 40% of his body. This stuff in dust form burns easily.
My brother had a friend who worked in a machine shop that was machining magnesium and the coolant pump failed the end mill still milling the part ignited the chips the whole thing caught fire got so hot the part burned through the machine all the way to the floor. Definitely not a metal to take light heartedly. Hope the guy heals up ok. Bummer
When aircraft with magnesium catch on fire on carriers they shove them over the side... Sorry about your friend, I hope he makes it
Always remember aluminum dust is very volatile to can blow your ass up. Sorry to hear about that guy hope he recovers fast
good to know about the aluminum dust, been working with it for 15 years,i knew magnesium would burn ,but didn't know about the aluminum dust. isn't it the purple K extinquishers that put out magnesium fires?
just about any metal in powder, dust or lightly woven fabric form can, and will smolder... think back to boy scouts. think flint and steel. aluminum dust is a huge hazard when you combine it with iron dust... think thermite
Sorry about your friend. I was suprised when I learned that dust from grain inside a flour mill is explosively volatile. I think most things in dust form mixed with fire is bad news. I can imagine that magnesium would be like dynamite.
thats good to know considering they throw the aluminum dust on top of the steel dust at work. I know about thermite but never dawned on me to think about that.
Here is what happene when water hit burning magnesium. At 1:12 in. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KY9ri-UOoLo&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KY9ri-UOoLo&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
It's actually class D for combustable metals. Some metals need specific agents to extinguish them. Water is a huge no no , it can make the fire explode! Think fireworks... the pretty colors are usually made by metals or metal salts. Iron makes red orange , aluminum and magnesium make white , I think Strontium makes blue.....anyway they all combust at very high temperatures.....
My vendor that sells my polishing rouge and equipment to me. Told me about a guy blowing his head off working on a 132 " belt sander with powdered aluminum around it. Did not know what to make of it until. I was sanding a piece of aluminum on my 72" belt sander and threw a spark out it went off like a rocket scared the shit out of me just a warning.
Mag is nasty stuff. I used to machine aircraft parts made from the stuff. They had a special powder to throw on it if it ignited. Water makes it explode. It's like looking at a strobe light. I sure hope the guy gets through what has to be a rough time.
Many modern cars use magnesium in transmissions, steering column supports, even stuff like arm rests. Many fire depts now only use foam on car fires.
There is a torching of a VW engine out side Wendover during the Bonneville Speedweek every year............kinda crazy, makes for one hell of a bonfire!
Ever see the movie ALIENS when they shoot the aliens and the acid burns through the floors like 5 floors down? Yeah Magnesium is great stuff. Seen a few junk VW blocks lit on fire to light up Oldsmobile Hill at Glamis while sandduning. Pretty good at making a bright orange light that can be seen from space.-Weeks
well i just vaccumed off my drill presses and floor, and dumped the dust in a metal can away from the house by the road. thanks for the tips guys.
teacher threw some in the furnace thinking it was aluminium while we were doing some pours....scared the shit out of everyone....bad stuff...best wishes for your buddy
I believe magnesium makes it's own oxygen when it burns.... I think they use magnesium for underwater flares.... also there is a powder of some kind that will put magnesium out if it starts burning.
I don't know how it works but water alone put on magnesium powder will cause it to explode and burn.I grew up on the story of my father and several other sharpshooters being put on bridges in this area during the flood of 1955 their job was to shoot drums of powdered magnesium that had gotten washed out of a magnesium grinding plant and were floating down river.The idea was to blow them up before they got entangled in the down stream bridges or got tangled in something and sank.The big fear was that these drums would end up trapped somewhere along the river and eventually rust through and ignite years later.Many years later without realizing it I got a job at the same location as the old plant turned out the company I worked at was owned by the same guy that ran the magnesium plant and he still had a grinding operation in a smaller building behind the one i was in turns out what I thought were aluminum ingots all over the place were raw magnesium ingots which were about the size of BB Chevy valve covers an employee of 30+ years got killed in that building when water from a leaky roof hit the powdered magnesium they made there the finer the powder the more volatile it is.You can see barrels of powder exploding in news footage of the flood of 1955 in Putnam Ct.The company was called Metal Sellings
My pops told me stories of the old drag cars catching fire, and the rims burning right into the track. Magnesium is alot like white phosphorus(to the military folks). It creates it's own fuel. It will burn until it's done. I hope your friend turns out ok man.
Magnesium burns hotter in carbon dioxide environment than in a oxygen environment. Burning magnesium produces very toxic fumes. Putting water on a magnesium fire turns water, and magnesium into hydrogen gas. (when hydrogen explodes it is then supported by oxygen making the explosion more intense which in turn splatters molten magnesium) Do not look at a magnesium fire very long it will cause flash blindness. (it burns several times brighter than the sun! flash blindness feels like you have sand under your eye lids) The sparks from a magnesium fire are burning at 5400 degrees. (magnesium powder/shavings were used in incendiary bombs!) A type 1 class D fire extinguisher can only control a magnesium fire. A type 2 class D fire extinguisher can only dissipate the heat of the fire. I used to have to work with magnesium on occasion when I was a machinist, if there was a magnesium fire I was told to just get away from it.
Here's wishing for his speedy recovery. My 13 yo daughter just got out of a burn unit (some 3rd degree burns), and its not fun at all.... .
At work we use a lot of magnesium. Everyplace it's used, we have pallets of salt to smother it with. A 50lb sack of salt would be worthwhile to have around if you plan on machining any mag parts
I was cutting apart a late model Ford PU radiator support with a cut off wheel to get it out of the way for colision repar. A co worker informed me it is magnezium and the dust could go up ,Yikes.I just assumed it was some kind of pot metal. Nothing happend but made me think ignorance can get ya hurt.
I worked in a shop where they machined a lot of magnesium and formed it as well. There were special safety cans for the scrap and also cans for the powder to toss on fires, luckily we never had one. When forming magnesium, it had to be heated up first and there was always someone standing by with the correct fire extinguisher. Titanium will also go up in flames. I stopped by one shop to visit a buddy at work and there was an engine lathe out on the loading dock, burned to a crisp and all twisted up. I instantly asked, mag fire? The answer was titanium. Who knew? Bob
The Jalopy Journal
