bn120

My Feedback: (1)

Yep did it again well not burned to the ground but was working on a husky and did not clean up enough under my bench grinder that must of had alot of magnesium under it because 1 little tiny spark and she went up in flames.my wife was freaking out and wanted to put it out and you cant ,you have to let it burn ,if you put water on it ,it only spreads and a fire ext. wont work at all.

so If you are working on a saw with a built in tank it is more than likely magnesium and in a powder form is extreemely flamable even more than gun powder so be carefull.


ps, you can learn alot from a dummy

Darin

tkg

My Feedback: (1)

Ain't it a purddy, shinnie, bright blue when it burns.
Don't ask how I know

Daniel Ramsey

not even dry powder or C02? and I thought I had a bad day....


Got a call from my boss, around noon today he was in a royal panic I am the operations supervisor at a sizable concrete batching facility about 35 miles north of Anchorage, Alaska, actually in Wasilla. Said the whole place was coming down, I hauled ***** 9 miles to town against 50+mph winds....
The last week we have had continuous winds of around 35mph+ and the last two days of continuous 50 to 100mph winds from a rare set of hi-low pressure fronts, one of our concrete block plant shops with a new set of walls and roof gave way, I spent 3 hours outside with an ambient temp of -2, windchill at least -50 trying to shore up the ceiling and salvage some of the walls, we saved most of it by stacking 3 pallet high loads of concrete blocks at 3,000lbs per pallet all around the exposed wall area and even chained the exposed roof corner down that was lifting up.
The whole valley is in a state of emergency, 4 tractor trailer rigs with 45' double trailers flipped over, many many roofs gone, signs, streetlights down, power outages. Over 30 planes damaged or destroyed in Anchorage, main airport control tower shut down because of 109mph winds. Schools closed, firefighters hurt when they were hit by flying debris, hoses and trucks had to be rotated back to the fire station because the equipment was freezing up. I spent the whole afternoon trying to get feeling back in my face even though I was wearing a 20lb. pair of Carhart Arctic coveralls which normally have protected me in -45 but in still air.


What a day....




BTW, all gassers that grind, make sure to use air or wash all magnesium away, play it safe.

Jemo

My Feedback: (5)

Daniel,

Does this mean you didn't get to fly.............

bdtsr

My Feedback: (5)

bn120, it's a little late to tell you this now, but get youself one of those little cheapy shop vacs and hook it to the grinder to help suck they grinding debris away.

Daniel, how long 'till you thaw out?!

greenboot

My Feedback: (1)

BN120, I sure wish I knew what you are talking about. Some kind of saw and tank???

TKG, Don't worry, I won't ask how you know.

Daniel, I feel sorry for you. How does your story relate to this thread? Just wondering.

jemo, It sounds like you're confused too.

bdtsr, That sounds like an excellant solution. So what is the problem?

signed: confused in St Louis

Volfy

My Feedback: (23)

100mph wind! Holy cow. Never mind the buildings, how do you keep yourself from getting blown all over the place?

BigBird1

My Feedback: (4)

A qualified fire extinguisher supply can get you a extinguisher for flamable metals...may cost a few $$$$'s but well worth it...

Was machining some magnesium and had asked the boss for a extinguisher for flamable metals....he just laughed and said go to it...
I did...up she went and had enough chips in the catchpan to burn a hole through it.

He got one next time...

Hind sight is 20/20

Volfy

My Feedback: (23)

At work we deal a lot with FM and CSA safety standards, as well as the European CENELEC and new ATEX directives. Even though we in the oil field business are primarily concerned about Class I, Group C and D (Ethlene and propane) hazards, I am also familiar with Class II, Goup E (metal dust). Aluminum and Magnesium powders are both excellent oxidizers, but even other types of metal can be explosive if ground fine enough. BTW, Magnesium powder is what was used for flash photography in the early days.

Shopvac use is highly recommended. Fire extinquisher is a must but if you have a lot of really fine dust, you might get enough of a fast burn to qualify as an explosion. I doubt you'll be fast enough to reach for that extinquisher. It's better to practice safety from the getgo.

BigBird1

My Feedback: (4)

This is a little off the subject, but
I work at the local race track welding in the summer and am around a lot of high octane and other assorted mixes that are questionable in nature...(Grinn)....and have always used "Halon", yes it's outlawed...but it's the best as far as I'm concerened....spray a $20,000 motor with PKP and they'll have you're hind end, don't know if would would put put a metal fire, but sure works for what I do...

2 more cents..

bn120

My Feedback: (1)

I usualy keep all the dust cleaned up well but there is a small gap under the grinder for some particals to get under so now I will use the shop vack and plug in the hose on the other end and blow out any dust in the future.

Darin

nascarfan88

Try setting a business jet on fire and causing $1M worth of damage. Was not a good day. Glad it wasn't me grinding on magnesium in the cockpit!!!

BigBird1

My Feedback: (4)

[QUOTE]Originally posted by nascarfan88
[B]Try setting a business jet on fire and causing $1M worth of damage. Was not a good day.


Wooooo.....I'll keep my fingers quite on that one......
Ouch!!!!!!!

Daniel Ramsey

Sorry, I guess I should have inserted engine or plane in at least every other sentence. Now does this put me in jail for posting something a bit off topic?

Jemo

My Feedback: (5)

No jail for you Daniel, I liked it....

Daniel Ramsey

I thought a minor diversion was OK, bums me when some people at ANY forum insist on staying on topic, which BTW was about another member's shop, well I lost most of my block plant shop, and makes me reconsider the pile of magnesium grindings I did leave on my bossess workbench, gonna have to thoroughly clean it, something I only HAVE to do once a year....maybe

Thomas Williams

My Feedback: (4)

I thought it was very informative Daniel and hope the weather gets better for your sake.

Barry_G

My Feedback: (26)

How do you identify magnesium?
(other than striking a match to it)
I've never ground my engine parts but I do machine them in the lathe and mill. Should I be concerned about the chips and turnings?
Flew my Homie first time yesterday. Runs great. Hovers that old heavy Robinhood very nicely!
Pics in my gallery if you're interested.
Keep it up guys, always interesting reading here!
Barry

geardaddy

My Feedback: (27)

Easy to identify Magnesium as it is very light, a machined surface will lose its shine in a few days due to its corrosion tendency. Sand will smother a metal fire ( Class D ) or the industrial grade fire retardant stuff that looks like fancy sand will do the job.

bn120

My Feedback: (1)

jacumac I think I will go down to the columbia river and get me a 5 gallon bucket of sand just in case.they use a form of magnesium for underwater welding I think.even if the sand wont put it out at least it will contain it where it is without huge flames bilowing.Thanks for the idea!!!

magnesium and aluminum seem very similar to one another but one is flamable.hehehe

barryg I would be concerned about any particals laying around.

Darin

geardaddy

My Feedback: (27)

Aluminum dust will also burn, just needs a lot more to ignite. As in a component of the fuel used in a space shuttle booster engine. http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/...wsref/srb.html

Jack

bn120

My Feedback: (1)

Holly cow we could all blow up at any time!!!!!

who knew, these metals are pretty unstable in the wrong form.how do they melt magnesium without it going up in smoke ?

Darin

geardaddy

My Feedback: (27)

Found a site that describes a flux added to the top of the cruicible to prevent contact with air.

Jemo

My Feedback: (5)

Almost anything will burn if the particles are fine enough.