Cutting magnesium

[churchjw]

A friend of mine has several 99.95% pure magnesium bars that are [FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]19/32" square and 3 21/32" long. He needs to cut then into smaller blocks. Would it be safe to cut these on the band saw or would a hacksaw be better? Any suggestions on this would be great. I am going to have a bucket of sand at hand. Not worth getting a D class extinguisher just for this one project.

Jeff[/FONT]

 

[OldMachinist]

As long as you cut it with a sharp blade and use the proper speed there shouldn't be any fire hazard using the band saw. Also clean up the chips afterwards.

 

[Cactus Farmer]

I'd like the cuttings...........

 

[CoopVA]

I'd like the cuttings...........

Me too...


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[churchjw]

Thanks for the feedback. We are going to try it with coolant and a sharp blade. I will let everyone know if it works. I think he want to keep the chip to play with. If I don't "play" with it before he gets to it.

Jeff

 

[John Hasler]

Thanks for the feedback. We are going to try it with coolant and a sharp blade. I will let everyone know if it works. I think he want to keep the chip to play with. If I don't "play" with it before he gets to it.

Jeff

Have bucket of dry sand handy just in case.

 

[dsh1001]

Me too...


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I just bought some magnesium shavings from eBay. They were reasonably priced and decent sized little bags that were stuffed full. I'll use these to demonstrate the flammability of magnesium for my CIMM 130 class. The seller is megans_merchandise and they were shipped very quickly.

 

[newbydave]

I have machined magnesium on both my mill drill and lathe.
Did a lot of research first. Cut a 2" circle out of 1/2 plate
using a circle cutter on mill drill. Then chucked in lathe and
made groove. Iirc magnesium must be in a molten state before
it can ignite. Watch speeds and feeds. Coolant will definitely
help.

 

[12bolts]

Whilst large solid Mg can be difficult to ignite, shavings, ribbon, and probably cuttings are very easy to ignite in their solid form.

Cheers Phil

 

[Cactus Farmer]

Whilst large solid Mg can be difficult to ignite, shavings, ribbon, and probably cuttings are very easy to ignite in their solid form.

Cheers Phil

That's what I'm counting on!