On Sun, 5 Mar 2006 09:12:58 -0600, you wrote:
>
>Magnesium burns under water, under CO2, and unless you can prevent air
>mixing in, in inert gases as well. The heat of hydration is high
>enough to keep it going, making MgOH instead of MgO, and the heat of
>formation of the carbonate is almost as high as that of making the
>hydroxide.
>
As an apprentice, MANY years ago, I worked in a very high tech
aerospace shop. We ran one Magnesium shop, very careful to contain
chips, submerge them in water. The casting was about 10 pounds, twice
the size of a loaf of bread.
When running this job, you were required to have a large caution sign
with a crossbar. On the Crossbar was 2 5 gallon pails of asbestos (!)
to smother the flames.
It never was used for about 5 years
Finally the day came when the machine {Or operator) malfunctioned,
this was about a 25HP K&T Vertical miller. The carbide cutter hit the
hardened fixture, threw sparks on the chips.
All Hell Broke Loose!
Operator grabbed afore mentioned bucket, it had turned into a rock! As
did the second one!
This was a big shop, we must have dumped 25 fire extinguishers of the
machine. Fire burned out in about 10 minutes. The huge milling
machine was scrap.
--
Regards,
Peter T. Arnold
1987 300SDL 239KMI
1995 F-250 PowerChoke 190Kmi
1954 Metropolitan Convertable, Hanger Queen
Wife has a Cruizer, as reliable as an Ice Box, the car that is!
