Just an added note about WoW. I believe I'm correct in saying: if you don't visit the site at least once every couple of months the administrators assume you are no longer interested and will delete your registration in attempts to keep the roles clean and wieldy.
Is this a double secret website or something? About a half dozen posts in a couple of threads the last few days and not one URL.
A web search yields hardly any hits on the topic and virtually all of them refer to the one Australian occurance in that cite. Makes me wonder...
Yes... very secret... would have to kill you if you found the website.
LRod, did you *read* any of the recent threads on it? The truth is out there - but you have to *read* the messages to find out.
The reason there's no URL given is that you can't get in without a username and password and you can't get a username and password until you are invited by a current member. But, you can get an intro here:
Here's a copy of my post that started it all (replying to Tom Nie):
Yeah, I read all that. Oh, well. I don't do any Yahoo groups either. Same reason. Groucho said it best.
LRod wrote: :>Safety Tip'o'th'week: Never grind aluminum and steel or iron on the same :>machine or workstation - Thermite. :>
: A web search yields hardly any hits on the topic and virtually all of : them refer to the one Australian occurance in that cite. Makes me : wonder...
: -- : LRod
It's serious enough for Lee Valley to have written a warning about it -- was in one of their recent catalogs.
Thermite is some serious stuff -- a few ounces can burn through an engine block, apparently.
-- Andy Barss
If you seriously want to expand your creativity as well as seeing pictures of the "cutting edge" of woodturning, membership on WOW is a necessity. The membership and invitation thing is only because of the weird program they use. But it does allow easy, seamless viewing of wonderfuly pictures of woodturning. Much better than any other service. Anybody will get accepted that wants in. Earl
That group that'd have you for a member...? I thought Twain said that.
The WoW site may be a little different than you're thinking with a Yahoo group. What's your concern?
It's really like this newsgroup except in web format but with the capability to post pictures, offer critique, etc. without any unruly trolls. (I know that's similar to Yahoo but I'd like to know what it is about Yahoo that you don't like.)
================== But if you don't behave yourself, Herm will terminate you. That was one of the reasons to start it to begin with; that and the pictures.
Ken Moon Webberville, TX
Ken, That "termination" doesn't sound like a bad thing. Though as a newbie I haven't seen any reason on this NG to worry about it. And the pictures ARE awesome. TomNie
Requires a magnesium strip or powder to ignite it- sparks off the grinder aren't hot enough. But FWIW, I wouldn't grind aluminum anyhow- clogs up the grinding wheels. Better to use a sander or saw it. No doubt LV has it in the catalog as a CYA measure for the one virtually impossible case of it happening.
I wouldn't worry awfully much about thermite, though. Even if you try and make it intentionally, it's not all that easy to do. Iron or Iron Oxide needs to be extremely fine, ditto for the aluminum, they need to be mixed properly in the correct proportions, and it requires burning magneisum or something equally hot to light it (which needs a blowtorch to ignite in and of itself.) Miss any of these things, and it's not going to happen. Seems more likely to me that some oil from the outside of the metal could smolder inside the hood on the wheel- seen that happen before and it can get pretty hot, but it's certainly not thermite.
Hi Prometheus
I kind of agree with you, but you have to keep in mind that some people think they are grinding aluminium when they are grinding magnesium, I remember an event in our shop when my brother and I where building a kid scale 53 Ford that was to be powered by a 3 hp B&S motor and we needed a light transmission, and so he was cutting some steel of the transmission housing we where going to use, when it started burning, it surprised us to say the least, we had not considered the housing to have that much magnesium in it, but had considered it to be just aluminium. Sure gives a lot of light and smoke.
Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo
Prometheus wrote:
Hmmm. I recall a kid who got in trouble for placing magnesium wire in the candle snuffer at church. It ignited without a blowtorch. Of course, I've always felt God has a sense of humor. No other way to explain some of the phenomena of daily life.
Could be a matter of surface area to volume ratio. I know the little bits I played with back in high school chemistry needed a blowtorch, or at least one of those butane *jet* lighters to ignite it. Might have had something else in it to allow it light more easily as well, never can tell what someone else has got going on, after all!
You mean like grown men and women hacking on a hunk of wood as it spins at high speeds and calling it fun? Yeah, seems sorta weird. ;-)
...Kevin
MSDS Magnesium metal Autoignition temperature: 473C (883F)
I don't have a candle to measure its flame temperature, but doubt if it is that hot. Some churches us butane powered candles. I have no problem thinking they get that hot.
It was whatever they put in flashbulbs - thought it was Mg, might have been Al. At any rate, did the job.
Surprisingly, to me at least, I found...
"A laminar diffusion flame is a candle. The fuel comes from the wax vapor, while the oxidizer is air; they do not mix before being introduced (by diffusion) into the flame zone. A peak temperature of around 1400°C is found in a candle flame [3]. "
Read more if need be at
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