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tested an urban myth today...

twoslo4five0

twoslo4five0

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so we were all sitting around after i cut down my mag. runflats and got the idea to see if or how flamable this stuff is...here is how it went

1.swept up all the dust into a pile and hit it with a mapp gas torch...some small white sparks no fire though
2.added water (supposobly if you add water it becomes more flamable) notthing at all no sparks nothing
3.got a nother pile and sprayed carb cleaner to get it to burn,nothing happened but when we tried to put the fire with your foot more white sparks,no fire though
4.heat the hell out of the pile and then we had an intence bright light with the same white sparks (looked like a sparkler ) but no flames
5.last but not least we took the leftover runflat and try to catch it on fire nothiing happened...sprayed it in carb cleaner still nothing....

here is my conclusion

i think you could cut the runflats down with a plasma cutter or a torch and be fine...do i want to be the one to find out sure dont....

i would say the myth is plausible with magnesium alloy but could deffinitley be confirmed with pure magnesium
 
Send the idea to Mythbusters and let them test the theory. They have better equipment and the knowledge to do it.
 
It takes a lot of heat to get it to burn, but i think a plasma or torch would really light it up. Try burning it with a torch to see....but i wouldn't use a plasma or torch to cut it.
 
There's footage from back in the day of a Navy F-8 Crusader fighter landing on a carrier with a blown main landing gear tire. The tire shreds and the magnesium wheel grinds against the steel deck catching on fire. Next the heat sets off the magnesium landing gear leg and pretty soon that whole side of the bird is on fire.

I know when I was in the Marines the 7051 Crash Fire Rescue guys were trained on magnesium fires because while we don't use it much anymore for the dangers there were older aircraft still around with the magnesium structures.
 
Trust me: magnesium will burn. I've seen people throw VW cases into a raging bonfire and the light the **** gave off made night like it was daytime.
We machine cast magnesium at work and it's a pain in the neck because we have to keep a close eye on it at all time. We had a few magnesium fires.
I think pure magnesium is more flammable that the sand castings.
I don't think water would make the magnesium more flammable, (don't quote me on that because I don't know for sure.) However, at work, we don't use coolant. We use a blast of air instead. Magnesium is more prone to corrosion so you don't want it to get wet.
 
Believe me it burns, a machining center recently burned down at work. Someone accidently? put in our water solulutable cutting fluid instead of the required minerial oil.

We machine military (tank) transmission case from magnesium.

With out a coating of protective oil, the magnesium oxidizes. It's then after this oxidation that the magnesium is really suspectable to a heat source, like a tiny spark from a dull face mill.

Let your little pile of mag. set for a few days with some moisture and then ingnite it. It will burn white hot...
 
You ever see one of these? It is a magnesium bar with a flint on one side. Hell of a fire starter. It dosent matter what kind of weather you are in, you can get a fire going with one.

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water wont help it start burning, but if you put water on it while it is, itll accelerate it. You see it with carfires, some have it in the steering collum/wheel or whatever. As soon as you hit it with water it goes up
 
We have burned VW blocks while camping. We used an oxy acetylene torch to get them started. They are super bright, but you don't want to breathe the smoke.
 
I have burned a few myself and they don't go out, use a torch. I have heard that in the old days on ships when a mag fire would start they basically watch it burn burn through the hull and out the bottom and fix what it burns through.
 
Yeah, from what I remember of my Navy days, you fight a magnesium fire by jettisoning the material that's on fire. :doah:
 
in both high school and college chemistry, we did some lab experiments with the stuff and other chemicals mixed. in one case, we stuck a 5-gallon bucket of water in a vent-hood, and tossed in the lit "magnesium flare". even with eyes closed and looking away, most of us saw white right through our eyelids. the mag flare burned right through the bucket, dumping the water into the hood, and it was still burning. it didn't make it through the slate table of the hood, but it cracked it.
 
The older VW engines were mag alloy. They did burn, they did burn hot. It used to be a fireman's prank to get the newbie to hit it with the firehose and crap his pants as the fire would intensify. It's one of the reasons VW stopped using Magnesium in the engine blocks.

It's fact, not myth, your experiment failed due to "Pilot Error.":haha:
 
BKinzey said:
The older VW engines were mag alloy. They did burn, they did burn hot. It used to be a fireman's prank to get the newbie to hit it with the firehose and crap his pants as the fire would intensify. It's one of the reasons VW stopped using Magnesium in the engine blocks.

It's fact, not myth, your experiment failed due to "Pilot Error.":haha:
Click to expand...
it prolly did fail and if you read what i put in the bottom of the first post was you prolly could cut them with a torch or plasma but i didnt want to be the one to try it
 
let me ask though everythign yall are saying yall have burned was it pure magnesium or was it mag. alloy??
Click to expand...

the strip we used for a fuse was pure, in theory. the flare itself had other goodies in there. homemade gunpowder, for one. we lit the mag with a bunsen burner in HS, and a propane torch in college.
 
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