Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Magnesium Metal from scrapyard

AlphaDecay - 1-4-2014 at 13:30

Does anyone have any idea if I can find magnesium metal in machine, electronic, automobile parts in the scrapyard?

gdflp - 1-4-2014 at 13:47

I doubt you will be able to find the pure metal. Some of the more expensive car manufacturers, porsche, mercedes, bmw etc. use alloys in the engine block and rims, but it will be hard to seperate the steel from it. In this case wikipedia might be helpful http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnesium#Applications

[Edited on 1-4-2014 by gdflp]

hyfalcon - 1-4-2014 at 14:30

Camping store AND Harbor Freight have magnesium fire starters that has a solid block of magnesium in them.

Edit: Damn participle tense!:mad:

[Edited on 1-4-2014 by hyfalcon]

[Edited on 1-4-2014 by hyfalcon]

BobD1001 - 1-4-2014 at 14:38

Alpha, how much magnesium do you need? Also, what is the required purity? I have a 20LB AM50A ingot of magnesium. According to this MSDS http://www.magretechinc.com/pdf/am50a2.pdf, it is approximately 94% magnesium. I have determined that although this may be fine for use as Mg powder for exothermic reactions, and making magnalium, it is not suitable in reactions such as the isolation of elemental potassium. I am located in the US, but if you need a chunk, and dont mind the shipping costs, I can send a pound or so your way (I think a little more than a pound would fit in a small flat rate international box). Sourcing it locally (or even importing from china) may be a much more viable option though since you are in Brazil.

Muffn Man - 1-4-2014 at 14:39

I saw an episode of MacGuyver a long time ago where he got magnesium from wheelchair wheels/spokes. I don't know if the wheels use magnesium in real life but it may be worth checking out.

HgDinis25 - 1-4-2014 at 14:50

Magnesium is used in fire starters like these:
http://www.harborfreight.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/i...
It used to also be used in pencil sharpeners (it's not a myth I've already found two sharpeners made of magnesium):
http://pencils.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/p-11841-kum_so...
For the orther uses, like light car parts, magnesium is usually alloyed with aluminium making it worthless to be used as a metal.

jock88 - 1-4-2014 at 14:51


Anodes from ships may be available?
Are they pure Mg?

BromicAcid - 1-4-2014 at 15:09

It depends on how large a city you live near. When I lived near Detroit of course the scrap yards had the usual lead, copper, iron etc. But the large scrap yards also had more exotic things. I called a local scrap yard to ask about nickel metal and they told me that they had some good purity metal. Upon arrival they had a room full of different types of nickel. I still have a spool of nickel wire (hard to call it wire, probably 1/8 inch thick) that has a few pounds left on it that I used for sodium hydroxide electrolysis. When I asked about what else they had, they had magnesium, that was in the form of something like sheets, not sure what it was originally for or the purity. They also had some tantalum, silver, and other odd ball stuff and told me to come back every few weeks since they hold on to the odd stuff till they get enough. Bottom line, it's worth a try.

ziqquratu - 1-4-2014 at 15:36

Try finding someone who repairs hot water systems. They use magnesium rods as sacrificial anodes to prevent corrosion of the tank.

I found a place who sent me about 2.5kg of offcut Mg rods, seemingly fairly pure except for the small (maybe 4-5mm diameter) steel rod running through the centre (I think it was for mounting the Mg rod in the tank) for the cost of a post satchel.

AlphaDecay - 1-4-2014 at 16:08

Ok, thanks for all the useful information.

BobD1001, sorry but i rather not buy stuff from abroad.

Any information is well received

IrC - 1-4-2014 at 20:59

Quote: Originally posted by BobD1001  
Alpha, how much magnesium do you need? Also, what is the required purity? I have a 20LB AM50A ingot of magnesium. According to this MSDS http://www.magretechinc.com/pdf/am50a2.pdf, it is approximately 94% magnesium. I have determined that although this may be fine for use as Mg powder for exothermic reactions, and making magnalium, it is not suitable in reactions such as the isolation of elemental potassium. I am located in the US, but if you need a chunk, and dont mind the shipping costs, I can send a pound or so your way (I think a little more than a pound would fit in a small flat rate international box). Sourcing it locally (or even importing from china) may be a much more viable option though since you are in Brazil.



Link works fine when you remove the comma at the end.

http://www.magretechinc.com/pdf/am50a2.pdf

Bert - 1-4-2014 at 22:33

A quick and dirty test to separate high Mg alloy scrap from Al: take a wire brush, sandpaper or a file and abrade/clean a small area down to shiny metal. Brush some white vinegar (5% aceric acid) onto the cleaned area, if it bubbles, you've got Mg.

Most scrap Mg will be various high Mg alloys- Not much structural use for the pure metal, too soft.

The structural alloys tend to be tough and quite difficult to turn into powder. If you're sophisticated enough to smelt under inert gas, a 50:50 Mg:Al alloy cast into a cold Iron or steel mould is as brittle as ice, can be broken up with a hammer and then ball milled. If you do, be sure to open the mill jar and let air in every day or less, if you just let it run for a long time without allowing the surface of the particles to oxidize it can be QUITE exciting to open up a jar of pyrophoric Mg powder.

jock88 - 2-4-2014 at 08:53

Mg welding rods

Fantasma4500 - 2-4-2014 at 10:56

this might be of interest

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MAGNESIUM-METAL-1-x-kilo-99-9-pure...

you can if you are lucky find more magnesium per given valuta, but this is a really good price
i ordered 1kg and will try to make it into 2kg MgAl some time


however i recall that motorblocks of specific car brands specified as being magnesium is usuallt 90 10 or around that MgAl

also.. got a 3.5kg magnesium non-salt water ship anode laying around, luckily that thing didnt become part of a recent fire, magnesium is not that easy to get going..

otherwise i recall galliumsource sells magnesium in handy portions