A lot of earlier VW beetle crankcases are magnsium.

tony wrote:

alot of the newer welding books have steps/tips on welding
magnesium.. i'm not so much particularly interested in learning
to weld magnesium as much as wondering what kind of parts
are typically made of magnesium. steel i can recognize.. but
perhaps i'm mistaking magnesium as something else... say, cast
aluminum.

i occasionally get work to weld unknown aluminum castings..
when they dont weld, i attribute it to being and 'unweldable
aluminum alloy' ... (i get good results welding aluminum otherwise)

but maybe its magnesium? and i should start learning how
to weld it.

so the question is: what's magnesium usually used for?
i must be used abundantly enough to warrant sections in welding
texts.. usually bigger chapters than welding titanium, for example.

and how do i identify it?

aside from the fact that WELDING magnesium sounds
downright dangerous after all the commotion in my highschool
chemistry class, watching it explode into flames.

thanks,
-tony