I do a lot of alum welding myself and checked into welding Magnesium but the
process was more than I wanted to invest. What I was told is you need a
sealed vacuum chamber to weld in so that the air bubbles can escape the
metal. Anyhow I have several old engine cases made of Mag, The old VW
air-cooled engines were magnesium, Porsche used a lot of it in there engines
and transmissions, I had some aircraft engine case parts welded that were
also magnesium, its very light weight, strong if its the right alloy and if
its an old part it will be a darker grey in color not shinny like aluminum.
The weight is the big difference, you can really tell when you compare it to
aluminum.

Craig

"tony" wrote in message
...
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