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:


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.