aluminum or not? simple method to tell?
 

I have someone trying to collect aluminum for recycling and he is
asking me if this is aluminum or not? If I tell him that whenever a
magnet does not stick to metal, it is aluminum? At least with a 95%
accuracy for junk around a farm?

aluminum or not? simple method to tell?
 

PS
there are a couple of japanese junked cars, are the so called aluminum
head really aluminum? he could recycle them for some change.

aluminum or not? simple method to tell?
 

"NN" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have someone trying to collect aluminum for recycling and he is
asking me if this is aluminum or not? If I tell him that whenever a
magnet does not stick to metal, it is aluminum? At least with a 95%
accuracy for junk around a farm?

Purt nigh. It won't be magnesium. OTOH if there's a 'nuclear' symbol on the
outside all bets are off.

aluminum or not? simple method to tell?
 

Copper, tin, lead, and other metals are non-magnetic and so are many alloys
such as "stainless steel." Also, metals such as nickel are only weakly
magnetic.

aluminum or not? simple method to tell?
 

In article ,
"Charles Schuler" wrote:

Copper, tin, lead, and other metals are non-magnetic and so are many alloys
such as "stainless steel." Also, metals such as nickel are only weakly
magnetic.

Canadian nickels used to be about 95% pure nickel and they stuck to
magnets just fine.

Isaac

aluminum or not? simple method to tell?
 

"isw" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Charles Schuler" wrote:

Copper, tin, lead, and other metals are non-magnetic and so are many
alloys
such as "stainless steel." Also, metals such as nickel are only weakly
magnetic.

Canadian nickels used to be about 95% pure nickel and they stuck to
magnets just fine.

Still are and do.

aluminum or not? simple method to tell?
 

"Charles Schuler" wrote in message
. ..
Copper, tin, lead, and other metals are non-magnetic and so are many
alloys such as "stainless steel." Also, metals such as nickel are only
weakly magnetic.

Ally is soft, so gouges easily, light, white, non-magnetic, has a dull sound
when you hit it, and won't solder to with regular solder. Old ally will
usually sport some white powdery oxide corrosion, and exposed surfaces may
well have characteristic pock marked surfaces. If the scrap is painted, or
has not been exposed to the elements, then its a lot harder to tell. There's
not much scrap pure ally out there, because it's not a very useful metal. It
fatigues easily and is generally not very strong or resistant to
deformation, and is too soft. It can be made a lot more useful by alloying
it with other metals, which I guess does affect scrap value, as the wanted
ally would have to be seperated out from the other metals.

Arfa

aluminum or not? simple method to tell?
 

Arfa Daily wrote:
"Charles Schuler" wrote in message
. ..
Copper, tin, lead, and other metals are non-magnetic and so are many
alloys such as "stainless steel." Also, metals such as nickel are only
weakly magnetic.

Ally is soft, so gouges easily, light, white, non-magnetic, has a dull sound
when you hit it, and won't solder to with regular solder. Old ally will
usually sport some white powdery oxide corrosion, and exposed surfaces may
well have characteristic pock marked surfaces. If the scrap is painted, or
has not been exposed to the elements, then its a lot harder to tell. There's
not much scrap pure ally out there, because it's not a very useful metal. It
fatigues easily and is generally not very strong or resistant to
deformation, and is too soft. It can be made a lot more useful by alloying
it with other metals, which I guess does affect scrap value, as the wanted
ally would have to be seperated out from the other metals.

Arfa

There are a lot of alloys out there as you said, lead and copper is
easily identified without a magnet. The alloys don,t rust but do what
you described. Some are much stronger than others yet slightly
brittle. I saw a alloy once that melted before lead did. I guess
one has to take another approach and ask the recycler if alloys are a
issue.

aluminum or not? simple method to tell?
 

"NN" wrote in message
ps.com...

Arfa Daily wrote:
"Charles Schuler" wrote in message
. ..
Copper, tin, lead, and other metals are non-magnetic and so are many
alloys such as "stainless steel." Also, metals such as nickel are only
weakly magnetic.

Ally is soft, so gouges easily, light, white, non-magnetic, has a dull
sound
when you hit it, and won't solder to with regular solder. Old ally will
usually sport some white powdery oxide corrosion, and exposed surfaces
may
well have characteristic pock marked surfaces. If the scrap is painted,
or
has not been exposed to the elements, then its a lot harder to tell.
There's
not much scrap pure ally out there, because it's not a very useful metal.
It
fatigues easily and is generally not very strong or resistant to
deformation, and is too soft. It can be made a lot more useful by
alloying
it with other metals, which I guess does affect scrap value, as the
wanted
ally would have to be seperated out from the other metals.

Arfa

There are a lot of alloys out there as you said, lead and copper is
easily identified without a magnet. The alloys don,t rust but do what
you described. Some are much stronger than others yet slightly
brittle. I saw a alloy once that melted before lead did. I guess
one has to take another approach and ask the recycler if alloys are a
issue.


I've seen this stuff too. I think it's called Wood's Metal. I don't know
what actual metals make up the alloy though. Two places I know that they use
it are as the safety plug in a pressure cooker lid, and as the hold-off bar
in fire sprinkler systems, both cases where a very low melting temperature
is required.

Arfa

aluminum or not? simple method to tell?
 

"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
...

I've seen this stuff too. I think it's called Wood's Metal. I don't know
what actual metals make up the alloy though. Two places I know that they
use it are as the safety plug in a pressure cooker lid, and as the
hold-off bar in fire sprinkler systems, both cases where a very low
melting temperature is required.

IIRC it's also used for some molding processes - and in the toy "Metal
Molder".

aluminum or not? simple method to tell?
 

In article om,
NN wrote:
there are a couple of japanese junked cars, are the so called aluminum
head really aluminum? he could recycle them for some change.

Ordinary car cylinder heads if not cast iron are likely to be aluminium
alloy.

--
*Honk if you love peace and quiet*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

aluminum or not? simple method to tell?
 

"Homer J Simpson" wrote in message
news:8WuHg.18554$tP4.4413@clgrps12...

"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
...

I've seen this stuff too. I think it's called Wood's Metal. I don't know
what actual metals make up the alloy though. Two places I know that they
use it are as the safety plug in a pressure cooker lid, and as the
hold-off bar in fire sprinkler systems, both cases where a very low
melting temperature is required.

IIRC it's also used for some molding processes - and in the toy "Metal
Molder".

OK. I've just looked it up. It's 50% bismuth, 25% lead, 12.5% tin and 12.5%
cadmium, so I suppose that has now spelt its death as a useful material ...
With lead and cadmium in it, ( and I don't know what the potential toxicity
of bismuth is, but it *sounds* dangerous ... ) as soon as the
"do-gooder-just-look-at-how-much-we-are-poisoning-ourselves-and-the-planet"
brigade realise that it exists, they'll lump it in with solder and ban it
.... Just as a matter of interest, it melts at 70 deg C, but I suppose that
the half-arsed alternative that they'll come up with, will be twice as
difficult to make, twice as difficult to work with, three times as
expensive, and have a melting point at least 30 deg higher. Some say I am a
cynic ...

Arfa

aluminum or not? simple method to tell?
 

Arfa Daily wrote:
"Homer J Simpson" wrote in message
news:8WuHg.18554$tP4.4413@clgrps12...

"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
...

I've seen this stuff too. I think it's called Wood's Metal. I don't know
what actual metals make up the alloy though. Two places I know that they
use it are as the safety plug in a pressure cooker lid, and as the
hold-off bar in fire sprinkler systems, both cases where a very low
melting temperature is required.

IIRC it's also used for some molding processes - and in the toy "Metal
Molder".

OK. I've just looked it up. It's 50% bismuth, 25% lead, 12.5% tin and 12.5%
cadmium, so I suppose that has now spelt its death as a useful material ...
With lead and cadmium in it, ( and I don't know what the potential toxicity
of bismuth is, but it *sounds* dangerous ... )

Bismuth is no problem, you can even drink it by the gallon, and do if
you take lots of "Pepto-Bismol".

The lead you probably don't want to chew on, the Tin isnt too bad, but
the cadmium you certainly don't want to mess with.

aluminum or not? simple method to tell?
 

"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
...

OK. I've just looked it up. It's 50% bismuth, 25% lead, 12.5% tin and
12.5% cadmium, so I suppose that has now spelt its death as a useful
material ... With lead and cadmium in it, ( and I don't know what the
potential toxicity of bismuth is, but it *sounds* dangerous ... ) as soon
as the
"do-gooder-just-look-at-how-much-we-are-poisoning-ourselves-and-the-planet"
brigade realise that it exists, they'll lump it in with solder and ban it

There are low temp non toxic metal alloys.

aluminum or not? simple method to tell?
 

Arfa Daily wrote:
Some say I am a
cynic ...

Shirley not!

Ron(UK)

aluminum or not? simple method to tell?
 

"Ron(UK)" wrote in message
...
Arfa Daily wrote:
Some say I am a
cynic ...

Shirley not!

Ron(UK)

I don't get that .... Am I missing something here ... ?

Arfa