In a message dated 4/8/01 4:13:55 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
bheigher@yahoo.com writes:
<< Some powdered metals are flammable for sure. I set a
small accumulation of powder on fire once when I was
grinding on a chainsaw handle with a Dremel sanding
drum. It burned hot and fast plus it wasn't real easy
to extinguish. Barry >>
That might have been magnesium dust, some of the pot metals have a high
content of magnesium in them, and once it starts burning, very hard to put
out! Air force jets have mag wheels on them, and when they blow tires and
catch fire, the crews used to push the planes overboard, as the hot magnesium
landing gear ( used for it's strength and light weight, like chain saw cases,
etc ) would burn clear thru the deck if left on the deck! This is true, not
sure how they deal with it now with mega-million fighters today, maybe they
have an exotic extinguishing system...I'll have to ask my military contractor
friend about it. even race cars used to burn the mag wheels when tires blew,
and the rims got scraped at 200+ mph. Not much chance of that happening to
our old trucks, though. :)
Jerry
making progress on vehicles, hope to see '55 Suburban at home this year...
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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