Tag Archives: thermite

Monday night – thermite

Diane is out of town for the evening so Gabe and I had a quiet meal and decided to do the only guy;s night thing we could think of. We interrupted homework (mine and his) to run outside and melt a hole in some scrap metal with a thermite bomb. Thermite is a combination of iron oxide and aluminum dust that makes an intense 2500 degree C ..

THermite is fun stuff it works like this

Fe2O3 + 2 Al → 2 Fe + Al2O3

 

here’s gabe mixing the iron oxide and aluminum

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we through in a few screws to melt too

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in goes the magnesium ribboon to ligh the stuff

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we wanted to see if we could bunr through an empty acetone can ..

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gabe torched the magnesium and quickly got out of the way.

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whooooosh !IMG_5324

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what was left was a gooey mass of molten metal tht took about 15 minutes to cool IMG_5343 IMG_5346

here it is still glowing about 10 minutes later. IMG_5347 IMG_5349

the molten metal burned right through the top.. IMG_5350

here’s a pool of iron IMG_5352 IMG_5353 IMG_5354 IMG_5356

and two of the welded screws. the others had vansihed IMG_5357

pretty fun !.. now back to homework !

nite all, nite sam

-me