CycloRook
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Magnesium Powder
I hate working with magnesium turning.
Does anyone have a source for reagent (not alloyed) magnesium powder that doesn't require you to buy from sigma.
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B(a)P
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You can get 20 mesh from Chemcraft.
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macckone
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unitednuclear.com
I personally buy bulk metal or ribbon and powder it in a rock tumbler.
You have to let air in every few hours.
Do not leave running unattended.
There are many stories of explosions with magnesium powder, granules are a good alternative to turnings.
If you are making grignard reagent, the really fine stuff is too reactive.
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CycloRook
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Quote: Originally posted by macckone  | unitednuclear.com
I personally buy bulk metal or ribbon and powder it in a rock tumbler.
You have to let air in every few hours.
Do not leave running unattended.
There are many stories of explosions with magnesium powder, granules are a good alternative to turnings.
If you are making grignard reagent, the really fine stuff is too reactive. |
my God that would be bad.
Do you have a recommendation for stuff that not too fine.
The above mentioned 20 mesh would that work ?
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Texium
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What do you hate about working with magnesium turnings?
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SplendidAcylation
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| Quote: Originally posted by macckone | unitednuclear.com
I personally buy bulk metal or ribbon and powder it in a rock tumbler.
You have to let air in every few hours.
Do not leave running unattended.
There are many stories of explosions with magnesium powder, granules are a good alternative to turnings.
If you are making grignard reagent, the really fine stuff is too reactive. |
Why do you have to let air in?
Magnesium ribbon has an advantage over granules, powder, or turnings, which is that you can use sandpaper on it to remove oxidation (take this with a
pinch of salt, I guess, my one attempt at a Grignard was a failure)
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CycloRook
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You have to get the egg stirrer started it makes a
bunch of noise getting the turning into a 24/40 is annoying they get jammed the reaction takes forever.
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crow6283
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A short period of time in an ultrasonic bath helps kicking them off, and/or a little tiny iodine crystal.
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macckone
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| Quote: Originally posted by SplendidAcylation | | Quote: Originally posted by macckone | unitednuclear.com
I personally buy bulk metal or ribbon and powder it in a rock tumbler.
You have to let air in every few hours.
Do not leave running unattended.
There are many stories of explosions with magnesium powder, granules are a good alternative to turnings.
If you are making grignard reagent, the really fine stuff is too reactive. |
Why do you have to let air in?
Magnesium ribbon has an advantage over granules, powder, or turnings, which is that you can use sandpaper on it to remove oxidation (take this with a
pinch of salt, I guess, my one attempt at a Grignard was a failure) |
If you don't let air in, when it does get exposed to air it immediately ignites. UV flash bang type ignites. It can and has caused severe injury.
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macckone
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| Quote: Originally posted by CycloRook | | Quote: Originally posted by macckone | unitednuclear.com
I personally buy bulk metal or ribbon and powder it in a rock tumbler.
You have to let air in every few hours.
Do not leave running unattended.
There are many stories of explosions with magnesium powder, granules are a good alternative to turnings.
If you are making grignard reagent, the really fine stuff is too reactive. |
my God that would be bad.
Do you have a recommendation for stuff that not too fine.
The above mentioned 20 mesh would that work ? |
20 mesh is good.
United nuclear sells 35 mesh which is also good.
finer than 60 mesh is going to be too reactive for uses other than pyrotechnics.
For reference 60 mesh has 8 times the surface area of 35 mesh.
Wheat flour is about 70 mesh.
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CycloRook
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| Quote: Originally posted by macckone | | Quote: Originally posted by CycloRook | | Quote: Originally posted by macckone | unitednuclear.com
I personally buy bulk metal or ribbon and powder it in a rock tumbler.
You have to let air in every few hours.
Do not leave running unattended.
There are many stories of explosions with magnesium powder, granules are a good alternative to turnings.
If you are making grignard reagent, the really fine stuff is too reactive. |
my God that would be bad.
Do you have a recommendation for stuff that not too fine.
The above mentioned 20 mesh would that work ? |
20 mesh is good.
United nuclear sells 35 mesh which is also good.
finer than 60 mesh is going to be too reactive for uses other than pyrotechnics.
For reference 60 mesh has 8 times the surface area of 35 mesh.
Wheat flour is about 70 mesh.
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I have a supplier with 325 mesh. Can I use this for grignard if I do a slow addition and control temp or
is it just simply too reactive?
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CycloRook
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Sigma is advertising this for grignard reactions so I would assume it's ok to use.
 
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Metallophile
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I bought some magnesium turnings on ebay, and it actually ended up being powder. Not sure if that was a mistake, or they wanted to avoid mentioning
it? It was fine with me though.
Edit: It was called "magnesium shavings"
[Edited on 4/20/2022 by Metallophile]
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CycloRook
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| Quote: Originally posted by Metallophile | I bought some magnesium turnings on ebay, and it actually ended up being powder. Not sure if that was a mistake, or they wanted to avoid mentioning
it? It was fine with me though.
Edit: It was called "magnesium shavings"
[Edited on 4/20/2022 by Metallophile] |
Did you use it for a grignard?
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Metallophile
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No, I was attempting Nurdrage's menthol sodium production method.
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SWIM
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| Quote: Originally posted by Metallophile | I bought some magnesium turnings on ebay, and it actually ended up being powder. Not sure if that was a mistake, or they wanted to avoid mentioning
it? It was fine with me though.
Edit: It was called "magnesium shavings"
[Edited on 4/20/2022 by Metallophile] |
Some vendors just don't give a damn about accurate descriptions.
They figure most people won't bother to return the stuff.
Some of these vendors might not even understand the difference between what they're selling and how they're describing it.
This makes finding a vendor who knows what he's talking about and makes an effort to describe his products accurately tough sometimes.
When you find a good one remember who he is and treasure him.
A big warning sign is posts that are just overloaded with search terms: Magnesium powder granule turnings lump re-sublimed pure fireworks firestarter
grignard.
A post like this really means, "I don't know or care what I have. Buy it, suckers!"
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Fantasma4500
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isnt it possible to use magnesium-aluminium alloy? you can just bash that into powder with a hammer effortlessly
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Triflic Acid
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I can personally attest to united nuclears:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08ZGBBG82/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
There wasn't a fire, we just had an uncontrolled rapid oxidation event at the power plant.
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