20 replies to this topic

[Dan]

i was thinking this morning on my way to work about making spark effects with things i have around the house and it dawned on me that i might be able to use steel wool in place if iron fileings. would this work or would i just be wasting my time?
thx
Dan

[paul]

It works, but steelwool is not coated most of the time. So it readily reacts with water that may be present in the mixture. So treat your steelwool with linseed oil for example.

[Dan]

cool i guess i wil try it as i dont want to place an order for iron fileings untill i need to make a bigger order (save on the shipping )
BTW i almost forgot. i was planning on maybe using the iron filings in a rocket. i dont have a spindle yet so for now i just drill out a core at the lowest speed setting on my drill press. i was wondering if it is alright to drill into a rocket containing iron filings with a normal drill bit. i saw on dan williams page for the fountian that he drilled into the end of it and it contained iron. but i just wont to make sure before i do so as i dont feel like getting burned or losing fingers.
thx
Dan

Edited by Dan, 21 July 2004 - 08:53 PM.

[Phoenix]

I haven't tried personally, but I seem to remember reading that reducing steel wool to any sort of powder or granules is something of a bother. The way I get my Fe filings is to drill holes in cast iron with a large bit and drill press. I found a thick slab of cast iron in a heap of junk by a road, and it's not too hard to come by. It is soft and easy to drill through, but it is also somewhat brittle (not sufficiently so to break up with a hammer, unfortunately) so instead of long strands of swarf, the result is small flakes, which are easily broken up into filings. I then heated these in a frying pan and added +5% of candle wax. I made about 150g of iron filings in about an hour like this - not great, but good enough for my needs, and at absolutely negligable cost.

Drilling into such a composition is risky, and if you were to you would be much better doing it by hand, rather than with a drill press, and of course wearing leather gloves and goggles.

Edited by Phoenix, 22 July 2004 - 03:37 PM.

[Dan]

COOL thx phoenix. that is a very good idea. i totally forgot about cast iron and i think i have some lying around the house. What is the best way to crush it though?
Also what size drill bit do u recomend? 1/2" or 3/8"?
thx
Dan

[chemicalwazi]

A great place to get Iron Filings is your local steelwork or fabricating business, they have piles and piles on the floor for sweeping. Although they do need sieving to get the big turnings out :-)

[paul]

Paint Shops sell iron fillings, too. If you sieve them, you get medium coarse and fine iron fillings. My paint shop sells iron fillings in 0-315? (all together). You can wash them in alcohol to "purify" them. After you have done that, treat them with 4% linseed oil and you?re fine.

[Phoenix]

I just forced it through about a 15 mesh sieve. Most fell through, but the remainder just needed rubbing through with a spoon. Alternatively, a pestle and mortar, or a few minutes ball milling, would make short work of them, I'm sure.

I used a 10mm (3/8") drill bit, as that was the largest I had, but obviousy a larger drill bit will produce iron filings faster, assuming you had a sufficiently powerful drill press (mine is 350 Watts). I noticed that at higher speeds, finer iron filings semed to be produced, but I used the lowest speed to stop the bit heating up, and as I wanted the coarser filings (my alloy seems very ignitable, and even the largest flakes are ignited by BP or a butane torch).

A friend of mine's parents own an engineering firm, and I've looked around there for suitable material on several occasions, but have never found any, as they seem to deal almost exclusively with stainless and mild steel, so the waste from machining that is in the form of tough, razor sharp, metre long ribbons. Their saws are all of the abrasive disc variety, rather than steel blade, so the waste from them is already oxidised (ie they throw off sparks as they cut, rather than iron "sawdust").

I wasn't aware of being able to get iron filings from paint shops, so I'll look into that. Any idea what their intended use is, so that I know where to look?

I had considered making my own iron alloy optimised for my own use. I have read that before people built furnaces large enough to conveneintly melt iron, it was still possible to make it, as iron oxide can be reduced without actually needing to melt the iron. If you just pack a crucible with iron oxide and carbon in the correct quantities, then put it in a hot fire, you will be left with a brittle, spongey mass of high carbon iron - which is what I want, as high carbon = bright sparks, and brittle = easy to smash up.

Edited by Phoenix, 23 July 2004 - 05:26 PM.

[Dan]

that gives me an idea i could use iron that is produced by thermite that would go into a mould and then just drill it into filings. but that is just a pain and not to mention sortof expensive. i gues i will just use cast iron.
thx Phoenix
Dan

[miniskinny]

Hm. Well, as you may know, I have fairly sufficient Fe filings, and I'm looking to turn them into red iron oxide for thermite. Anyone know how? Also, how well does Dark Aluminum Pyro (600mesh) work for thermite?

[paul]

Why making Fe into Fe2O3, when you can buy that stuff for about 3euros/kilo?

but if you really want to do that, just remove everything from the Iron: Oil and the other stuff. Then it is "quite reactive". Wetten it at regular intervals and you?ll get Fe2O3. But you get Fe(OH)3, too. And to clean that stuff you got throught the slow oxidation is not worth the efford..........

just buy it...it?s cheap as hell

[miniskinny]

Could you just oxidise an Iron bar into Iron Oxide, by putting it onto an electric grinding stone, and collect the sparks in a water basin? That's how I make most of my powders, but I catch the metal powder before it has any time to oxidise. And could Dark Aluminum powder be used for Thermite? (it's 600 mesh)

[neo]

I would recommend that you drill by hand, then you don?t get up in that high RPM and then it doesn?t produce much heat.

[evilgecko]

My way of making iron fillings is with a rough file, it is a very long and hard process. Has ayone tryied using a grinding wheel. The guard on them would catch all the grains of iron, unless the oxidized first?

[miniskinny]

That's what I was just saying. You can catch the sparks in a water basin directly below where they are ground (DIRECTLY below), and you won't have a problem with sparks. You can make aluminum filings this way, very quickly. I made 10 grams in about 10 minutes; Not really good time, but faster than ball-milling aluminum foil