Purchasing Magnesium

Landoflemon

Does anybody have any idea where I would get a block of Magnesium for machining?

I can find a plate of it online, but it's tempered (h24 temper) would this make it significantly more difficult to machine?

Turbulent Bill

Landoflemon wrote: »

Does anybody have any idea where I would get a block of Magnesium for machining?

I can find a plate of it online, but it's tempered (h24 temper) would this make it significantly more difficult to machine?

Try one of the specialist metal merchants like Impact, they should be able to advise on the available alloys.

I've no idea what magnesium is like to machine, but some tempered metals are easier to cut than the annealed equivalents. The cutting tools can cleanly cut the harder material, whereas softer metals can clog or give a poor finish.

Landoflemon

Thanks for the suggestion, I just need to figure out what is the appropriate method to prevent the magnesium in it's finished machined state from reacting with water. Perhaps anodising?

Dr conrad murray

you should be able to it from Impact ireland or amari metals Dublin, Be very carefull not to have a magnesium fire! very flammable material
Avoid light dry cuts, keep the coolant flowing, keep a decent chip load. Pretty much machines like aluminum. Anodising seems to be a popular choice for surface protection There are also other options such as Tagnite, MagOxid and Keronite processes.

Landoflemon

Great, thanks for the advice, I'll look into your suggestions. I've come across a lot of those names before. I'll make sure I'm using the correct type of coolant too.