Milling aluminum

[Spatula Tzar]

I'm trying to make some aluminum powder. I started with a bunch of lathe turnings, cut into ~1cm segments. I've been milling it for a few days with steel ball bearings, but it's not working. The inside of the drum is now impregnated with shiny silver dust, but there is next to no loose powder. The turnings are still intact, though rounded from the impact.

What's going wrong? Are the turnings simply too big to mill? Is it a bad alloy (I'm not sure what it is)? Too much/too little media/aluminum? Should I switch to aluminum foil?

[nuclearrabbit]

Smash 'em with a hammer. Causes structural fractures, makes smaller pieces, and lets you vent some aggression.

The method, IIRC, Zero used was Al foil and white gas in a blender. Milling after that would be a lot less of a chore.

[944]

Block of aluminum and a file?

[King Owl]

acid powdering FTW

[delusional_reality]

acid powdering FTW

You mean precipitating Al out of a solution by reducing an Aluminium salt- like AlCl3 in solution? What reducing agent do you use for that because adding a magnesium block or something is Pretty wasteful!

[nuclearrabbit]

Mg firestarters are fairly inexpensive. To recover the magnesium just add a more loosely bound Li salt. :p

I used a coarse metal file and flattened drink cans to create approximately one gram Al filings per fifteen minutes of work.

[Minotaur]

Or you could just get 50% aluminum and 50% magnesium, melt it together, then when it dries you get magnalium. If you hit magnalium with a hammer it will shatter into a million pieces. It's easy to make a powder with, and it is comparable in power for pyrotechnics to magnesium.

[eesakiwi]

Ask at some engineering welding places for any old MIG rolls of Ali wire, sometimes they have squashed ones or ones that got wet.
Then ask for any worn out tungsten carbide lathe tips, they are heavy & sharp & will grind the ali apart.
Ball bearings are just going to polish it.

[eesakiwi]

Or you could just get 50% aluminum and 50% magnesium, melt it together, then when it dries you get magnalium. If you hit magnalium with a hammer it will shatter into a million pieces. It's easy to make a powder with, and it is comparable in power for pyrotechnics to magnesium.
Thats what I needed to know, I have a sack of old magnesium moter parts.

[007GoldenShower]

Aluminium.

[King Owl]

Thats what I needed to know, I have a sack of old magnesium moter parts.

If I remember correctly, VW used to make their transmission and engine cases out of almost pure magnesium.

[Minotaur]

If I remember correctly, VW used to make their transmission and engine cases out of almost pure magnesium.

You are correct. If you tried to put them out with water, it would just explode more.

Magnalium ftw though.

[eesakiwi]

If I put some copper in it would it burn green/blue?
I was thinking of putting it on a beach & connecting a electric fence wire to it & shooting the other end up into the air with a potato gun during a lightening storm.
Remotely.

[tariel]

Since powdered aluminium is hard to come by in the UK, I found this while looking for a way to make my own. The method seems good, but I'm not too sure about leaving it milling for so long without opening the container periodicly.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-German-Dark-Aluminum-Powder/