Mag Alloy Wheels, Any good for home casting?

[DickDastardly40]

I have 4 mag alloy wheels (2 damaged don't ask), which are gathering cobwebs and I wondered if they would be any good for melting and casting for those that are into such practises.

They are no good to me, I do not intend to go into back yard casting, however if they are considered good for making other stuff out of I'll offer them to those as can use them. If not to the scrappie they'll go!

I would guess that they were lacquered, would this be a problem?

TIA

Al

 

[Alphawolf45]

All the 'Mag' wheels I have drug in here have been a good grade of aluminum and are excellent to melt down and re-cast..Paint and oil or bits of steel are no problem, separated easily in the crucible..

 

[georgeseal]

Way back in the deep dark recesses of my head :-\ I think I remember that you file some filings of suspected Mag. sprinkle this into the flame of propane torch. If it becomes a light show don't mess with it.

 

[Bernd]

Right you are George. I believe that's one reason they were called Mag's. They were or had magnesium in their make up.

Bernd

 

[Classic]

I think you may find that "mags" has become a generic term for alloy wheels. It's worth doing the "filings in the flame" test, but I think you'll find that most modern road wheels are just aluminium alloy. Racing wheels may indeed have a high magnesium content. Old Volkswagen air cooled engines had high magnesium content. If the engine became hot enough, it could catch fire and destroy the car.

The original concept of alloy wheels was to reduce unsprung mass in the suspension system, allowing tyres to follow the road surface more easily. This may still be the case for racing wheels, but many road wheels are now purely decorative, and have almost as much mass as steel wheels.

 

[DickDastardly40]

Worth it to ask and check then, I'll give the filings thing a go over the long weekend. That said if it is hazardous, how did they cast them in the first place? Carefully I guess.

FWIW the wheels are 255 x 17s and if they were steel I think they'd be substantially heavier, I only called them mag alloys as a generic term as I thought all alloy wheels had magnesium in. 2 still have the tyres on. The car was registered in '96 if this assists in whether any magnesium is likely in the content. Maybe a picture later.

Thanks for your help so far.

Al

 

[Alphawolf45]

Friend of mine who owns a couple Stihl chainsaw dealerships gave me some old Stihl cases that I melted down ..They are magnesium..Granted they blaze white and look spooky when in the pot but the metal pours and sets up about like aluminum.. I have pictures somewhere that I show I poured some magnesium out on the gravel and it blazed white for long enough for me to run into the house and get the digicam and snap some pictures...I dont know for sure but think a hobbiest could make good castings with it, I just have the ingots that I poured..Very lightweight alloy..Interesting stuff.

 

[Circlip]

A number of years ago, one had the need to roughly check as to whether the crankcase of a big Mercury outboard was Mag Alum or Alum Mag. Previous owner had skimped on the oil quantity in mix at which point one of the rods had decided to exit the lower part of the crankcase. British agents for the big M wanted about £300 ($600, mid seventies) at that time for a new crankcase, so the obvious way to repair was to have the "Hole" welded up. This was the problem, would the lump disappear in a burning white fire???? Thus MA or AM! Broke a bit off and attacked it with a blowlamp, - it just sat there glowing red. Welder reassured, saved myself £290 Regards Ian.

 

[Tin Falcon]

Dick
The wheels are likely a good grade of aluminum .Magnesium tends to be a darker shade of gray as it oxidizes.
As far as commercial casting they may use a inert atmosphere. Magnesium can be welded with a TIG outfit. I did it in tech school. Welding mag is fun strike the arc stick the tungsten into the puddle and drag along the filler rod. Just do not forget to turn the cover gas on.
Tin

 

[John S]

Dick,
I regularly weld these up for a local company who specialise in refurbishing alloy wheels.
Never found one mag wheel amongst the ones I have done.
Note all the welding is on the bead seal and not on spokes or stressed components. They crack bad if curbed.

Did an Audi one the other week, nothing fancy about it but a new one was £650 without the tyre :-\

.

 

[Metal Mickey]

Worth it to ask and check then, I'll give the filings thing a go over the long weekend. That said if it is hazardous, how did they cast them in the first place? Carefully I guess.

FWIW the wheels are 255 x 17s and if they were steel I think they'd be substantially heavier, I only called them mag alloys as a generic term as I thought all alloy wheels had magnesium in. 2 still have the tyres on. The car was registered in '96 if this assists in whether any magnesium is likely in the content. Maybe a picture later.

Thanks for your help so far.

Al

Dick, my best advice is............take the tyres off the two you have before melting... :big:

 

[sparky961]

In my ever-increasing casting experience, there's no such thing as "bad" aluminum to cast. I've only run into problems when I tried doing my own ad-hock alloying. The most recent experience was about 30% brass and the rest aluminum. It resulted in a heavy lump of metal that was as brittle as glass.

When I was first learning about casting, I read a recommendation that alloys should be selected based on their original manufacturing method. In the case of alloy wheels, they're cast, and anything cast should cast well a number of times over.

Oddly enough, I find that aluminum extrusions produce very nice castings as well. It just takes a lot longer to feed them all into the fire. That said, something like a wheel is hard work to break down into manageable chunks for melting.

-Sparky

 

[itowbig]

Oddly enough, I find that aluminum extrusions produce very nice castings as well. It just takes a lot longer to feed them all into the fire. That said, something like a wheel is hard work to break down into manageable chunks for melting.

-Sparky

just run them over with a dozer they will break up nicely

 

[doubleboost]

I do a lot of aluminium welding at work alloy wheels are usually welded with a 10%mag filler rod
Extrudes alloy with 10% silicon
I once welded some magnesium racing car suspension hub carriers (the filings burned in a flame) they welded no problem using magnesium filler rod and plenty of argon (you need to weld in a box with a pure argon purge as well as the normal tig gas feed)
John