Kaleb
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2010
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I picked up a Swedish Johnsered chainsaw engine a while ago that I decided to tear down for parts. A piece of the centrifugal clutch was turning out to be very tough to remove, so I cut away alot of the half of the combined fuel tank and crankcase casting that was still attached.
It was light for it's size, and cut freely, so I thought it was plain old aluminium.
I cut the material away since I had decided to give it a thermal shock treatment to loosen the part and I didn't want all that metal acting as a heat sink. As I was heating it, part of the crankcase metal started to glow much brighter than the rest. The glow turned white and so bright that I could only look at it directly for a moment at a time. I then knew that it was almost certainly a magnesium alloy.
Water does not put it out, neither does CO2.
So be aware and test a slither of the material before using it with some sort of heat.
It was light for it's size, and cut freely, so I thought it was plain old aluminium.
I cut the material away since I had decided to give it a thermal shock treatment to loosen the part and I didn't want all that metal acting as a heat sink. As I was heating it, part of the crankcase metal started to glow much brighter than the rest. The glow turned white and so bright that I could only look at it directly for a moment at a time. I then knew that it was almost certainly a magnesium alloy.
Water does not put it out, neither does CO2.
So be aware and test a slither of the material before using it with some sort of heat.