Magnesium Firestarters

They sell it at gun shows. I have a round piece of magnesium that I used to turn with a lathe (for the two weeks when I had a lathe) top make shavings.

I personally like kerosene for starting campfires. Works great every time.

Old Volkswagen engine blocks were made from magnesium. I have a friend who has the dubious honor of being the only guy in history to ever get banned from Alta Lake State Park in eastern Washington. His misdemeanor? He brought a stripped VW block and put it in his campfire to see what would happen. When it ignited, it made an eyeball-searing blast of light that must have been most dramatic to judge by the behavior of the local law enforcement officials. Yet it was done legally - after all, everyone makes campfires and fireplaces are for flammable substances. He didn't go to jail but he did get thrown out of that park and banned for life. :-)

You could buy an old VW block ..

Grant

Man... WHY did you tell me this... I really didn't need to know this... The temptation is HUGE...

So... Is the brightness damaging to the human eye? I've got a big public meeting this weekend with the local police seargent and fire chief attending... Could be fun.

Regards, Joe Agro, Jr. (800) 871-5022

You can do it with any chunk of magnesium.

I have a couple old prts around, that I use for that.

The real advantage to the firestarter ones is that the "flint" is attached.

They are no help at all, if you do not have them, though.

There is a technique to getting the correct shavings to use. Too coarse, and they do not ignige very well at all. Good to have tried this out in good conditions, so you have, at least, one less thing to figure out by trial and error when it could kill you.

Cheers Trevor Jones

When my VW hatchback caught on fire (highway) the fire department came out and just watched. Well, they did play the water hose on the front end of the car to keep the gas tank cool, but I was told that the engine will just have to burn itself out. Water would not help on Volkswagens. Magnesium!!

Ivan Vegvary

Those fire starter blocks are available at most camping / outdoors stores. They have a flint type rod embedded in one side so you only need a knife. Scrape some chips off the other side with the knife and then use the flint side to ignite. Pretty cheap and work well. Really bright and hot flame, but really brief fro a tiny pile of shavings, probably equivalent to flashing yourself with a photo strobe.

We had magnesium "ribbon" back in high school... about 1/8 wide and maybe 30' on a roll. You could just tear of a bunch of little pieces and light them with a spark from a welding striker. I see that United Nuclear still sells it, with this warning: "Do not stare directly at burning Magnesium fires, they are extremely bright and rich in UV light - Eye damage can result."

Oh man... I think I could easily get myself put on the FBI's watch list with what I'd love to order and play with from that web site...

Check the camping section of walmart. I bought one there a few years ago.

Wes

Now that's what I want to do... In the middle of a field this weekend.

Looks like they used powdered magnesium or chips. I doubt that was a VW engine block. :)

Sure. I've done it scraping the tubular handle of a lightweight magnesium landscaping rake. Odd chunks are on eBay all the time. I have 1/8" magnesium welding rods from aerospace surplus.

I'm skeptical of the engine block tales. Large pieces don't ignite since they have little surface area. The 1/8" welding rods self-extinguish if you light them. They'll only maintain burning if you hammer them into a flatter ribbon shape. And weren't the engine blocks an Mg-Al alloy?

If a magnesium engine block actually did get going, water on the other end of the car wouldn't keep the gas tank from going up too.

Hi Richard

The VW engine blocks are made from an alloy of aluminum and magnisium, probably other components too. The actual alloy has varied over the years. A good way to get a complete case half to ignite is to put it in a burning tire (or two). I strongly recommend doing that outside. The blaze from even half a VW case burning is something that will get your attention, even from far away.

Jerry

Outdoor stores sell magnesium fire starter kits in the camping section.

Steve R.

Check around the local VW shops. I've gotten busted blocks for hauling them away. VW blocks are not even close to pure magnesium. Lots of aluminum in them. Shavings from milling VW blocks will burn, and you can get a block lit by tossing it in the middle of a big bonfire. Once it gets going you can get some pretty good light bursts off of it by putting a stream of water on it with a garden hose.

You want something spectacular, take a walnut size chunk of metallic sodium and toss it in a big puddle at night. Takes a bit for it to get to critical heat, but when it goes you want to be standing back a ways.

Bill

You have been watching too many movies.

A gas tank goes whoof.

No big fireball or anything like in the movies...

Umm, yes, I saw a VW Microbus on fire some years ago, and after parking a safe distance away, I walked back, arriving about the same time as a bunch of fire engines. The firemen stood around, watching it burn, and getting out a few hoses. Somebody asked me why they weren't putting it out, and I told them the engine block or transmission (I didn't know which) was magnesium, and it can cause an "explosion" if you put water on burning magnesium. Eventually, another department rolled up with a 5 gallon bromine foam canister, and one guy sprayed the foam on the engine while the other guys kept him doused. When the foam ran out, the other two guys hit the engine full blast with two booster hoses. There was a HUGE blue-white flash, totally amazing, and a bunch of glowing metal crashed to the ground, leaving big craters in the pavement. Once the magnesium was cooled off, the rest of the fire was put out in about 3 seconds.

I'm not sure what would have happened if they sprayed water on the engine without the foam first, but it probably would have been even more spectacular.

A friend of mine tried this with a little powdered magnesium in his dorm room a longer time ago, and then splashed some water on it. he ended up paying for new floor tile in the room.

Jon

Well, it takes a good fire to get it started. A small electrical spark can't possibly do it, but a welding arc will. VW Microbusses had the gas tank RIGHT NEXT to the engine, between the firewall and the cooling air plenum. A little, crumbly rubber hose to the carburetor. If that hose breaks, it sprays gasoline by gravity feed right onto the exhaust manifold. Pour gas on the manifold, then vapor goes into the generator brushes, and FOOM! Now, you've got the engine sitting a foot over a giant gas fire, as the tank empties itself into a great big pool of burning gas. That will get the crankcase lit in about 4-5 minutes, if there's enough gas to keep it burning that long.

I definitely saw one do this once, and it was sputtering white hot bits of magnesium onto the pavement before the fire dept foamed it, so no question the crankcase had gotten lit. Then they hit it with water right after the foam, and it was like the

Jon