Cast Thermite

Step 2 Refining

Time to start refining our materials.

Steel Wool

You did buy the right kind of steel wool, right? The best kind is usually labeled as "0000" which is the finest grade I've ever found. This stuff burns the easiest and is usually less wasteful than the heavier grade steel wool.

Take the steel wool out of it's packaging and place it in a container suitable for oxidizing substances...(burning things.) Pull them apart a little bit before you put them in the container. Don't worry about packing it full. As it burns you will be able to crunch it down and add more on top. After lighting it, (a regular match works fine), you'll have to move some air through it to make sure the fire spreads. If you're only doing this much, just blowing on it should be sufficient.

Once it has burned and cooled off, rub the tougher chunks and strands of steel wool along something with small holes to make sure the pieces you collect are fairly small. It also helps keep out the excess pieces that wouldn't burn so you can re-burn them or use them in your next batch.

I rub the burnt steel wool over an old window screen that I cut out and wrapped in duct tape. In doing this I end up with a much finer product.

Comments

[afartinthewind]

Forgot to add that when the block is x'ed out with 1/4" deep grooves just sand it flush and go again. Also check your alloy, just because it's Al doesn't mean it's pure.

[afartinthewind]

I like to place my iron oxide in a small coffee can with some old BB's and ball bearings and give it a good shake for a few minutes. As for the aluminum I have a 6x6 block from a local hardware store that I cut grooves into with a hacksaw. Light pressure will get close to a fine powder.

[Everett_McKinley]

The best way I found to do this is using a metal pipe about 4 or 5 in. wide and how ever long you want I'd keep it around 3 feet long. Stuffing the pipe with steel wool, lighting it (duh), and having a fan blow through the pipe from one end. it works great. ;)

[mrmerino]

You can also light the steel wool with a 9V battery.

[mayan guitarist]

i need to grind up aluminum is there another way besides a coffee grinder

[StickStoneBone]

Small rock tumbler with BB's works great for pieces of Aluminum Foil.

[the_doctor]

aluminum seems to be a problem for a lot of people i have found that the best quality of aluminum powder can be found inside of an Etch-a-Sketch. the grey powder in side of it is as fine a powder as it comes you can even use the beads to give a good combination of coolness and functionality!

[StickStoneBone]

...again, a rock tumbler with BB and pieces of Aluminum Foil WORKS AWESOME. In my opinion buying or even salvaging an etch-a-sketch for the aluminum powder is:

a) More work than it's worth.
b) Waste of an etch-a-sketch (they're not hard to fix)

[pindalanderz]

I just took a file and scraped some pop tabs across it.

[cody777]

i took a dremel to a can and collected the shavings in a cup ps nice icon

[Radioactive_-Chemist101-]

a better way to get iron oxide is by the electrolosis of a salt water solution with some iron rods. Not graphite. Then filter the muck and let it dry. Grind it up in a pestle and mortar and there powdered iron oxide.

[octavian234]

nice icon

[chriskarr]

That is a 'better' way to get iron oxide, if you're looking for efficiency from cost/time/end-product mass Vs. beginning mass. There is one thing that you did not consider, though, and that is the fact that when you make iron oxide via electrolysis you do not have an end product of Fe2O3 which is the best iron oxide to use for thermite mixtures.

[The Ideanator]

Whats wrong with Fe3O4? it has more oxygen, shouldn't that let the thermite burn better?

[coolsciencetech]

I dont believe you can make Fe3O4

[hg341]

i  didnt think that you could make h2o2 but i was worng...

[The Ideanator]

I did through water electrolysis. When you get to the drying part, evaporate it as heating it(in a propane grill) turns most of it back into Fe2O3.

(pic: red is the grilled, black is evaporated)

[coolsciencetech]

oh kk nvm

[Billdo22]

i dont think i burned mine properly. the burnt steel wool is still magnetic. what am i doing wrong?

[GlueyMcGee]

it's still iron oxide if it's magnetic you have Fe3O4 magnetite or black iron oxide

[EragonShadeslayer]

It burns easier if you touch a 9volt battery to the wool. This also makes for a great fire starter. (Its amazing what you learn in boy scouts)

[Zlwilly]

I actually burns better? Or do you just mean that it's easier to light that way? I'm nowhere near my 'lab', so I can't test it to find out. I just use what works for me!

[EragonShadeslayer]

Rotten's right. It does burn better, BUT it also is easier to light. apparently its such a thin strand that the current overloads like when your lightbulb blows, but theres alot of this & it burns nice & red-hot.

[EragonShadeslayer]

sorry to double pist, but this will also insure that all of the steel wool burns, & you dont get any unburnt pieces left over.

[Rotten194]

I think it burns better, because the electricity from the 9volt spreads throughout a area larger than the heat of the match does. IDK, but it can light up a whole huge piece of steel wool easy.