So a buddy is telling me about this program he saw which dealt with a newly developed aluminum alloy that was, as he puts it, a “semi-fluiditic metal alloy.” The first thing that he says popped into his head when he heard about it was the T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Sadly, he couldn’t remember the name of the stuff. Anybody here know?
WAG: Alumaloy?
I’m doubtful. He’s an engineer, and from the link, it sounds like that Alumaloy is the crap that they sell at flea markets which is supposed to allow you to easily weld aluminium, but doesn’t really work. I’ll send him the link, but I don’t think that he’d be excited by such crap.
“Tuckerfan”–is that as in Darcy Tucker?
I’m not familiar with “Alumaloy” but I have used a cast rod of aluminum, zinc, and a third alloying agent. The three components form an alloy which can be used on aluminum as a solder. It can be built up, drilled, filed, sawn, machined etc. except that it is much harder than the aluminum. The parent metal must be wire brushed or sanded, clean and dry.
Works on a soft drink can. Punch a 1/2 to 3/4 in. hole in the bottom and build this stuff up around it with a propane torch. Fills the hole.
Caution do not apply too much heat nor for too long lest it all collapse into a puddle of a more or less single alloy!
This is not a substitute for inert gas welding of aluminum where all the material must be aluminum
Cast Iron can be WELDED with C.I. rod, right flux, and a real oxy-acetylene welding torch. Not for a novice. You have to know what you are doing to do it right.
Brazing cast iron on the other hand is realatively easy using brazing rod, flux and an oxy-acetlene torch.
“Beware of the Cog”
I think this is ‘liquid metal’ alloy - I remember reading something about this a while back - it isn’t a liquid at all, but rather a particular alloy that achieves highly favourable structural properties as a result fo being amorphous (i.e. not crystallising).
Tuckerfan: could he be talking about aluminium alloys for semi-solid processing? These are alloys with a microstructure such that they acquire a toothpaste-like consistency for handling at a relatively low temperature, enabling more energy-efficient and safer casting than pouring molten metal about.
Could be, I’ll send him the link and see what he says.
The “liquid metal” that mangetout is talking about is not an aluminum alloy. Instead it’s an alloy of 5 different metals: beryllium, copper, nickel, titanium, and zirconium. I once started a thread about it, but it seems to be lost.
this page has info on the stuff.
If you want to play with actual liquid metal, try “Wood’s Metal” which melts in boiling water, “Field’s Metal” which melts even lower, or Gallium which melts in your hand:
Science Toys you can make with your kids: catalog
https://4ua.com/scitoys/cgi-bin/shop.exe?page=metal_desc.html
What is the composition of Wood’s Metal? (and that other room-temperature liquid metal they are selling on the above linked page)
Wood’s Metal: typically 50% bismuth, 12.5% tin, 25% lead, 12.5% cadmium. Field’s Metal is bismuth / tin / indium, but I can’t find the composition.
dtilque: interesting link. The semi-solid processing alloys I mentioned have similar working properties, but achieve it by having globular crystalloids in a eutectic matrix. When you reheat them, the matrix melts first, and the whole structure becomes easily deformable without full melting.
Lead?!? Cadmium?!? - they claim it isn’t toxic in that linked page…