Ferrocerrium?

[jimmyjolly]

gday all, just wondering if anyone has had any experience in machining ferrocerrium? We have a job coming up and we have to turn some small slugs , 10mm diameter (f9 tolerance) with a drilled 4mm blind hole. I'm assuming we have to cut it dry and also not set the machines on fire! I'd be interested if anyone had any experience in machining this.

Cheers, J.

[mactec54]

Hi jimmyjolly

You will not find to many people have use ferrocerrium it is mostly cast & compressed then ground wet very wet

[jimmyjolly]

Have you machined or heard of anyone machining the stuff? Can you cut it under an inert gas to stop it combusting or is cutting it wet the best way? We have to machine it at the end of the day, just have to do it in a way that is flame proof !!

[mactec54]

Hi jimmyjolly

Some of the ferrocerrium does not like the water it will give off lots of sparks so flood may do the trick if you can use flood to machine it we did not have to machine what we had but it will only burn/combust if you have something around it that will burn so you could put a steel shield around were you can to protect your machine get a piece & try it
then you will know if you can do it or not

[jimmyjolly]

Thanks a lot mate, looks like we'll have to just bite the bullet and try machining it!I'll let you know how we go, i'm going to keep the fire extingiusher close by though...

[ckelloug]

I am not familar with Ferrocerium but cerium itself is bad news in general. It's possible that it requires a special class D fire extinguisher for metals fires to effectively extinguish it. I'm not sure but it may be worth investigating.

--Cameron

[xclr82xtc]

dude that stuff is gonna light up like the 4th of july when the mill hits it! lol...