[R-390] Some progress

Mon, 06 Jan 2003 22:13:26 -0500

Hmmmm,

A technobabble question from the R-390 list I could check out with:

    a) My wife the chemist
    b) My sister the chemical engineer
    c) My brother in law(s) (no not that one, the other couple over there)
the chemical engineer(s)

or I could just go out in the back yard and beat my head against a nice
snowy tree.

Hmmm, which sounds like more fun ...... have to think on that

Yes aluminum is a metal just like copper and iron and lead. In it's pure
form it is a nice silver color and a bit softer than most of the aluminum
alloys you see used. It bends and forms just like any other metal. Like most
metals to make it stronger you mix it up with other metals like zinc,
copper, magnesium, and the like.

Long time ago aluminum was a bit more expensive than gold. Anything made
from a solid chunk of it was *rare*. If they had eBay back in the 1800's
aluminum scams would have been a prime auction item. A guy with the odd name
of Napoleon III had a plate made out of aluminum. He would have been the guy
that bid up the all the eBay aluminum auctions (trust me on this).

Then things changed. Seems a while back the Army had a need to build the
largest Air Force (or was it an Air Corps ..) that the world has ever seen.
Made most all of it out of aluminum. Did it in a big hurry. Set up more darn
aluminum smelters than you can imagine. Once we changed our minds about
needing a great big Air Force we chopped it all up  and turned it in to fry
pans. Didn't do much for the price of aluminum. Sure made a B-26 a lot
harder to find NOS.

Net result was that we suddenly had a very cheap material to make neat stuff
out of. There was a ton of scrap on the market and all those smelters still
running full bore. Aluminum went into everything. They even started using it
in things like R-390's. Ever see a R-390 (not the 391 mind you) in a
application that required it be very light weight? They used the aluminum
because it was cheap and strong. Probably was a P-47 before it was a R-390
....

Odd thing - we weren't the only ones going aluminum crazy. Seems Joe Stalin
had a thing for aluminum. He had a few other problems as well. They set up
quotas on just exactly how many pounds of aluminum they would make and a
nice cozy place for you to rest up if you didn't make that many pounds. Lots
of snow covered trees to bang your head against ... Any way - since the
quota was only on the pounds and not on the purity they started to cut
corners. If you stop the smelting process a bit early you get a chunk of
stuff that is mostly aluminum. The other part of it is crud. The crud makes
it flake apart in your hands.

So there we have it - we have a commie aluminum ingot fondler in our midst
!!!!!

    Take Care!

        Bob Camp
        KB8TQ

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe Foley" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, January 06, 2003 9:35 PM
Subject: RE: [R-390] Some progress

>
> --- Helmut Usbeck <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Sorry, Joe.  Aluminium is a metaloid. It doesn't
> > possess the
> > chemical or electrical properties of a metal, e.g.
> > iron, copper, tin,
> > mercury.  Bowled me over when I found out.  Machined
> > this stuff for years
> > and didn't know.  I had my hands on some pure
> > aluminium ingot years ago.
> > Very grainy like iron and will crumble in your hands
> > when squeezed.
> > Strange stuff without a little copper added.
> > Explains some of it's
> > different properties.
> ++++++++
> ARGH!~
>
> No, you are wrong.  Someone has read the Table of the
> Elephants incorrectly!
>
> The dividing line at that point is almost diagonal,
> separating Al, Sn (tin), and Pb (lead), from such
> things as Boron, Carbon, Phosphorous, Arsenic, and
> Chlorine.
>
> Where's Barry,....... no, not that one,....... no, the
> other one,........ Dr. Ornitz to the chatroom, Dr.
> Ornitz?
>
> Joe
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
> http://mailplus.yahoo.com
> _______________________________________________
> R-390 mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/r-390
>
>
>