Lighting metal fires (and putting them out??)

[@captainotto]

Ask any machinist: "What's the best way to start a titanium fire?" and they will tell you all you need to do is mill or turn it dry.

[@krispockell685]

Came here to say this! Dull tools with oil as a coolant can make a VERY EXCITING titanium fire. It's the reason some CNC machines have built in fire suppression!

[@volvo09]

Yeah, having the titanium in fine chips would probably help. In a mill the shavings catch fire, right?

[@captainotto]

@@volvo09 It's a paradox in my opinion. The heat stays with the workpiece but the chips fly off cool. That leads to the dulling of your tools and a good environment for a spark shower you will never want to repeat.

[@brownell10]

Lathe hack: keep chip tray full of Ti shavings at all times. You don't want to miss a party just because you had to switch to hard-turning some bearing steel...

[@user-vx1vl1ci1e]

Welder here was considering starting it with an arc but definitely had some sparky mishaps with the lathe as well so that would make perfect sense.

[@LeifEriccson43]

I served 6 years in the US Navy and when I got to the USS Stennis, we had an entire safety course on class D fires. The answer was always push the aircraft overboard.

[@XSpamDragonX]

because of the salt water or because they just wanted to move the problem away from the ship?

[@anonym3017]

@@XSpamDragonXcause catching the aircraft carrier, or other planes, on fire is bad. No one gives a shit about a really angry fire falling towards the ocean floor

[@MySkybreaker]

@@XSpamDragonX Burning thing on ship dangerous. Burning thing in water means no longer burning thing so not dangerous.

[@АлакПатрова]

Id love to see a video of a fighter jet being scuttled off a carrier 😂

[@agentc7020]

@@XSpamDragonX I mean, the salt and relative lack of oxygen in the ocean would certainly put the fire out but I think they would push the class D fire away because they wouldn't have enough fire extinguishers for the amount of metal they would have to put out, Aircrafts weigh tons.

[@dsdy1205]

11:34 Notice that Tom is wearing what appears to be darkened goggles. This is because magnesium fires put out so much UV light that they can singe unprotected eyeballs and cause a condition known as "arc eye", and after long-term exposure, cataracts.

[@fritzophrenia3146]

When I was a teenager we bought some bootleg unmarked fireworks that must have been filled with Magnesium powder or something. We lit it, ran away, and then were all instantly blinded by this horrific white light because it was nighttime, and I distinctly remember seeing shadows on our neighbors house across the field that was like 300 feet away. When it burned out it had left a divot in the 1/4" steel plate we'd set it on, truly terrifying

[@godfreypoon5148]

That's not terrifying, that's awesome!

[@high-cowboygamingstream]

You got me thinking of the shadows from hiroshima

[@keith9876]

I think I had those too. They were only an inch round cap thing so I didn't expect much. That thing was the brightest light I had ever seen, it lit up the area like it was daytime. Way brighter than an arc welder. It was indeed awesome. I went to buy some the next year and could never find them again.

[@mrmatt2525able]

Iron oxide from grandmas cutlery isn’t weird…..

[@Unethical.FandubsGames]

I used to steal magnesium out of my school's storage and make flashbangs... (Well it was more of a flashburn than a flashbang) I really wish I could work there.

[@LesNewell]

This brings back memories. When I was a kid I obtained a stack of dead chainsaws. Many chainsaws use magnesium alloy castings. I also had a big ass kerosene burner. I can confirm magnesium alloy burns quite well, especially when water is added. The mysterious white light that lit up the neighbourhood late one night was of course nothing to do with me.

[@asteroiderer]

I love the idea of a "kid" obtaining a stack of chainsaws.

[@PhysicsGamer]

@@asteroiderer When given a stack of chainsaws all people become kids again.

[@LesNewell]

@@asteroiderer They were unrepairable. A few years out in the weather does a lot of damage. I had a reputation for taking things apart and my parents thought I couldn't really do much harm with them. Oddly enough I still have a reputation for taking things apart though these days they usually work when I put them back together again.

[@GrinninPig]

So are the brake housings for the b52

[@danielflanard8274]

Your anecdote is the difference between real kids and fictional tinkerers, it's great. In a young adult movie, the main character would have taken all those chainsaws apart and built them into a robot companion or some other complex invention.

[@microcolonel]

I love how the best we have for Class D fires is literally just really dry popcorn salt.

[@ryelor123]

It also has other chemicals added to make it flow more easily. I think the reason its so expensive is that when you need to use them, they have to work or things will get a lot worse very quickly therefore the extinguishers have to be perfect. Another thing is that the companies that make them probably have a lot of liability risk due to the critical nature of their devices and the fact that a cowardly employee or owner of a business might just lie and say the extinguisher didn't work; a lie that would be easy to get away with since metal fires are very hot and destroy the evidence.

[@davecSFD]

All the ones I've ever come across are copper based. Copper agent is probably the best of the three types, also the most expensive. It can stick to objects, absorbs a ton of heat (think heat sinks in electronics), and is really good at lithium fires. It won't blow away either. Uses Argon gas as propellant. Nitrogen reacts with lithium. Copper models are simply copper, while the other NaCl and Graphite models contain a few other ingredients, some of them being carcinogenic. Copper is very toxic to aquatic organisms though.

[@MeanBeanComedy]

​@@davecSFDThat's really cool! 😁👍🏻

[@MeanBeanComedy]

​@@ryelor123Smart cookie! 😉👉🏻👉🏻 🧠

[@jfbeam]

@@davecSFDI was about to say the ones I've seen were copper. They plate the fire; it's neat to see. (other than a stupendously expensive thing being on fire.)

[@theCodyReeder]

Oxy acetylene torch is my go to for burning Metal. A stick welder might do it.

[@ExplosionsAndFire]

Yeah that seems like a really good suggestion a lot of people want to see tried

[@DrakkarCalethiel]

@@ExplosionsAndFire And if oxy acetylene fails, (if you can get your hands onto it) oxy dicyanoacetylene. That stuff produces a whopping 4990C flame. Still not enough? Burn that stuff with ozone, 5730C, the hottest flame known.

[@kiliwami4086]

@@ExplosionsAndFire Or How about a Hydrogen torch? 2800°C baby

[@xtremeownagedotcom]

@@kiliwami4086 oxy acetylene is available at just about every welding/air supply shop around. Can even grab it at most outdoors store. And- it goes a lot hotter then hydrogen. Hydrogen does have the advantage of burning very clean, which is why it is used for working with jewelry.

[@Aaron-zu3xn]

you didn't inhale that zinc did you?

[@DeDeNoM]

Well, all Titanium fires I have heard of, involve a lathe or a mill in some way. I think this has to do with the fresh, not oxidised surfaces of freshly cut titanium and the thin cross section of the chips.

[@thorwaldjohanson2526]

SLM printers with ultra fine magnesium powder can be quite explosive

[@dsfs17987]

mills and lathes can make fine chips, and those catch fire easily, I sometimes TIG weld titanium, and had a 1mm wire catch fire, it didn't burn like a matchstick, the fire melted it and a fell as a small droplet on to an aluminum plate, fizzled out quickly also, machining titanium is a bit awkward, somewhat like stainless steel, both have terrible heat conductivity, which means that even slightly dull tools have a tendency to rub and heat up very quickly, which adds to excitement if you have a pile of chips or birdsnest in the lathes chip pan not so long ago there was a fire in one manufacturing facility around here, they had few modern cnc machines in a sandwich panel metal building, machined magnesium, and supposedly everyone was trained, equipped with proper safety gear and warned, it was a total loss, all equipment and the whole building was destroyed by that fire, so yeah, 1.5k for an extinguisher is really cheap

[@paulgrosse7631]

I've been a fire warden (on and off) for around 30 of the last 45 years of my working life and like you, have never seen a metal fire or what it is that you use to put one out. Well done on demonstrating and explaining this. BTW, I have worked on a chemical site where we had enormous tanks of Ethylene Oxide and one trick the site's fire brigade used to do on the course they ran was to have an oil tray (a tray around 3m deep but the size of a door laying down) and put some EO in it then set fire to it. Then, they would get one of us lab-rats to put it out using a foam extinguisher and it would appear to go our. After talking to us about it for a minute or two, he would get a long metal rod and push the foam to one side and flames would appear - was not pyrophoric, it just carried on burning in its own atmosphere. The foam had done nothing more than shelter it from the wind. Good luck with completing your thesis - making videos is a substitute activity that benefits the rest of mankind.

[@jessewilson8676]

I have seen one class D fire it was a wheel on a naval aircraft….the COD/OOD said “push it over” so we pushed the aircraft over the deck into the ocean so we did

[@MeanBeanComedy]

Love hearing stories from the old-timers! 😁👍🏻

[@BacklTrack]

​@@jessewilson8676what type of plane?

[@lukasvondaheim]

​@@BacklTrack I would say it was a Firebird :D

[@tomlambeth8232]

Congratulations on getting slightly closer to completing the thesis since last time !!

[@ExplosionsAndFire]

bold of you to assume that

[@Erosis]

@@ExplosionsAndFire This video will be in the supplemental material :)

[@humphreybumblecuck5151]

Check out Cold ones

[@LabCoatz_Science]

Best way to ignite bulk titanium: find a friend with an acetylene or oxyhydrogen torch and go nuts on it!

[@jamesfletcher9032]

In a ceramic pot?

[@tetanusv0dka173]

Alternatively, Thermal Lance?

[@tolkienfan1972]

Tune it to zn oxygen rich mixture

[@jamiewarren2307]

That would probably do it. I'd also be very curious to see if it could be ignited using a large capacitor bank, but that would have a whole other set of dangers. Maybe a cool crossover with somebody who has the equipment?

[@GogiRegion]

Some kids in a club at my high school were trying to ignite aluminum foil on fire with batteries in the hallway, so the teacher (who was a chemistry teacher) thought it was a good idea to give them a few matches and some strips of magnesium metal to ignite outside as an alternative instead. It did not go well.

[@innacrisis6991]

lawsuit speedrun any%

[@davewilson4493]

An acquaintance who worked in a foundry and had access to various metals (don't ask what he did with sticks of sodium) once threw a bat of magnesium on a roaring indoor coal fire. Most people retreated when it caught fire, but one guy who was sat sideways on to the fire stubbornly stayed in his chair, insisting it was fine, and that he could handle it (there may have been alcohol involved all round). The next morning, the stubborn guy came down to breakfast with one side of his face looking like it was sunburned.

[@jamesmnguyen]

The teacher was just teaching the wonders of magnesium. And also why learning chemistry is important.

[@paxtoncargill4661]

What happened?

[@bored588]

we were given matches and magnesium for an experiment in class, we got to light it and put in under a beaker, was honestly kinda cool for middle school science.

[@CATASTEROID934]

Speaking of beryllium bricks, I worked at Culham labs for a while and the big fusion doughnut actually has beryllium bricks, I got a beryllium release leaflet when I started work there. IIRC tiny particles of beryllium just kinda float off while the aggressively hot fusion plasma exists which produces a particularly mobile and nasty beryllium exposure hazard especially if something were to go pop, from what I gather from someone who worked in waste handling there the beryllium handling and working waste sits around in barrels on-site for a very long time before they can find a permanent home for it. Berylliosis is a much cooler disease than lame garden variety silicosis anyway

[@ExplosionsAndFire]

Yeah absolutely wild how toxic Be is to humans. It’s like nuclear waste except it never decays and will be dangerous to life for forever lol. Wonder what they do with it

[@gluesniffingdude]

@@ExplosionsAndFire straight into the atmosphere, god bless

[@deki9827]

@@gluesniffingdude JUST LIKE GOD FUCKING INTENDED.

[@josephpotter5766]

Berylliosis is absolutely no joke. I know someone who once worked with the guys who make beryllium copper non-sparking tools, and working in a beryllium foundry is just a hilarious hedge maze of MSDS sheets and safety inspections.

[@sir_vix]

@@ExplosionsAndFire Beryllium waste is used in the construction of hazardous material signage.

[@derhugo0135]

In my aircraft fabricator job we used to collect titanium chips from all the precision rivets that we messed up and had to drill out, then light them on fire outside of the building during lunch break. Great deal of fun, surprised that the building never caught on fire

[@aatsiii]

You will get it next time!

[@Feuervix]

Keep trying bro you can do it, determination and perseverance is all you need!

[@SxTxferlife]

Bro my friend told me something similar I guess burning random crap can cure boredom in the military

[@bluestreak6532]

Can’t be good to breath that shit in every day. Did you have a spitfire type fan post up on one side?

[@mikejones8808]

I work in fire protection and do work for some of the biggest chemical production facilities in the world and honestly all of those elements (besides the silly made up group) are a real hazard for everyone on these sites from a day to day. One facility i go to has around 9 fires a month due to the nature of production. Kinda crazy to be around all that shit all the time. Also the silica in fire extinguishers is under investigation for a ban because of the potential "long term effects on your health similar to asbestos"

[@Ceece20]

You need to increase your surface area for the fire to reach the Titanium. Metal dust, like any good flammable dust, is great at setting fires.

[@GuyNamedSean]

That's the only thing I can think. A plate of titanium just distributes the heat too well. You need shavings or dust to really get something like that to ignite.

[@JackdotC]

The whole point of the video was that he wants to burn the bulk metal, not the dust

[@isaacalberda250]

a hydrogen torch might get hot enough? you can make em with an electrolysis generator

[@johncochran8497]

@@JackdotC Yes, he wants to burn the bulk metal. So think of the bulk metal as logs, while the shavings and dust are tinder and kindling. Same principle applies.

[@matthewbadger8685]

@@JackdotC maybe dusts or shavings of finer and finer grades stacked above a metal plate?

[@Ripa-Moramee]

This is the best chemistry channel on KZbin, not for consistent uploads, not the generally good chemistry but just for comedic value. It's always a fun time watching these.

[@DJ1573]

The only chemistry channel where i truly insta-watch the upload

[@corywilliams9895]

I think NileRed has a pretty cool attitude as well, but Tom def has a second career as a comedian if his thesis gets to be too much

[@vyvianalcott1681]

Everyone knows the most important rule of chemistry is be funny

[@yourguysheppy]

Australians are unnaturally funny and we love them for it

[@klazzera]

i truly watch his videos even if i'm not interested in the topic

[@evilotis01]

i particularly enjoy the budget floodfilling on the periodic table at 1:12

[@pacmanboss256]

WE MAKING IT OUT OF THE FUME HOOD WITH THIS ONE 🔥🔥🔥

[@GenericCuriosity]

bro had this lined up and ready to go

[@Flesh_Wizard]

WE MAKING IT INTO THE LUNGS WITH THIS ONE 🔥🔥🔥

[@NickiRusin]

WE MAKING IT TO THE STRATOSPHERE WITH THIS ONE 🔥🔥🔥

[@thetimewizard6375]

WE MAKING IT INTO THE SOIL WITH THIS ONE 🔥🔥🔥

[@fossil98]

WE MAKING IT INTO NATURE'S BIN WITH THIS ONE 🔥🔥🔥

[@integza]

What will come first ? The robot apocalypse or you finishing your PhD ?

[@ExplosionsAndFire]

I like to think I’ll finish a day before the robot apocalypse so I can die as a Dr

[@robmemeoverlord6399]

This is some advanced level procrastination. I’m impressed.

[@monhi64]

Doesn’t he have a thesis due or something lol

[@mmmhorsesteaks]

That always reminds me; we had a guy in the lab destroying some old reagents and he ended up with a bag of sodium aluminium hydride powder. Which he wanted to work up by dropping it in water. It reacted so violently a droplet of water jumped up and landed in the bag of reagent setting the whole bag on fire. Managed to manoeuvre the container into the sink; which it proceeded to melt through before finally going out. Metal hydrides are slightly terrifying.

[@DUKE_of_RAMBLE]

Ludicrous story? Poster's name checks out... 🤣 I'll take your word for it only being "slightly" terrifying heh _[edit: preemptive clarification... I believe the story, I'm just implying it's crazy... like "horse steaks" lol (which are apparently better than beef, but I'll take their word for it!)]

[@jacefairis1289]

when I worked with Lithium Aluminum Hydride, we kept the main container under inert atmosphere, and never took out more of it than we could comfortably extinguish with Bertha (a big bucket of sand that we dessicated the hell out of with Phosphorus Pentoxide - damp sand just doesn't cut it); it sometimes ignites of its own volition due to moisture in the air, to the extent that some people call it pyrophoric. metal hydrides have also been proposed as a non-cryogenic way to store hydrogen, including for solid-state rockets :)

[@AliceLoverdrive]

@@DUKE_of_RAMBLE horse steaks are _divine_ . Beef ain't anywhere close.

[@Yoshi278]

@@jacefairis1289 Man you scientist guys are rock stars. Im just sitting here on my lunch break between fixing peoples computers trying to remember funny words from yr 11 chemistry 😂

[@HRM.H]

Your episode with coldones was so unexpected but perfectly fit.

[@Sniperboy5551]

Their personalities worked really well together in that episode

[@ExplosionsAndFire]

Thanks mate!! Glad it turned out so well. It was a lot of fun to film

[@memejeff]

holy shit, didnt realize it dropped today. I was amazed to hear the teaser on the patreon last week.

[@fancyincubus]

"who picks you up and slaps you all around idiot freinds"

[@davedavies8002]

I'm watching that next 🤣👍

[@repillager]

I have been having a dark few days mental health wise and this topic and your video lighted my morning up! Thank you!

[@trustthewater]

Something you probably can't do in upsidedown land is put a pile of magnesium turnings on a snow bank and light it. It's really neat. It burns, starts to melt the snow underneath, burning magnesium falls into the snow, the small addition of water causes the magnesium to flare up, and it sort of runs away. It will melt down very rapidly into the snow and lights up the whole pile quite beautifully.

[@moshly64]

The Australian Alps, or Snowy Mountains as they are also known, receive more snow than Switzerland.

[@xpg2124]

@@moshly64 i was about to say that’s very impractical because who would in their right mind go to the top of a mountain to get snow to do a science experiment and then i remembered what channel i was watching

[@unexpected2475]

@@xpg2124 And based on his last video, the snow there might all vanish the second he arrives.

[@takumi2023]

I want to see this please do this @Explosions&Fire

[@doxielain2231]

now this I want to see

[@Magmafrost13]

"You legally cant correct me on it" Ask War Thunder players how much they care about that.

[@OutOfNamesToChoose]

Winning online argument > being disappeared for treason and espionage

[@TravisTerrell]

The slo-mo of spraying water on it was awesome! The drops of water appear to instantly turn into drops of fire! Would've liked to see a fine mist of water, also.

[@grantprice613]

As others have pointed out, containing the metal in a ceramic pot will increase the overall heat transfer. If you want to achieve high temperatures, an oxy-acetylene torch or a plasma cutter from Harbor Freight will reach very high temperatures.

[@AustralianMurderTurtle]

Harbor Freight? You think we have that here? Maybe Bunning will help, can even grab a snag while there.

[@QuantumLeclerc]

There's also a thermal lance as an option

[@bubba99009]

Acetylene is also just good fun all around.

[@jonaspavelek1333]

what about arc welder? You can use graphite rods and they won´t melt

[@redquacker11]

I’ve been a fireman for 10 years. When it comes to the transmission block and the magnesium they use in some of the cars it’s so much fun to me to have that bright white flash popping off like crazy. Because there’s so much dark smoke from the rest of the car burning the flashes aren’t as blinding but I’m also a nut and find it so cool

[@Ethelgiggle]

Because of this video I told my boss about metal fires (she's a pharmacist) and now I have to become a fire protection assistant and have to do eight more hours of this on a saturday. But I'm also kind of looking forward to it so thanks Tom

[@xXMACEMANXx]

Blacksmith here. You could always set up some sort of open hearth forge. Buy some coked coal, build a forge out of mud or brick, use a shop vac as a blower. You could use that to get it up to a higher temp like 2500C, then use a thermite/thermate reaction on the already evenly heated Titanium I think the reason why the molten puddle of steel didn't help is because the heat was easily sucked into the Titanium and dispersed. It definitely made it hot, but once the iron touched the Titanium plate, it instantly cooled down. If it was already hot, the intense, focused heat from a thermite reaction might be enough to push it over the edge.

[@ExplosionsAndFire]

Yeah I wonder how well molten titanium burns? If we can melt it, will the heat from its own fire keep it molten and able to keep burning??

[@xXMACEMANXx]

@@ExplosionsAndFire Alternatively, you could get really thin titanium strips, or at least thinner than the plates you have. Titanium shavings are notoriously easy to burst into white hot sparks Maybe putting some Titanium shavings on the plate WITH the thermite, if the Titanium shavings start burning, it might be enough to catch the plate on fire too

[@mistaowickkuh6249]

@@xXMACEMANXx I think thickness matters a lot. Magnesium in this video took surprisingly too much effort to catch fire. Fun experiments I conducted at home were much easier. I used foil thin magnesium strips (1/10 of a millimetre or below thick) and they were ignited by a regular old pocket lighter. I would be shocked if titanium could ignite as easily if it was thin enough. I think it would still take more effort than magnesium. I could not try that one because I have no idea where can I find foil thin titanium strips. p.s. Don't try to set magnesium on fire guys. If it somehow drips on your skin and bury itself, you can possibly burns yourselves to the bone! (through the bone?!)

[@adrianhogan192]

@@ExplosionsAndFire Jeweller here, I use titanium to manipulate molten precious metals. If you use a simple brazing torch running on oxygen and propane you'll set it on fire in no time at all.

[@StoneAndersonStudio]

I don’t often get uncomfortable watching these chemistry videos of yours, but seeing the zinc fumes really got my heart rate going.

[@mmmhorsesteaks]

Yeah metal fume fever'll do that ;)

[@elongatedmuskrat2690]

Mmm, smells like drain bamage

[@telioty]

​@@elongatedmuskrat2690 is that his new excuse for not finishing his thesis?

[@elongatedmuskrat2690]

@@telioty "I'm sorry Professor, I need more time, I spent the last week delirious with zinc fume fever"

[@MichaelThe-Pyro]

zinc fumes are not that bad... problems only start with prolonged or frequent exposure. and being outside on top of that means there is very little risk

[@altdoe9699]

Hey Tom, your failure to ignite the Titanium and the Magnesium with Thermite and Thermate probably had something to do with the plates dissipating the heat enough to not reach their autoignition temperature. Three solutions I would suggest are, 1. Use more Thermite/Thermate 2. Use a more aggressive fuel/oxidizer mix (My two cents is swapping out Iron Oxide for Ammonia Perchlorate and swapping out the powdered aluminum for powdered magnesium) 3. Reduce the mass of the bulk material you're trying to ignite

[@onradioactivewaves]

With enough electric current, I bet it would be easy peasy. Also with your #3, increasing the surface area could help. Ive burn a magnesium block before, couldn't get it lit with a propane torch until I scribed it.

[@kerbalengineeringsystems7415]

most problems can be solved through the addition of sufficient AP lol

[@justinbanks2380]

Very cool to hear and see how class d extinguishers work! And that outro, "if you've been made to watch this video as part of your job training, consider asking for more hazard pay" lmao😂

[@pauljs75]

You need a lot of surface area, and you have to do something about any oxide layer that forms, since that can affect reactivity. (Fresh shavings or "wool" made from titanium material?) Also there is more that one type of thermite combination, so maybe those are worth looking into as well.

[@geoffhurley8103]

You're teaching chemistry to 350,000 people. That should merit a Ph.D by itself. Great video! I work with magnesium in my garage sometimes and I've wondered if I can get myself in trouble with it.

[@UnitSe7en]

LOL no, he is most definitely not teaching chemistry. Really, bro? Have you even been in a classroom?

[@NomTheDom]

@@UnitSe7en I have learned much here, and gifted with such knowledge intend to NOT damage the structural integrity of numerous government buildings

[@Oystercaulk]

​@UnitSe7en lmao such a butthurt response. What's with the hostility, man?

[@UnitSe7en]

@@NomTheDom lol

[@UnitSe7en]

@@Oystercaulk What hostility _man?_ I guarantee you're not taking away any useful information from watching, and he doesn't make them to deliver a lot of information - Or as it's also known, to _teach._ They are mostly entertainment and for his own experimental education, not yours. If you think you have learned something that you can take with you into the lab, or into the classroom, please expound on thus...

[@Magmafrost13]

Because someone will probably ask, I suspect the reason Francium cant start a Class D fire is because its not really possible to assemble a large enough sample of Francium to start a fire with. Its so radioactive that a macroscopic sample of it would just immediately vapourise itself fron the heat of radioactive decay, and it'd be impossible to get enough Francium atoms in one place at the same time for even that to happen.

[@ExplosionsAndFire]

Haha…. Unless… ???

[@Flesh_Wizard]

Literally a mini nuke from fallout

[@mbarricelliwv]

As a volunteer firefighter one of my favorite things on car fires is seeing the Magnesium glowing as you're walking up to it and then hitting it with water and having it do it's best impression of a professional fireworks show only a few feet away from you're face

[@danwhite3224]

As a solid plate, the only way I could really suggest to set titanium alight is with electricity. Either running high current through it or arcing to it with graphite electrodes. Otherwise you'd probably have to mill it into chips or swarf to reduce the mass of metal you're heating up.

[@TippyHippy]

I put my hamster in a sock and slammed it against the furniture

[@whynotdean8966]

As long as he doesn't try to use the death trap, also known as a microwave transformer. Should be possible to do with a welder though. IIRC AvE tried casting titatium using a welder, but it kept igniting.

[@whynotdean8966]

@@TippyHippy Is this a confessional, or a desperate attempt to get attention?

[@godzilla7382]

magnesium automotive wheels used to be a major problem for firefighters. as you stated they are hard to put out and since they are surrounded by a highly flammable rubber compound that burns hot enough to turn asphalt back into a gooey mess it has more than enough potential to ignite the mag wheels. this is one of many reasons why it's rarely used in automotive applications now

[@mgkleym]

Apparently this is starting to change. New alloy formulations are much harder to ignite and the corrosion issues are apparently solved to the extent you can get wheels with 10 year warranties on them now.

[@Henning_S.]

Titanium gets covered with a thin oxide layer very quickly, the oxide layer prevents it from igniting. So you can try to heat it up and grind the oxide layer off the glowing titanium, I'm pretty sure that will start the reaction. If that doesnt work, qou can just ignite some freshly milled titanium shavings, the fine shavings can be heated quick enough to ignite them before the oxide layer gets too thick.

[@Livi_Noelle]

Ignition is nothing more than rapid formation of oxides.

[@Henning_S.]

@@Livi_Noelle yes of course, but if the oxides form slowly at room temperature, they form a dense layer which protects the metal from further oxidation and if the oxides form extremely rapid while burning they form a very fine powder, most of that powder is released into the air in form of smoke.

[@Laerthor]

love your work. you're definitely the salt of the earth. i still can't believe how fortunate you are to be sponsored by VB.

[@leadgindairy3709]

I really appreciate your mix of humor and professionalism. Great stuff man, great stuff!

[@Alienami]

Please never stop making these videos. (Not unless I get rich suddenly and hire you to help me with my mad scientist ideas.) I learn so much and laugh while doing it. You remind me of ElectroBOOM in a way. I love their stuff as well.

[@jondoh2226]

Good to see fire getting more time on the channel. I was starting to think the channel is named explosions and fire just because explosions usually come with fire.

[@SophiaAstatine]

I mean, there's the oxygen video and the phosphorus video as well

[@VBOMB-wd4mg]

To light titanium you could always use a carbon arc torch (or any welder on a corner of the Ti)

[@kcgunesq]

Interesting. When I worked in restaurant kitchens, salt was our go-to for small grease fires on our gas grills. It was cheap and obviously food safe. And since the fire wad below the grates, once extinguished, a couple of strokes with the grill brush knocked off any salt on the grates, we could immediately go back to cooking. No doubt the mechanism was more that the salt was dispersing and absorbing the oil such that it couldn't burn, but it works beautifully.

[@igotes]

At school I used to carry a one of those cheap miniature butane torches in my pencil case, I used it to set fire to pencil sharpeners that were made from magnesium alloy. Once you got them hot enough it made a nice little fire! Also carried a small jar of trichloroethane (showing my age a little there) which I'd use to melt erasers into putty.

[@addie1080]

the shot of the water droplets hitting the fire was gorgeous! great work

[@owlredshift]

My favorite thing about your videos, other than the goober host of them, is the music. Also I love the really bizarre, tatterdemalion, and derelict furniture. And like, normally, it would languish and rust away in the shed. But you give it new life. You give that furniture, that fan, that chalk board it's 5 minutes of fame, to where hundreds of thousands of people all over the world can appreciate it. Furthermore. I think grandma would be honored that you have done the same with the cutlery that her husband probably had to smuggle across some border inside of a taxidermied ferret or something for their future family to enjoy and be able to eat food with it and inherit some day. I'd say you gave it new life, but... I mean you gave it a viking funeral of sorts. That's gotta be similar. RIP Gramma's spoons. Thank you. 🥄🔥🧯

[@benf1851]

"I love talking about military things cause you legally can't correct me even when I'm wrong" An absolute banger quote for the ages

[@Blutwind]

Tell that to the Warthunder community xD

[@asteroiderer]

@@Blutwind _pulls out classified fighter jet schematics_

[@Dank_Lulu]

Hello! As far as lighting the Titanium on fire, methinks a beefy welder might do the trick, high-current arcs tend to get hot. A Plasma torch would certainly light it up, but molten splattering Titanium right next to a live Oxygen feed might not be ideal. As a last resort, some potent oxidizer that is used on metals to clear the oxide layer could work, it should act as a flux, keeping the titanium surface free of oxides untill it heats enough to sustain the fire. PS: I have absolutely no background in chemistry so results may vary. ^^

[@dnebdal]

On the other hand, hot titanium in a stream of oxygen does sound like an excellent reason to bring out the expensive fire extinguisher.

[@Dank_Lulu]

@@dnebdal Can't argue with that! :D

[@hatman4818]

I'd really like to see a follow up where you try to put a metal fire out using different kinds of off the shelf table salt, to see if it's even feasible to put one out without such an expensive fire extinguisher.

[@ryelor123]

Well, the powder itself is less than half the price. The salt needs to be finely ground and have an additive that makes it much easier to flow along with a caking additive. The nice thing is that MSDSs exist and they list what's in them.

[@StonedtotheBones13]

I imagine a good part of the price is just keeping it dry enough tbh

[@mamaymay8259]

That slow motion shot of the water hitting the fire is SO EPIC!

[@tsawy6]

it's eerily beautiful tbh

[@stealthboost2805]

Salt

[@uristmcdwarfington8863]

For ideas around setting fire to titanium, one thing that comes to mind is Dicyanoacetylene- a chemical I read about in a rocketry book I didn't understand, but they said it burns at something absurd like 5000 degrees, so that's neat! Probably really hard to synthesize, almost definitely toxic, but I'm an idiot currently failing out of an undergrad software degree so I feel qualified to give recommendations on highly unstable chemistry.

[@Dani-Nani]

Yikes that thing is the king of triple bonds. Wikipedia states it is the highest oxygene burning temperature fire at ~5300K. Can go as high as 6000K if burnt in an ozone atmosphere. Tho the syntheis requires nitrogen gas over graphite powder at 3000K kinda hard for Tom I think

[@klondikesaloon7026]

​@@Dani-Nani sounds like a byproduct from making calcium carbide.

[@guytech7310]

@@Dani-Nani "syntheis requires nitrogen gas over graphite powder at 3000K" You know a bunch of chemists at a BBQ with a lot of beer came up with that. Drunk chemist: "What if we heat graphite to 3000K and add some nitrogen!"

[@TheBackyardChemist]

@@Dani-Nani You know, it might be easier than you think. I wonder if you could make it with a carbon arc lamp like setup in a stream of N2.

[@brianmcdowell150]

Regular acetylene in oxygen will do the job, and it's almost as hot

[@siffchopf22]

haha i'll never forget our fire safety demonstration when I started working at a chem plant, I mean the normal stuff was pretty good but in the end they started a big ass magnesium fire and blasted it with a firehose, that created like a 5m diameter ball of plasma (probably not plasma, but it was really impressive).

[@Tranarpnorra]

Always a great day when another Ex&F video is published! You go Tom!

[@ExplosionsAndFire]

thanks mate!!

[@VagabondTexan]

Oh yes, magnesium burns. Lots of older airplanes can attest to that. Oh, and the slo-mo of the water hitting the magnesium at the end was art!

[@lokiva8540]

One of my grandfathers worked for a major aerospace manufacturer, during and after WW-II. They had their own fire department, between military secure operations, and special fire classes. At some point they bought a rather expensive and high tech, low weight in order to carry more tank capacity within truck highway weight limits, magnesium fire truck. When it caught fire, their sample of a Class D fire dwarfed anything I've ever seen academics pretend was a large metal fire. Thermite variants could use more attention, eg welding to destroy tanks, versus CadWeld brews optimized for attaching copper heavy wire or strap to copper flashed steel ground rods, or tower bases, or to bond railroad tracks. That would also allow discussion of CadWeld fixtures to contain and shape molten metal, and their use to bond to structural metals without undue damage to their integrity.

[@rotobracca]

binge watched every piece of content you had made during lockdown (I was missing my own lab) and was VERY excited to see you on Cold Ones today (which I shit-watch when on breaks from lab work) - keep up the hazardous work so I don't get tempted to do it myself!

[@ExplosionsAndFire]

Glad I'm keeping ya safe mate haha

[@Sniperboy5551]

This is awesome, I’ve been dying for a new Ex&F video ever since I saw Tom on Cold Ones a few days ago. Thank you for delivering!

[@GigasGMX]

Metal fires are a subject I really wanted to know more about. Very urgently. Thanks for the video!

[@AntiSocialYogg]

Every day we get further and further from the thesis. I'm not complaining. Nice work!

[@skitidet4302]

After looking up that Ti-6Al-4V alloy, I'm thinking you're going to have a real hard time lighting that on fire because of 2 reasons. 1. The alloy is known for it's corrosion resistance, I saw it stated that it's even better than stainless steel. Thus making it react with stuff is hard and/or it forms a really protective oxide layer around the alloy. 2. You can TIG weld the stuff without any special precautions. This makes me think that even if you get it ridiculously hot, it's not going to catch fire because if it could, it would cause problems while welding because if the inert gas was removed before it cooled down, it could start fires. Maybe you could make it burn in the normal atmosphere if you tried to TIG weld it without gas, but I doubt it. Maybe try an oxy acetylene torch as that is both hot and has plenty of oxygen with it to make reaction more likely? Edit, I actually found a study on the ignition temperature of this particular alloy. Their finding was that it ignites at 1680 °C. So it should be doable with a welder.

[@hectic6981]

It's neat to see how things are in different places. I service and sell fire extinguishers. Those 30Lb amerex D class extinguishers are definitely expensive. There is also a copper powered version model C571. Where I live A is paper, wood, cloth etc.. B is flammable liquids(gases fall into this catahory as well, like we select B rated for propane powered industrial trucks for example) , C is energized electrical equipment, D is combustabke metal, K is commercial kitchen equipment fires involving oils and fats. And that's it, 5 classes.

[@tadcastertory1087]

Yes, he's back and setting fire to things!!

[@dylutant]

Maybe it'd start easier in high oxygen atmosphere? Or use something like shavings of titanium to ignite those, since it's less of a mass to heat up with better surface to bulk ratio.

[@nathanaelspurlin2234]

Close, titanium doesn't really react with oxygen period. A near-pure nitrogen environment has a much more energetic reaction.

[@chemistryreacts]

@@nathanaelspurlin2234 Under ambient conditions it does not, when heated it does oxidise quite readily.

[@frysebox1]

One month ago: *My thesis has been due for months, lets make ice cream* Now: *ALL MUST BURN* Love you Tom, looking forward to the next level of escalation

[@georgeperalta936]

A week before the deadline, so guys what if we concentrated plutonium and played with it?

[@SmokinDodi]

I’ve just recently found this channel, I’ve already watched all the videos and I need more!

[@TiernanWilkinson]

I'm a bit surprised you first went the route of thermite rather than increasing the surface area of your sample. At the machine shop where I work we have a class-D extinguisher because we occasionally machine magnesium. The hazard is really not the parts themselves but the chips from them. Those can catch fire quite easily if exposed to heat. Since everything within our CNC mills is being constantly sprayed with cutting coolant that's usually not much of a factor but we still need to have the extinguisher on hand just in case.

[@FyreDrac]

Excited to watch a new vid! Hope thesis is going well!

[@RinoaL]

You can set titanium on fire with a carbon arc torch using a huge arc welder.

[@truetrueevil1]

As repeated by others, surface area is key. Burning magnesium strip is super easy and did it all the time in school. I would assume similar for other metals. Might be high thermal mass of the metals is also dissipating the heating effect from the torch too.

[@ktktktktktktkt]

12:13 the burger king employee when I ask for no salt on my fries

[@whitewalkaryt5851]

I work in a foundry down in Melbourne where the main thing we work with is zinc, lead, aluminium and magnesium. I cannot tell how many times I’ve set mag and zinc on fire, it’s so easy to do and it looks beautiful, but with some of the things we do we also use some titanium cadmium indium etc and the other day we were mixing some alive cadmium and titanium halfway through it we checked to see if everything had melted together, the titanium was on fire and shit man is it bright never seen something hurt my eyes that much, just as effective as staring at welding.

[@budderstulle5205]

Your videos keep gaining quality! Love it.

[@DylanClarkSallee]

You might be able to use an inductive loop to generate super high temperatures in the titanium.

[@petevenuti7355]

Melt it! Yeah Then recharge that 'extinguisher ' zirconium powder and pure oxygen and stick it right in the pool of hot liquid titanium!!!!! Yeeehaa! Sorry, I'm getting carried away, Just burn some uranium fluoride and call it a day... Keep it simple.

[@FLYGTRVIC]

I was thinking induction heating too, is there a limit to how far you could push it?

[@DylanClarkSallee]

@@FLYGTRVIC I suppose the limit is technically how much electrical service you have ;D

[@temp_name_change_later]

I’d be interested in seeing different torch flames, like with different gases and stuff. I remember reading on Wikipedia that carbon subnitride/dicyanoacetylene has the hottest known flame in air, though idk how feasible it’d be to make something like that, at the same time it’d be cool to learn about the different properties of, say, propane flames vs acetylene flames vs hydrogen flames vs whatever other flammable gases

[@Jan12700]

6:43 Warthunder Community: Challenge accepted xD

[@YannisManesis]

I love when E&F uploads and my crude oil turns to cranberry juice

[@notchpoodles5864]

1:06 I️ love how little effort you can tell he put into this. Like he just used the full bucket and then went on with his life. What a mood

[@Irish381]

Have you ever considered using a oxygen candle to start a class D fire?

[@AlexanderBurgers]

oh yeah that's done with titanium pipe iirc.

[@KomradZX1989]

This channel is where real KZbin chemistry is done ❤

[@dndboy13]

i was reading (well listening) to Atomic Accidents by James Mahaffey and in that book he mentions that plutonium in addition to its toxic and radioactive properties is pyrophoric (as well as its oxides), and that plutonium fires were (are??) common in nuclear processing. (other fun properties involve 6 different allotropes under normal atmospheric pressure, with different crystal structures and density, making machining plutonium a pain as the stuff will change as it heats up while being milled)

[@whynotdean8966]

NighthawkInLight recently made a video on an oxygen concentrator. Maybe you could use one of those to get a fire started on the titatium? Plus of course it's a handy machine to have around.

[@killsalot78]

7:21 theres a reason why they always use a flower pot when doing a melt demo with thermite, you need to keep the heat concentrated, all the molten metal just spreads out when it sits on a plate like that

[@killsalot78]

lol, and also I would bet your grans silverware isn't pure iron either

[@LFTRnow]

If you want to keep it as thick hunks of metal rather than fine powder or turnings, then electricity is probably a good go-to. Dump some amps into it. It would be easier if you could get a strip, ribbon or wire of the metal, since the wider and thicker it is, the more current you will need - but there is basically no limit to how hot you can make it. Another idea, get it very hot then drop it into LN2 or LO2. (some will form nitrides with LN2 but it is the LO2 that will be the real fun)

[@ananthropomorphictalkinggo6641]

To light titanium, you need to increase the surface area. You need to turn it in to thin shavings or powder.

[@yaboi224]

I would just like to apologize, I’ve been watching your videos for a while now and just realized I wasn’t subscribed, I am to extractions&ire but not this one, I absolutely love these videos and hope you grow even more as time goes on. Definitely the MOST entertaining science/ chemistry channel on YT. IMO right up there with Nile, please never quit.

[@sethschneider9764]

For lighting the titanium, you could turn it into little shavings and it might be easier to light/melt

[@Susul-lj2wm]

I spoke to my dad (firefighter and craftsman), he says if you want to ignite titanium you just need a hotter flame. He recommended a plasma torch. Alternative is dividing up the titanium, since that lights better, maybe use that as a starter

[@guytech7310]

Broh! I am total embarrassed for you, because you're user ID isn't very Pi. You need to have at least the 100 digits of Pi! /joking - hope you have a great day.

[@Cocc0nuttt0]

Your dad? You're on speaking terms? I doubt it.

[@canabrown4774]

I eagerly anticipate your vids and I love your sense of humor. I don't know much about chemistry but If my teacher had presented it the way you do.....

[@thematt6705]

1:24 Finally, someone telling it like it is

[@maulerrw]

Also I'd definitely like to see you use the world's most expensive salt shaker on a bowl of chips.

[@piousminion7822]

Titanium requires surface area and/or oxygen contact. You could aim pure oxygen at a red-hot spot on it. That, or make a titanium "sponge" of some sort. Maybe take a bunch of thin titanium wire pieces mixed with plastic pieces and secure one end in, idk, plaster or something, and then melt the plastic out, leaving you with a sponge-like arangement of thin titanium wire that you could then try to burn. Maybe start it with some titatium powder you could light up on it? :P

[@Reddotzebra]

From what I have heard the titanium sponge is probably the best idea. Usually when you hear about titanium fires they come from machine shops that don't clean up titanium shavings fast enough and have piles of the stuff for when some random bit catches fire on a lathe.

[@ChristopherSloane]

Watched a guy's motorcycle burn a few weeks ago it was the brightest fire I have ever seen. It was not so much the gasoline-burning but the metal on the bike.

[@longcaster1365]

This is the best channel to listen to when you work on your PhD thesis. It constantly reminds you science is fun when the thesis writing is sucking every bit of your soul out of you at the same time. Keep up the fantastic work, mate.

[@einfisch3891]

1:25 I'm starting a PhD that involves working with Lanthanides and I feel called out Also I am assuming you couldn't set the bulk titanium on fire because the surface oxidized far too quickly, protecting the rest of the metal. Which in most cases is exactly what you want.

[@ExplosionsAndFire]

Lanthanides make very fun and interesting PhD projects! That's why the conspiracy is so successful

[@serbianspaceforce6873]

If you want titanium to light more readily you should try the chips that come off machining processes. Usually when you hear about titanium fires its in the context of a machine shop with large piles of these shavings laying around, so i figure those light better (plus there's a bunch more surface area)

[@Greylegato]

Titanium is also known as being a heat wick metal, ie it defuses heat, so when you weld it, you have to go VERY slowly in order to maintain proper heat on the metal the whole time. I think you may have more luck by powdering some of the titanium and then igniting it violently to ignite the sheet, but I'm really not sure what would work.