What is Magnesium Arc Cutting?

[rdennett]

Richard Finch mentions this process in his books on welding, and relates a story of cutting some exotic alloy used in some aspect of building the space shuttle. He stated that it took an hour to cut this with a band saw and expended a $100 blade. He felt that the job could have been done in five minutes with a $5 Cronatron rod. I was unable to find any mention of this on the web and the only arc-cutting process people seem to know about when I mention this is air-arc gouging. Have any of you heard of magnesium arc cutting?

Thanks,
Rob

[Dragons lair]

Richard Finch mentions this process in his books on welding, and relates a story of cutting some exotic alloy used in some aspect of building the space shuttle. He stated that it took an hour to cut this with a band saw and expended a $100 blade. He felt that the job could have been done in five minutes with a $5 Cronatron rod. I was unable to find any mention of this on the web and the only arc-cutting process people seem to know about when I mention this is air-arc gouging. Have any of you heard of magnesium arc cutting?

Thanks,
Rob

Rob, Over the yrs Chronatron has had some of the greatest rods for exotic work, Some of it seems to vanish with age
Had a Rep stop in last yr. Asked about products I have used a long time ago. No info available was the answer. I
have used a silver braze melt with a match remelt with a O/A torch. Watch out for mag cutting its hard to stop.
Watched a factory fire in Conn yrs ago burn to the ground, I think it was 6 fire co.s tryed to put it out.
Ken