I wouldn't use t-mite for cutting. They make little "pens" with t-mite. Cool little toy. A good intro to the proper use of t-mite. Jerry

YouTube - Fun with thermite

thermite is amazing, i saw it eat through 4 inches of plated steel with ease, verry dangerous stuff, but cool.....:P

Woodwalker,
Have you considered renting a O/A rig, or even a gas powered cut-off saw for an afternoon? Can't imagine it being that expensive, and it would be much more accurate, albeit not as much fun
Just my $0.02 :)

i have been messing around with thermite seince i was 9 and its a really bad idea in general

but if you must my recipe is
2/3 alum powder (go out and buy a new coffee grinder pack is with alm foil flakes and run it for 30 min DONT USE FOR FOOD EVER AGAIN! bad stuff happens)
1/3 black iron oxide not red (FeO) {scale} [same method for grindeing as before]

be careful

BWAHAHAHAHAH!!!! More explosive stuff!!! I might add to tetnum's post that you need to use DIFFERANT COFFEE GRINDERS FOR THE FeO AND ALUMINUM! I had freinds who didnt and got a free trip to the ER.

"I need to cut a piece of angle iron, but do not have a big saw, so I though " Why not use thermite? I have iron oxide and aluminum, and Ill use magnesium from a fire lighter to light it."

Maybe a foolish question to ask this late in the game, but just how big is this beastly sized section of angle iron? If you lived closer I would cut it here for free as a goodwill gesture! As you do not, I would suggest contacting a machine shop, weld shop, fabrication shop, etc. near you and see if one of them would be willing to cut it at a reasonable price. Another option (if size permits) is a good old fashioned hand-powered hacksaw, a few extra blades, and elbow grease.

You also state need to cut, but offer no indication of angle piece's use after the cutting.

Rumor has it a wise man once said that it was a lot harder to remember the initial goal was to drain the swamp, after you find yourself surrounded by alligators.

If you can cram it into a flat rate box and mail it here, my offer to cut it free still stands.

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BWAHAHAHAHAH!!!! More explosive stuff!!! I might add to tetnum's post that you need to use DIFFERANT COFFEE GRINDERS FOR THE FeO AND ALUMINUM! I had freinds who didnt and got a free trip to the ER.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH sorry forgot to mention that that was really stupid on my part sorry thanks for catching that golden eagle

yah. id post the pictures if they Did'nt have so much gore...

(pressure blast; it had cooled sufficeintly to not kill him as he was 10-20 ft. away but it was still glowing. as a general rule 80-200,000 ft. betwixt you and ANYTHING that could even remotely explode)

Hahahaha man!
You remind me myself a few years ago,i wanted to cast some aluminum swage...
So i broke up some old gearbox to chips with my crushing hammer and filled up my biggest
casting spoon,it was about 8 pounds of raw material.
Point is,it WASN'T aluminum at all but magnesium.It took me about 2 hours and pile of sand to persuade it to stop burning.And IT burned like living xxxx, man.So don't do it or you gonna pay for red truck...
PS,i didn't neighbor wasn't keen to call them.

Jan,
was that an old VW block?

Magnesium need more then a match to light. A simple blowtorch is enough to ignite the thermite. Thermite burns very roughly though. It leaves behind a slag of aluminum and iron which you have to remove, and it has a habbit of leaving an uneven cut. Try and get hold of an oxy torch. If it has a decent enough cutting tip it shouldnt leave too much work cleaning it.

Thermite burns around 3000C, creates alot of smoke, and can shoot slag out of it(which will burn through your skin very easily, it'll hit the bone and stay there, making an expensive operation to remove).

Better to be safe then sorry, and use your common sense in all occasions