Comments

1. On October 25, 2021 at 10:29 am, Chris said:

   Could someone please explain “Without Magnesium, there is no Aluminum?” They are different elements. Further there must be a million tons of recycled aluminum available. I’ve even heard of people melting down soda cans and casting receivers.

2. On October 25, 2021 at 6:21 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:

   @ Chris

   Re: “Could someone please explain “Without Magnesium, there is no Aluminum?” They are different elements.”

   Magnesium and other trace elements are added to aluminum to change its properties, such as ductility, hardness, tensile strength, and ability to withstand heat-treatment or welding, amongst other reasons. Pure aluminum, though light in weight, is not durable enough for some applications or is otherwise unsuited, hence the formulation of alloys.

   Here’s a link:

   https://www.esabna.com/us/en/education/blog/how-and-why-alloying-elements-are-added-to-aluminum.cfm

   @ Herschel

   Re: “87% of Magnesium comes from China, because it is impossible to build a new smelter in the EU, USA or Canada.”

   I’ve been wrong about a lot of things in life, but I wasn’t wrong about the folly of trusting Red China. Way back in the early 1970s, when I was maybe 12-13 years old and Nixon-Kissinger were “opening” communist China to the West, I remember thinking to myself, “Are those guys crazy? Those people are our enemies!” And nothing has happened since then to change that basic conclusion.

   My late father was an electric engineer who graduated from Georgia Tech after WWII and then spent the majority of his career working for a multi-national Fortune 500 electronics firm, where he ultimately rose to be senior corporate vice-president, the number three man in the company. He was intimately involved in defense-related work and held high-level security clearances his whole adult life.

   His great fear was that the U.S. would allow its most-critical strategic industries, i.e., those necessary for the national defense and the preservation of our industrial base, to be off-shored to other countries. At that time, the looming threat was Japan, but his worse fears have come to pass instead because of communist China.

   If he was still with us today, he’d be very saddened and shocked to see the present state of affairs. It would have been all-the-more frustrating to him given that it was so preventable in the first place, if our leaders only acted in the interests of the nation and people instead of selling out to our adversaries.

3. On October 25, 2021 at 9:39 pm, Paul B said:

   Lot of people have passed that would be sad to see how things are turning out. Course if we believe the bible there is not much we can do to change the downward trend of society. We shall see how this ends soon I think.

   And yes, China is an asshole.

4. On October 25, 2021 at 11:01 pm, Herschel Smith said:

   @Chris,

   So sorry to be late responding. Worked a ten hour day.

   Metals are often stronger and exhibit better qualities when they are alloys. Please, please don’t make me rehearse my course on materials science and crystalline structure.

   I don’t have time.

   Aluminum as you know it isn’t Aluminum. It’s an alloy.

5. On October 26, 2021 at 4:43 pm, Brad said:

   “87% of Magnesium comes from China, because it is impossible to build a new smelter in the EU, USA or Canada.

   Why would we need to build new smelters here. We have quite a few that have been running at 40% capacity for years.
   There’s a DFAR component to this too and if it’s a part going to the military and can’t have anything that comes from China attached to it.

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