Name this Metal

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motoroilmccall

motoroilmccall

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Are my eyes that bad? I thought I had 20/20 vision... Looking at that picture all I see is a piece of tinwork, I can't tell the color well enough to draw a conclusion. Knowing where it came from is the only help we got. I'd say Aluminum, Stainless isn't cheap and its heavy, rail cars are weight conscious, not as much as an airplane, but they try to keep the weight down to be able to load more. Aluminum is the most plentiful metal on earth, and its been reasonably cheap for decades. Without putting my hands on it I couldn't tell you what it is, but knowing the application I'd say aluminum. Whiting Door is right around the corner from my shop. They make the roll up (garage style) doors for the back of semi's. They use 1" marine grade plywood with aluminum laminated to both sides, powder coated white on one side and natural on the other. While its not that thick, for flooring it definitely could be.
 
peterc38

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Are my eyes that bad? I thought I had 20/20 vision... Looking at that picture all I see is a piece of tinwork, I can't tell the color well enough to draw a conclusion. Knowing where it came from is the only help we got. I'd say Aluminum, Stainless isn't cheap and its heavy, rail cars are weight conscious, not as much as an airplane, but they try to keep the weight down to be able to load more. Aluminum is the most plentiful metal on earth, and its been reasonably cheap for decades. Without putting my hands on it I couldn't tell you what it is, but knowing the application I'd say aluminum. Whiting Door is right around the corner from my shop. They make the roll up (garage style) doors for the back of semi's. They use 1" marine grade plywood with aluminum laminated to both sides, powder coated white on one side and natural on the other. While its not that thick, for flooring it definitely could be.

I don't know, it does not look like aluminum to me. The color is not at all right to be aluminum. Aluminum is white. Even aluminum that is older and oxidized is whitish. Also, aluminum is considerably softer and therefore has much lower abrasion resistance and would be a lot more scuffed I would think. If you have something that has sodium hydroxide in it i.e. lye or drain cleaner and you put a drop on it and it reacts it is most likely aluminum. If it does not react it is most likely stainless.

It is definitely not galvanized or an exotic metal like titanium or hastalloy as previously mentioned in other posts.
 
Vincent

Vincent

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Shop test

Hi
from the color i would say its Stainless better known as Inox Ansi # 316.

Is it heavy or is it light?

Is it elastic or can you bent it easy?

How does the file cut, is it hard or soft? Can it be cut with the pocketknife?

Is the surface corroded ?

Titanium is more dark gray.

Cheers Vincent
 
timberwolf

timberwolf

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Titanium also has a lot of spring to it and a very granular surface.

There is plenty of info here to figure it out, just need to do some tests. just looking at it in a photo can only tell so much.
 
ropensaddle

ropensaddle

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I had some weird metal one time out of an old coke box but it
was brittle and it's name was block tin not real common metal now.
Like the old Monel used in water heaters some compounds have outlived
their usefulness mainly cost associated. I also tore down an old cotton gin
and the power boxes three phase had nickel silver coils but before I could
have them smelted they were stolen:angry: over a hundred pounds:cry:
They had bulbs with pure platinum filaments once too!
 
Nailgunner

Nailgunner

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A test for aluminium and its more common alloys is to see if it reacts nicely with caustic soda solution, "lye" for you over there :) It will fizz and release hydrogen, stainless steel won't.

My bet is some sort of common stainless steel. If you can heat a corner cherry red without it melting it's not aluminium, but could well be stainless.
 
JohnL

JohnL

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Looks like an aluminum alloy to me?

A lead alloy should feel "heavy" for it's size

If you wanted to measure it's density, that would narrow it down. Hard part is measuring it's volume accurately. You could cut a piece off that would fit into a graduated cylinder. See how much water it displaces. Then density = mass/volume, compare to known values for different metals.

Magnesium 1.74 g/cc (grams per cubic centimeter)

Aluminum 2.7 g/cc

Steel 7.8 g/cc

Lead 11.3 g/cc
 
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