Iron and Aluminum Equals Danger

Warning: Mixing iron-oxide/rust with aluminum filings creates a Thermite like compound, a very dangerous substance with a very high combustion temperature of up to 4500° F. Too many smiths/metalworkers are unaware of this important safety issue. Working with aluminum in your shop can be extremely dangerous!

The places you want to watch out for are around your grinder, belt sander, drill press, band saw, chopsaw, etc. Should you have occasion to use any of these tools to process aluminum, you should first clean the area of any iron/steel filings, swarf. Process your aluminum (file, drill, saw, etc). Then clean up any aluminum filings or swarf.

Worst case would be to have a mixture of iron and aluminum filings and then have a spark hit it. -- AlbinDrzewianowski - 22 Jan 2009