• Long toollife, the tool stays sharp for long time
• Low power consumption, about 55% lower than for  aluminium alloys
• Reduction of machining time because of the high speeds
• Short chips an excellent surface

Relative power

Magnesium machining is normally done without any coolant. If when necessary to use coolant, a light mineral oil will suffice. Never use water based coolant because of the risk of any reaction with the chips during storage.

High-speed tools or carbide tipped tools are preferred for the machining of magnesium. It is important to keep the cutting tool sharp to avoid to much heat. The experience with diamond tools are excellent but the costs are relatively high. It is necessary to store machined products under dry conditions and when there is a chance of condensation, extra protection is needed. Machines should be kept clean and the turnings should be stored in steel bins.

Products of magnesium will not ignite easily. The magnesium must be heated to the melting point and during normal machining it’s virtually impossible. The chips can ignite but precautional methods should avoid this risk.

Magnesium dust how little it may seem has a high degree of flammability and these precautions are necessary to minimize these risk:

• Dry machining or use light mineral based oil
• Keep cutting tools sharp
• Dispatch the chips frequently and store these in steel closed containers
• Make sure there is an suitable extinguisher available
• Use compressed air with high speed automatic machining when shavings are produced

Should a fire occur, dry turnings will burn slow and evenly. Never use water to extinguish magnesium because the burning magnesium will decompose water to form hydrogen which is easily ignited.
The potassium chloride fire powder extinguisher is the best extinguisher, other common extinguishers such as cast iron turnings and dry sand.

In the Download section is the special machining datasheet available.