Static electricity?

[Christoffer Glans]

I'm no physisist and I'm a bit over protective about my expensive things, but I'm wondering if there's a risk that the magnesium material react destructively in some situations, that can damage the camera? I was fixing my camera pelicase to fit the Weapon in the hole where my Dragon was and when pulling the camera up from the foam (that's supposed to be non-static) I seemed to have heard a static electricity sparks. Is the magnesium reacting to the foam in a different way than aluminum?

And/or are there any other risks to take into account because of the material? Like... don't get the camera to hot or else it will burn in a super white fire :tongue_smilie:

 

[Zeb B]

Magnesium is the most common cast metal in pro camera bodies and basic stuff like lawn mowers and motors housings. It's easy to die cast, post process mill and is cheap / available worldwide. It has no special handling requirements or different static electricity conductive qualities when compared to aluminum. They use aluminum in electrical wiring in place of copper some times so it would follow that it is a very good conductor. Most manufactured "magnesium" products are actually an alloy with other metals like aluminum and none burst into flames. That's a myth long ago busted

 

[Christoffer Glans]

Magnesium is the most common cast metal in pro camera bodies and basic stuff like lawn mowers and motors housings. It's easy to die cast, post process mill and is cheap / available worldwide. It has no special handling requirements or different static electricity conductive qualities when compared to aluminum. They use aluminum in electrical wiring in place of copper some times so it would follow that it is a very good conductor. Most manufactured "magnesium" products are actually an alloy with other metals like aluminum and none burst into flames. That's a myth long ago busted

Perfect, almost a sticky for that answer haha :001_smile:

 

[Michael Tiemann]

Here's are really long (and amusing) story of one person's attempt to ignite a NeXT cube. It did ignite, in the end.

https://simson.net/hacks/cubefire.html