Im doing a general labor job and the project manager himself was out in the site using a mag to float some mud. He was trying to teach me about magnesium chemical reaction with concrete. I did concrete for a year and i noticed that he hadnt stripped the coating off of the magnesium float and said that he wasnt using magnesium till he stripped the costing off his mag and he told me he did 15 years and you dont strip the outer coating off a magIm so confused bros. Which one of us is retarded?
Isn't the point of the mag float just that it's a hard, smooth surface? I think the suction of water and the mag draws a lot of the portland to the surface. This gives you a nice finish at the cost of weakening to surface cracks.
>>2903874From what i was taught, the point if magnesium is it causes a chemical reaction to draw up the water and that to expose the magnesium you have to strip the outer coating shit off the mag. Any tine i bought a new mag id scrape that coating off in the dirt before using to expose the metal beneath.
The coating if there is any will be worn off after troweling very much at all. The mag surface is kinda rough or coarse and that is what brings the cream to the top. Feel the surface of a mag trowel vs a steel trowel and you will see what I mean. How would it be a chemical reaction or draw the water to the magnesium? Wouldn't the chemical reaction be saturated with water immediately rendering it useless? If you put a mag trowel in a bucket of water does it absorb all the water and ruin the trowel? Come on man...
>>2903904>would it be a chemical reaction or draw the water to the magnesium? Wouldn't the chemical reaction be saturated with water immediately rendering it useless? If you put a mag trowel in a bucket of water does it absorb all the water and ruin the trowel? Come on man...Confused by your post. Typically you start off with fiber when its wet but 8f you want to "cream it up" you use the mag. I never said anything about absorbing water. It definetly draws water up for sure.Youre probably right about the acidic concrete eating through that shit pretty quick though.
Found this >when magnesium floats on water, it's due to a chemical reaction between the magnesium and the water, producing hydrogen gas bubbles that cause the magnesium to float. Here's a more detailed explanation:The Reaction:Very clean magnesium ribbon has a mild reaction with cold water, forming magnesium hydroxide (Mg(OH)2) and hydrogen gas (H2).
>>2903906I'm saying it is not a chemical reaction that brings the water and cream of the concrete to the surface, rather it is the rougher surface of the mag trowel that does it. They used to use wood floats for the same purpose... Steel slicks off the top of th surface. A rough mag float pushes larger stuff down and brings the cream to the surface. That is all it is. No magical chemical reaction or other voodoo bullshit.My post was to get you to think about what a chemical reaction even is. Do you think a magical mag float that draws water up through concrete wouldn't draw up water from other sources or even the atmosphere until all the chemical reaction was used up? Wouldn't they sell mag trowels as a one time use deal in vacuum sealed bags if that were truly the case?
>>2903834I don't think there's any chemical reaction taking place. A magnesium float can have some density to it making it heavy enough to effectively float concrete that is setting up while also being smooth enough not to gouge the surface like a wooden float can do at that stage.
>>2904030>>2904033>>2903909
>>2903834I think that’s all nonsense.However, there probably is a reaction that will eventually pit and damage your float.Magnesium is similar to aluminum (and, in fact, alloys together well) but I had cast aluminum floats back in the 70’s.Magnesium is good good for the same reasons they use magnesium base plates on circular saws. No other reasons.If you see what lye (a base) does to aluminum, you’ll understand what the highly basic cream water from the cement is slowly doing to your mag float.
>>2904115You have one thing right. Anyone who has done concrete before knows that the chemical reaction will slowly fuck your mag. The left is a new mag and the right was only used for a few months. I have one around here i used for a year and its sloped upwards and half the thickness
>>2904139>the chemical reaction will slowly fuck your mag.You sure that's not just the abrasive nature of the concrete wearing the magnesium out?
>>2904144Hehe
