Gizmodo: welding

12 Videos of Metal Being Sliced and Diced by Lasers and Fire

matt buchanan — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 10:01:00 EST

Welding goes back thousands of years, but was totally revolutionized just a couple centuries ago. Oobject has 12 awesome videos showing the evolution of welding from blue-collar craftsmen last century to laser-wielding robots today. [Oobject]

How to Erase Your Data With Thermite

Kit Eaton — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 06:47:00 EDT

Over at Hackaday they've gone a bit fiery destruction crazy, and posted a guide on how to destroy HDDs with thermite—that's the super-high temperature chemical mix used in welding, fireworks, and generalized military destruction. The guide shows how a kilo of burning thermite melts clean through a PC case, hard drive platters and all, turning them into pools of melted metal...which may be handy if you, uh, ever need to, um, "destroy" your data in an emergency. Hmmm. Check out the video, which is pyrotechnically cool, then see the hard drives post-incineration.

Yup, that glowing mess was once a hard drive.

Thermite's a blend of iron oxide and aluminum, and when it goes off it's pretty crazy, reaching iron-melting temperatures in seconds, and spitting gobbets of metal everywhere. So don't try this at home. Really. 'Cause it might not stop reacting at the bottom of your PC case, and molten metal dropping through your floor is just bloody dangerous. [Hackaday]

Working Plastic-Welder Toy For Kids Sounds Like Lawsuit-In-Waiting

Kit Eaton — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:28:00 EDT

The Discovery Power Welder's sales pitch is fantastic, and worrying: "discover the power to make and create with the tool that safely welds plastic to plastic." And sure, the kit comes with specially-crafted parts that'll let your little-ones knock together a plastic dinosaur, plane or car. But what happens then? Do they start tackling their Lego collection with it, or decide to weld your iPod to your vacuum cleaner? Ok... so it's battery powered, and probably doesn't get all that hot, but we know just how "inventively naughty" kids can be. For just $30 this could allow your children to fuse your credit cards into one lump, never to be used again. [Product page via Random Good Stuff]