metals

11.24.09

Best Tool for the Job: Cutting Rebar

The best tools for trimming one of the most versatile and affordable materials you can get

By Mikey Sklar Posted 09.28.2009 at 3:19 pm 1 Comment

I love rebar. It's most often used in concrete as a reinforcement, but it has a ton of uses. I've made a fence, a shed, and my future dome home armatures all from rebar. And since it's often made locally from old cars, it's relatively planet-friendly, too, and not very expensive. A 20-foot-long, 3/8-inch thick stick normally costs me about $4. I've purchased more than three tons of the stuff from a metal plant near the El Paso border, about 100 miles from my home.

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READ MORE ABOUT > angle grinders, chop saws, cutters, cutting, domes, metals, rebars, TOOLS

Metal's Hidden Treasure

All metal is made of crystals; you just can’t see them—without a little acid, anyway

By Theodore Gray Posted 09.22.2008 at 11:52 am 8 Comments

The phrase “passing the acid test” gained popularity in the gold-rush years of the 1850s when miners used strong acids to determine whether the metal they had found was real gold or not. If it bubbled and frothed on contact with acid, it wasn’t gold. But even these failures produced something interesting and beautiful.

When pure metals cool, they solidify into intricately interlocked crystals. You can’t see the crystals because they fit together perfectly to form what appears to be a uniform mass with a smooth, solid surface. But acid can reveal the structure inside.

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READ MORE ABOUT > gray matter, metals, October 2008, Theodore Gray