I live in a really old brick house with steel doors. All in all, there are 6 doors. The locks don't work very well anymore, and I'm a bit concerned about the security of my home. I've never had a problem getting inside whenever I left my key inside.
Since the doors and their frames are steel, and we only ever use about 2 of them, I'm thinking of welding the other 4 shut. The house is going to have to be torn down within a year or two anyway. I don't have any welding equipment, and I can't afford to bring somebody in, so I was thinking of using thermite. I can get powdered aluminum and iron oxide pretty cheaply.
How should I go about welding with thermite? How can I apply the thermite in a way that after it burns, it will hold the door shut? I was thinking of adding something to the thermite to make it sticky, and then pasting it along the frame from the outside. (From the outside so that I don't burn my house!)
Any suggestions?
Awsome idea!
I'm sorry to say it won't work though.
You would be on the 5 Oclock news with flames leaping and big red trucks pouring water on your plasma TV.
Better to come up with some kind of bolt or rivit arrangement.
Man. I just about spit coffee out my nose thinking about this one.
Dr. Destructo's home contractor thermit kit..... >snort<
Agreeing with Lawrence here, the other major use for thermite besides welding is as a filler for incendiary bombs.
If you just take a large sheet metal screw and drive it into the crack between the door and the frame it will jam the door quite well. Extras improve the result. For an outward opening door you have to break or grind off the heads of the screws. Keep in mind that once the heads are off they are really hard to remove.
Bill
None of my business, but I would be leery of welding my doors permanently shut in case of a fire or other emergency. If you want privacy from possible intruders, why don't you just put some dead bolt locks, or something similar, on the inside of the un-used doors? At least then you could get out if an emergency arose, and you had to use one of those doors. What would you do if you had a fire and you couldn't use the 2 doors you left open? Man, you'd be SOL.
Extremely good point. If the doors are steel it shouldn't be hard to make up a very secure inside locking mechanism.
Thank you for your help, guys.
I will probably end up either fixing the locks or buying new locks.
I am still curious, though.. How would I go about welding 2 pieces of vertical steel using thermite? (Of course, in a situation where there isn't anything flammable nearby.) How could I hold the thermite in place? I was thinking of cutting a can of beans in half vertically, gluing it to the surface, and filling it with thermite. Of course, it would be messy, but would it work?
http://aws.org/cgi-bin/mwf/topic_show.pl?id=5220#24096
You would have to build fire clay dams to contain the metal. The reactor would have to be fire clay also. The reaction would destroy a tin can as though it wasn't there.
Search here and on google for thermite. Lots of hits.
Bill
I understand that the can has as much chance as holding the burning thermite as a stick of butter would. But I was thinking that maybe the can would hold it there just so that when it all melts, some of it would stick to the surfaces.
Otherwise, where do you get fire clay?
Adding to the above- Thermite welding is used almost exclusively for butt welds in cases where the welded shape can be completely surrounded by protective dams. The molten iron is at a very high temperature and the amount of melting of the welded material is hard to predict. An attempt to weld thin material (like a door frame) would be very likely to melt through thus introducing hot molten iron into the space between the doorframe and the surrounding wall. It would then run down and pool on whatever stopped it. Perhaps burn through that and pour through to something below. Can you guarantee non-flamability? Many steel doors have wooden cores can you guarantee that this is not the case?
If you experiment with thermite do it outdoors. It has no practical indoor use (unless your intent is to burn down the building).
Bill
Halma:
Please listen to Bill before you become eligible for a Darwin award! If you just want to satisfy your curiosity, you might try visiting your local railroad/subway/lightrail transit company, to see if they would allow you to witness a thermite rail weld or bond. I am sure you would be surprized at the violence of the reaction and the measures that have to be taken to control it. Also, looking at some of the links Bill cited should convince you that this process isn't as simple as you think.
No, believe me, I'm not going to try this on my house doors. I'm not foolish enough to ignore so many warnings.
I was just considering giving it a test on some old pieces of steel. (And yes, definitely outdoors!) I'm not the kind of person to give caution to the wind, I will be standing far away, I will be wearing welding goggles, etc.
And by the way, can anyone tell my why they weld railroad rails? I thought they were supposed to leave gaps to allow for expanding in hot weather?
It makes it quieter and avoids the accelerated wear that occurs by conventional joints. The expansion manifests as a stress in the rail.
Bill
By Halma
Date 11-17-2005 19:10
Ah, so it just takes the expansion like a man.. :)
Thanks for the reply.
