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How to Turn Metal Into Powder

A powder is a dry solid made up of fine particles. Because of the present advanced state of metal powder technology, The Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF) favors the term "particulate materials" to "powder." While producing metal powder on an industrial scale is an extremely complicated process requiring substantial investment and specialized equipment, such as a continuous furnace, you can make your own metal powder on a small scale using a process called solid-state reduction.

Things You'll Need

Vise
Paper
File (e.g. bastard file)

Instructions

- 1
  Clamp the metal tightly in the vise with an edge, rather than a face, uppermost.
- 2
  Place a piece of paper on the bench below the jaws of the vise, to catch the filings.
- 3
  Rub one of the toothed faces of the file across the edge of the metal so that filings begin to form and drop onto the paper.
- 4
  Stop filing the metal when you have enough filings on the paper for your intended purpose.
- 5
  Lift the paper carefully, form a short fold in the center of one edge and pour the filings along the fold into a suitable container.

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