Online Metals Blog

Looks like Amber has decided to do some bribery of the ol’ Art Department recently. They were under specific instructions that until we have shirtless equality in this nation, clothed pictures of all illustrative pictures are required. I find it highly discriminatory that she’s allowed to call up pictures of “shirtless Matt”, and I am not allowed to drop in pictures of “shirtless Megan”.

This is as close as we’re going to get. We still like our jobs. - Art Department

But that’s about as far as I can take that particular rant. Let’s work on a different one. Metal. It was pointed out that in the movie “Fool’s Gold”, Shirtless Matt finds a beer can with a metal detector, but that this shouldn’t work, because metal detectors don’t pick up aluminum.

Au Contraire, mon frere

I’ve done a lot of research on this, which translated to reading Wikipedia is the blogger’s best friend.

Even better is YouTube - somebody made a metal detector using nothing but an AM Radio, a pocket calculator, and some scotch tape:

McGyver Lives!

Basically, a metal detector works by a) creating an oscillating magnetic field in a coil, and b) measuring any variance in that magnetic field when it passes over an object. While it is common knowledge that most metals are to some extent conductors of electricity, it is not as well known that each metal has a different influence upon a magnetic field.

Here’s the funny thing. Metal Detectors are not limited to finding only magnetic items. They also work on all types of metals, including Aluminum, Stainless, Copper, Brass, and Bronze, hence the name. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a Plastic detector, so our offerings in that area may have to remain unlinked-to. Yeah, like that’s going to happen

So, as implausible as it may have seemed, it is perfectly reasonable that the metal detector in the movie picked up a beer can, regardless of how cheesy the movie actually is.

Ok, so my friend turned on the movie “Fools Gold” when I came over to watch the fireworks today. She promised nothing more than Matthew McConaughey with his shirt off.

Art department…could you um…? Yeah, thanks.

From the art department: ONE TIME thing, Amber! We refuse to make shirtless Matt pics a regular thing.

Oh believe me, it won’t be.

Anyway, a shirtless Matty is about all that this movie delivered. If I can save you an hour and a half of pure cheese, I’ve done my good deed for the day. Seriously, it’s bad.

The one thing this movie did offer, was fodder for our Metal in Movies blog. I figured that this category would be Chris’s category, because he’s a metals GOD…but I saw something obvious in a scuba scene, that I immediately thought to mention.

First, here’s the trailer. I didn’t find…cause I really didn’t look for the exact scene in question.

In the scene, Matthew is using a metal detector to find treasure under the sand at the bottom of the bay. He detects something which turns out to be an aluminum beer can.

Well guess what….aluminum won’t set off a metal detector!

I’d be lying if I said that this scene was the only blatant departure from reality….but you all know better.

If you don’t believe me, please feel free to check out our amazing selection of aluminum. Heck…check out all of our metals. Maybe a sample pack? Hours of entertainment determining what will and won’t set of the detector.

I’ve come to the conclusion that like Star Trek, only the odd-numbered Indiana Jones movies are any good. I’ve also decided that I will never watch another movie that George Lucas is heavily involved in, after Star Wars I,II, and III, and the abomination that was Indiana Jones IV.

There was, however, one good thing about Indiana Jones IV. Shia LaBeouf was in it. And that made me think of how much better the movie Transformers was. And then I started thinking about the other stars of Transformers, and lo and behold, we have another reason to add a picture of my favorite actress from that movie (Art Department, this is your cue to lose 3 or 4 hours on Google Image Search):

But I’m not here to review movies. I’m here to apply a detailed (some would say insanely geeky) eye towards the use of metals in the movies. Today’s topic: Raiders of the Lost Ark.

There isn’t a whole lot to work with here, but one thing that stands out is the “switching the golden idol head with a bag of sand” scene.

On the first dozen viewings, the trick that Indy uses seems to be a reasonable one. That is, unless you have a metals background and a whole lot of time on your hands. Fortunately, I do.

OK - the idol head looks to be about 9 inches high by 3 inches by 3 inches, or a total of 81 cubic inches. For the purposes of this example, let’s assume that the idol is solid gold, not hollow. From our friends at Matweb, we learn that 14k gold has a density of 0.6980 pounds per cubic inch. This gives us a weight of 56 pounds.

Now, dry sand has a density of .0643 pounds per cubic inch. Doing some fancy multiplication, a bag of sand approximately the same size will weigh 5.2 pounds. Of course the whole scheme is going to fail. You’d need a bag of sand at least 10 times as large as the idol in order not to trigger the trap underneath the idol’s head.

But it wouldn’t be a Metals in the Movies post unless we talked about metals that come in slightly more commercially available forms than gold idol heads. Pretty much the only material that is out there with a gold color is either alloy 260 or alloy 360 brass.

• 260 Brass, also known as cartridge brass because one of its first uses was to make bullet casings, is generally available in sheet or plate form only.
• 360 Brass is known as “Free Machining” Brass due to the addition of lead to its alloy composition. This alloy is hghly machinable and produces a very clean, highly polished finish. It is available in Round, Square, Hex, and Rectangle/Flat Bar.

Finally, if you’re looking for more information about the density of various materials, we cannot recommend Matweb highly enough. If you’re lazy like us, though, and want a computer to do your math for you, take a look at the OnlineMetals Weight Calculator, which will determine the weight of most industrially-available materials. Also, every one of our items has information about its weight per lineal foot or weight per square foot.

I get irrational over very few things. Neil O’ Donnell throwing away Super Bowl XXX. Hanging curveballs. You get the idea. As a metals guy, though, I get more than a little goofy over the way that metals are used in movies.

This is the first in what I’m sure will be a long-running series of rants talking about how movies oversimplify or otherwise misrepresent metals. By the way, Hollywood, consider this my attempt to become a technical advisor on the next Megan Fox film. (Note to OnlineMetals art department - completely gratuitous picture of Ms. Fox would be totally appropriate here.)

From the art department - no problem.

Case in point: Disney’s October Sky. Not a bad movie overall. Laura Dern is pretty good looking, and her attempt at a West Virginia accent is…interesting. The theme isn’t bad. I even like the story, even more so that it is essentially true.

But what I can’t handle is this exchange:

Roy Lee: Are you sure we need this nozzle thing?

Quentin: Are you kidding? The nozzle is the most important part - it directs the flow of the hot gases!

Roy Lee: Hey, cool it, Quentin! Man, talkin’ ’bout your ‘hot gases’…

Later…

Homer: It’s referred to as a nozzle, sir.

Mr. Bolden: Son, you can call it whatever you wanna call it…but you’re gonna have to have a better steel that can take the heat. Now I’d say S.A.E. 1018 bar stock ought to do you fine, and I can order it for you.

Homer: Well, that’d be great, Mr. Bolden.

Mr. Bolden: But it’s kind of expensive.

Look, I respect all the metals. They all have their purposes. But to hold up 1018 as an expensive high-end engineering steel is just totally pushing things too far. Based on what I saw, it looked like they were using a 6″ long piece of 3″ Round 1018 Rod.

Hmmm…wish I had a fast and easy source to find out how much that stuff costs. Oh, wait, there’s a place on the internet that sells these things. Looks like a 12″ piece runs $34.67 plus shipping. If you figure that prices have gone up 15 times since the mid-1950’s in which the movie was set, you’re talking about $2.50 worth of metal, or roughly a half a tank of gas at that time. Expensive for some kids growing up in a West Virginia coal town, but hardly back-breaking.

But back to 1018. As a steel, it is pretty good for general-purpose uses, but probably not the best for a rocket exhaust nozzle. You want stuff that can deal with heat, how about a nice alloy steel? If you really want to do it right, get your hands on some stainless, which is the most commercially available high temperature material.

Thanks to Script-O-Rama for the transcription, and thanks to Al Gore for inventing the internet, which made my search possible. And a special thanks to Google Image Search, which needs to do some work on finding pictures of Megan Fox. I only lost 5 or 6 hours today trying to decide which picture I would try to sneak into this post.

The latest in this comic to movie trend hits closer to our business, and we’re excited to see how they do.

If you haven’t heard of Metal Men, and I’ll be honest, I hadn’t. It’s a group of robots made out of specific metals.

Copper
Gold
Iron
Lead
Mercury
Nameless
Platinum (The Girl.)
Tin

Invented by Dr. William Magnus, the Metal Men each possess the characteristics and interpreted personalities of separate metals, such as stretchy leader Gold, strongman Iron, insecure Tin, and brain damaging causing Lead.

Could be a fun movie!