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Posted by Tim Shoppa on April 23, 2008, 9:49 am
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I'm looking for something even denser than lead. Ideally I'd like to
fill up a small can, about pint-size, with scrap metal and get a
weight close to 10kg (22 pounds). I might not make 22 pounds but if I
could just get most of the way there it'd be good.
Lead is of course much more available but only about 65% as dense. It
takes me almost a quart of lead to get that much weight.
Tungsten and uranium fall in this category. Anyone know of a good
souce of these, or other heavy metals, as scrap metal? I suspect they
show up in some aerospace junkyards... I've heard as depleted uranium
being used as counterweights in aircraft. And both probably show up in
armor-piercing weapons. I'm not fundamentally opposed to cutting or
machining either of these to make the scrap fit into a can densely but
I suspect they are not the best things to have floating around the
shop as dust. Lead I can melt, but I don't think I can use a propane
torch to melt tungsten or uranium, can I? I think Uranium filings
would probably just burn...!!!
Tim.
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Posted by Nick Leone on April 23, 2008, 10:15 am
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Tungsten has a *really* high melting point (6192?°F), and uranium is pretty
high as well (2070°F). In anything, you'd need a chunk large enough to
machine down to size. What's your price range on this project? Neither of
these metals will be cheap, and I'm not sure if you can even get Uranium.
At least in the US, I'd expect the NRC and FBI to take a sudden interest in
your hobbies if you went about trying to get Uranium, although I don't know
the exact legal status of it.
-Nick
> I'm looking for something even denser than lead. Ideally I'd like to
> fill up a small can, about pint-size, with scrap metal and get a
> weight close to 10kg (22 pounds). I might not make 22 pounds but if I
> could just get most of the way there it'd be good.
>
> Lead is of course much more available but only about 65% as dense. It
> takes me almost a quart of lead to get that much weight.
>
> Tungsten and uranium fall in this category. Anyone know of a good
> souce of these, or other heavy metals, as scrap metal? I suspect they
> show up in some aerospace junkyards... I've heard as depleted uranium
> being used as counterweights in aircraft. And both probably show up in
> armor-piercing weapons. I'm not fundamentally opposed to cutting or
> machining either of these to make the scrap fit into a can densely but
> I suspect they are not the best things to have floating around the
> shop as dust. Lead I can melt, but I don't think I can use a propane
> torch to melt tungsten or uranium, can I? I think Uranium filings
> would probably just burn...!!!
>
> Tim.
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Posted by Tim Wescott on April 23, 2008, 10:42 am
Please log in for more thread options On Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:15:37 -0500, Nick Leone wrote:
> Tungsten has a *really* high melting point (6192?F), and uranium is
> pretty high as well (2070F). In anything, you'd need a chunk large
> enough to machine down to size. What's your price range on this
> project? Neither of these metals will be cheap, and I'm not sure if you
> can even get Uranium. At least in the US, I'd expect the NRC and FBI to
> take a sudden interest in your hobbies if you went about trying to get
> Uranium, although I don't know the exact legal status of it.
>
> -Nick
>
>
> news:a45718f9-
a1fe-4d2f-8b9d-0665d49c6bad@y38g2000hsy.googlegroups.com...
>> I'm looking for something even denser than lead. Ideally I'd like to
>> fill up a small can, about pint-size, with scrap metal and get a weight
>> close to 10kg (22 pounds). I might not make 22 pounds but if I could
>> just get most of the way there it'd be good.
>>
>> Lead is of course much more available but only about 65% as dense. It
>> takes me almost a quart of lead to get that much weight.
>>
>> Tungsten and uranium fall in this category. Anyone know of a good souce
>> of these, or other heavy metals, as scrap metal? I suspect they show up
>> in some aerospace junkyards... I've heard as depleted uranium being
>> used as counterweights in aircraft. And both probably show up in
>> armor-piercing weapons. I'm not fundamentally opposed to cutting or
>> machining either of these to make the scrap fit into a can densely but
>> I suspect they are not the best things to have floating around the shop
>> as dust. Lead I can melt, but I don't think I can use a propane torch
>> to melt tungsten or uranium, can I? I think Uranium filings would
>> probably just burn...!!!
>>
>> Tim.
Depleted uranium isn't that radioactive, and it _is_ used in civil
aviation as a dense counterweight material.
AFAIK uranium is very toxic, chemically, totally aside from any
radioactive effects. It is recognized as toxic to the point where those
aircraft counterweights are coated and given a warning color, where lead
is not. I'd get my hands on an MSDS before I even began to think of
handling it, so I knew whether it was a rubber-gloves sort of thing or a
full body suit sort of thing.
Tungsten is much more benign, although it's very hard so it'll be very
difficult to machine.
--
Tim Wescott
Control systems and communications consulting
http://www.wescottdesign.com
Need to learn how to apply control theory in your embedded system?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" by Tim Wescott
Elsevier/Newnes, http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html
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Posted by Tim Shoppa on April 23, 2008, 11:23 am
Please log in for more thread options > Tungsten has a *really* high melting point (6192?=B0F), and uranium is pre=
tty
> high as well (2070=B0F). =A0In anything, you'd need a chunk large enough t=
o
> machine down to size.
Again, I was hoping to get some random scrap that could go into a can
or bucket pretty densely.
>=A0What's your price range on this project?
Don't want to pay too much more than lead, but I'll pay a little more.
Lead scrap sold for fishing weights at the junkyard seems to be $2 a
pound, and I'd pay more for denser metals than lead, so max price I'd
like to pay for 20 pounds of denser stuff would be circa very low
hundreds of $.
Like I said, I am looking for scrap, not machining down from billet!
With scrap I could contemplate trying to pack it all into a little
pint-size can, without having to melt it down or do too much cutting.
Tim.
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Posted by Spehro Pefhany on April 23, 2008, 12:05 pm
Please log in for more thread options On Wed, 23 Apr 2008 08:23:23 -0700 (PDT), the renowned Tim Shoppa
>> Tungsten has a *really* high melting point (6192?°F), and uranium is pretty
>> high as well (2070°F). In anything, you'd need a chunk large enough to
>> machine down to size.
>
>Again, I was hoping to get some random scrap that could go into a can
>or bucket pretty densely.
>
>> What's your price range on this project?
>
>Don't want to pay too much more than lead, but I'll pay a little more.
>Lead scrap sold for fishing weights at the junkyard seems to be $2 a
>pound, and I'd pay more for denser metals than lead, so max price I'd
>like to pay for 20 pounds of denser stuff would be circa very low
>hundreds of $.
>
>Like I said, I am looking for scrap, not machining down from billet!
>With scrap I could contemplate trying to pack it all into a little
>pint-size can, without having to melt it down or do too much cutting.
>
>Tim.
Maybe some junk tungsten carbide bits cast into a Pb matrix?
15.6 g/cm^3 for tunsten carbide
11.3 g/cm^3 for lead
Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com
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> fill up a small can, about pint-size, with scrap metal and get a
> weight close to 10kg (22 pounds). I might not make 22 pounds but if I
> could just get most of the way there it'd be good.
>
> Lead is of course much more available but only about 65% as dense. It
> takes me almost a quart of lead to get that much weight.
>
> Tungsten and uranium fall in this category. Anyone know of a good
> souce of these, or other heavy metals, as scrap metal? I suspect they
> show up in some aerospace junkyards... I've heard as depleted uranium
> being used as counterweights in aircraft. And both probably show up in
> armor-piercing weapons. I'm not fundamentally opposed to cutting or
> machining either of these to make the scrap fit into a can densely but
> I suspect they are not the best things to have floating around the
> shop as dust. Lead I can melt, but I don't think I can use a propane
> torch to melt tungsten or uranium, can I? I think Uranium filings
> would probably just burn...!!!
>
> Tim.