151–160 of 336 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That I readily believe, but to face a sheet is a different matter, which I believe was the application the OP intended. You can also cut tungsten with water jets loaded with abrasives, I've seen a 2" thick block cut like that, it was quite impressive. But that won't get you a surface. You'd need to start with a sheet of the right thickness.
Cut it off the end of a bar.
I have a tungsten wedding ring and the weirdest thing about it is how it bounces (on the occasions when it’s flown out of my hand - I don’t make a habit of doing so normally). It’s dense/heavy so seeing it bounce so well is somewhat paradoxical. (Side note: it may be impossible to cut through in case of an emergency but your finger is not.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That I readily believe, but to face a sheet is a different matter, which I believe was the application the OP intended. You can also cut tungsten with water jets loaded with abrasives, I've seen a 2" thick block cut like that, it was quite impressive. But that won't get you a surface. You'd need to start with a sheet of the right thickness.
True. I bet a quick call to Rembar would put you on your way to a source if you just need sheet. Tungsten foil/sheet isn't that hard to come by.
Cost a small fortune too.
This is one of those moments I feel so out of touch with the community here. Is this even real life?
I actually had the opposite reaction. A few months ago, I was researching a project involving a counterweight, and the periodic table led me to tungsten on account of its density. That was until I saw the price. Ever since then I have been vaguely considering buying a tungsten cube as a curiosity. I am bemused to find that others on hacker news seem to have arrived at the same idea.
Mercury is denser than lead but doesn't have a well-defined market price any more and has certain disadvantages. Many mercury amalgams would be a better substitute in many circumstances, but they might impose high costs on you for reasons that come down to pure superstition.
Tungsten is about the only minimally-hazardous substance I could find that could max out the 70-pound weight limit on a (US) Priority Mail flat-rate envelope, but that would be an expensive stunt.
Not only that, machining that piece would take ages and wear out a fortune in tooling.
Tungsten has an enormously high melting point, the normal way tungsten parts are produced, for typical industrial purposes such as radiation shielding, is sintering (powder + heat + pressure) to near-net-shape, finished with a machining pass.
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$9,000 for a 1cm cube. That's "winning the lotto impulse purchase" level for me.
It's not like that money disappears. Just think of it like buying gold bullion. Unlike say, a $9000 motorcycle impulse purchase, a block of raw metal should hold it's inflation adjusted value relatively well for decades and you can sell it whenever to recoup the money.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
True. I bet a quick call to Rembar would put you on your way to a source if you just need sheet. Tungsten foil/sheet isn't that hard to come by.
I've only ever used bar stock, but I imagine the same suppliers would have sheet as well though I can see a couple of arched eyebrows when you order that, plus a question or two if you are absolutely sure they have your order down accurately. Cost a small fortune too.
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I originally had a tungsten ring when I got married and managed to shatter both it and its replacement within a year. Terrible for rings, just go with silver if you want or need a cheap wedding ring.
My choice was titanium, which I used to make ours. It is (IMHO) among the finest of all materials for the job.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
$9,000 for a 1cm cube. That's "winning the lotto impulse purchase" level for me.
It's not like that money disappears. Just think of it like buying gold bullion. Unlike say, a $9000 motorcycle impulse purchase, a block of raw metal should hold it's inflation adjusted value relatively well for decades and you can sell it whenever to recoup the money.