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My Tungsten Cube (2019)

thume.ca

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Re: My Tungsten Cube (2019)

#211

Post by toiletaccount »

dvaun wrote: post #161
MgB2 wrote: post #129

I used to work with tungsten carbide cubes during my PhD thesis. They're used in multianvil high-pressure synthesis. With the right setup you can reach almost 20 GPa of pressure. Not as much as with diamond anvil cells, but you have more reasonable sample sizes (a few milligrams). And thats still like the pressure pretty deep into Earth's mantle. I also used the opportunity to snap a neat picture of a polished WC cub…

> They have the mean tendecy to explode into super sharp pieces when you're not expecting it, so wear goggles. Well, I guess I need to buy a new wedding ring at some point.

i read something about a guy shattering his tungsten wedding band on his wedding night, after deciding that slapping his hands on concrete was how you're supposed to dance.

professional advice: don't use an exotic metal for your wedding band. some fire departments can't cut it if your ring finger swells up.

Re: My Tungsten Cube (2019)

#212

Post by theIV »

dvaun wrote: post #161
MgB2 wrote: post #129

I used to work with tungsten carbide cubes during my PhD thesis. They're used in multianvil high-pressure synthesis. With the right setup you can reach almost 20 GPa of pressure. Not as much as with diamond anvil cells, but you have more reasonable sample sizes (a few milligrams). And thats still like the pressure pretty deep into Earth's mantle. I also used the opportunity to snap a neat picture of a polished WC cub…

> They have the mean tendecy to explode into super sharp pieces when you're not expecting it, so wear goggles. Well, I guess I need to buy a new wedding ring at some point.

I accidentally dropped my tungsten carbide wedding band on my kitchen tile floor. Now, I have 4 shattered pieces of tungsten carbide sitting in a box on my desk.

Re: My Tungsten Cube (2019)

#213

Post by Godel_unicode »

jacquesm wrote: post #125
Godel_unicode wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't cut, shatter. Grab some channel locks and be free.

Vice grips would probably be your best bet because they allow you to adjust the diameter they grip at fairly precisely hopefully avoiding further injury to your finger (such as: embedded tungsten fragments).

I use channellocks, the width setting feature accomplishes the same goal, using vice grips takes too long. But do you, I suppose.

Re: My Tungsten Cube (2019)

#214

Post by falcrist »

markus_zhang wrote: post #148

This reminds me of Bill Gates who owns a small amount of every chemical element.

I had to look this up. It seems he has a periodic table with lots of little cubbyholes with pictures and items representing the element, but not every element is actually there.

It's hard to find a good source for details about this display, but he has cubbyholes for all of the lanthanides and actinides, so there must be some that don't have the actual element being represented.

Re: My Tungsten Cube (2019)

#215

Post by tomcam »

hutzlibu wrote: post #202
dvaun wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They have the mean tendecy to explode into super sharp pieces when you're not expecting it, so wear goggles. Well, I guess I need to buy a new wedding ring at some point.

Your marriage yields the equivalent of 1000t pressure stress on your wedding ring?

Mine does

Re: My Tungsten Cube (2019)

#216

Post by analog31 »

dvaun wrote: post #161
MgB2 wrote: post #129

I used to work with tungsten carbide cubes during my PhD thesis. They're used in multianvil high-pressure synthesis. With the right setup you can reach almost 20 GPa of pressure. Not as much as with diamond anvil cells, but you have more reasonable sample sizes (a few milligrams). And thats still like the pressure pretty deep into Earth's mantle. I also used the opportunity to snap a neat picture of a polished WC cub…

> They have the mean tendecy to explode into super sharp pieces when you're not expecting it, so wear goggles. Well, I guess I need to buy a new wedding ring at some point.

Given that my wedding ring is permanently egg shaped due to some impact that I don't even remember, I'll stick with gold.

Re: My Tungsten Cube (2019)

#217

Post by kragen »

jacquesm wrote: post #198
kragen wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I was thinking that ECM would take less power per mass on tungsten than on things like steel or copper, just because each atom is so much bigger. I'm not very clear on the chemistry, but suppose that we're electrolytically oxidizing each tungsten atom into an orthotungstate ion by withdrawing two electrons from it, with an electrolyte of something like chloric acid or sodium hypochlorite so we don't have to p…

Per unit of mass yes, but there is rather a lot of mass for a given volume. And those are relatively slow processes when it comes to dealing with surfaces. Perpendicular cuts should be a lot quicker (you only have to separate the two sides, in theory one slice of atoms would be enough but in practice you'll end up with some minimal cutting radius). Fascinating processes by the way, and the precision that you can reac…

Hmm, I thought ECM and tap-disintegrating EDM (which is not very precise and does use a huge amount of power, unlike, say, wire EDM) had pretty astonishingly huge MRRs?

I think the density ratio for tungsten and steel (19:8, just over 2:1) is actually more even than the atomic mass ratio (23:7, just over 3:1). So I'd think that even on a volume-per-coulomb basis ECM would cut tungsten faster, assuming comparable faradaic efficiencies. Do you have any idea about the electrode-potential question? I'm totally lost.

Re: My Tungsten Cube (2019)

#218

Post by moftz »

BurningFrog wrote: post #185
anonporridge wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Metals also survive pretty much anything, including catastrophic fires.

Gold can easily melt in a house fire. A diamond ring can turn into a puddle of gold and no diamond because it burned off

Re: My Tungsten Cube (2019)

#220

Post by science4sail »

Animats wrote: post #203

You can get cubes of most of the solids in the periodic table here.[1] Some are very expensive, but available. [1] https://luciteria.com/metal-cubes

They even have uranium cubes! Depleted uranium though, so it's no good for your garage nuclear weapons lab.

https://luciteria.com/metal-cubes/uranium-cube

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