Incredible Tungsten

[Cyparagon]

Have you tried making an arc lamp on the same principle as carbon arc lamps work on?

 

[Deleted member 8382]

I don't think this can be done. You would need huge voltage xd

 

[Meatball]

how huge of voltage? It would be awesome to see something like a carbon arc lamp working!

 

[Cyparagon]

Carbon Arc lamps (home made mostly) can be found on youtube. I've made one myself with a 12V battery with two 1.5V carbon zinc batteries as the carbon source.

I don't think it would need to be much higher than line voltage since they're so large. A 100W bulb is ~140Ω at operating temp, but two large rods is more like a few lamps in parallel.

 

[Grix]

I just bought a 96 gram piece

 

[ohada]

@ohada what do you think about this piece?
Weights 3lbs 15oz. 1-7/16" Diameter. 4-5/16" in length.
Tungsten Round Bar Backup Rivet GC-106 - eBay (item 230348824894 end time Jun-19-09 08:27:27 PDT)

I think the purity of this piece is much lower than advertised (84%), since 100% pure Tungsten with these dimensions should give 5lbs of mass (unless I screwed up the numbers), so 84% should be at least 4lbs.

Have you tried making an arc lamp on the same principle as carbon arc lamps work on?

I might try this with the small pieces, it could be interesting.

I just bought a 96 gram piece

I'm happy for you!
My guess is that soon after holding it, you would be even more curious and interested in feeling a big one...

Tungsten had the exact same effect on me as lasers - my first green laser was 5mw, and 5 minutes after using it the first time I wanted more power to see how bright and powerful it can get and how far it can reach (then I wanted to see more colors...).

 

[maxh]

This looks great, but I can't understand how could you pay 800$ for having 4KG of this. I supose it's just a matter of hobbies...

I worked at a semiconductor place and they went through tons of tungsten. Used blocks of it ~4"x3"x2" for making arc chambers and rods for many other things. They were always struggling to find cheaper sources for the material. Tungsten, like many metals, has a market price that fluctuates, but seems to have a long term upwards trend, so you could think of it as him making an investment. Not as pretty as gold or platinum, and maybe not as easy to sell should the time come, but it'll probably hold its value well.

 

[samsomiler]

Very nice TIG WELDING WOOT WOOT!!

 

[Chicxulub]

Tungsten is probably my favorite metal. I have a tungsten carbide wedding band and a tungsten carbide Movado Valor watch. The watch always surprises people, it's about 3mm thick at it's thickest, but is very VERY heavy for what it is.

 

[Grix]

Sorry for the necropost, but I figured since this thread is so informative, why make a new one.


I'm looking to buy a piece of tungsten like the ones OP has. Does anyone know a good source? I've looked a bit around and not found much in my price range (around $100-$250). Metallectric on ebay sells a nice cube of 316 grams on ebay but it is a bit expensive for the weight (129+shipping), also he only ships to the US so I'll have to use a reshipper which is even more expensive. "High Density Tungsten Powder" sells a bunch of shapes including spheres for pretty cheap, however it's an alloy so not the entire potential density which is a bit disappointing.

 

[KapHn8d]

I think my wedding ring is made out of it. Crazy durable.

c

 

[Sigurthr]

I think my wedding ring is made out of it. Crazy durable.



c

Probably tungsten carbide, pure tungsten isn't nearly as durable mechanically and scratches relatively easily. My wedding ring is tungsten carbide with a vapor deposition gold layer.


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[ped]

Crikey, you must have needed an excavator to dig this one up!