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My Tungsten Cube (2019)
- quwert95 5y agoI also have this cube as part of a set. As a far as desk accessories and toys go it's unique and a fun thing to show off. If you get the set that has the copper cube beware that the copper one will oxidize and discolor if you touch it a lot.
- elliottkember 5y agoBar keeper’s friend will shine it back up nicely!
- Avshalom 5y agoGotta say I love the ad copy for the 10 pound cube: ADD to your collection! This cube is the larger version of the world famous tungsten cube COMPARE the density to our 2.5" Aluminum cube to enhance the experience
- cwkoss 5y agoI wonder if anyone is manufacturing tungsten dumbbells. Would be very pricy, but also super cool.
- plorkyeran 5y agoThe brittleness would be an issue. Shattering when you drop it isn't really a property you want in dumbbells.
- temp0826 5y agoThis is why I prefer uranium dumbbells
- 6nf 5y ago'Official' sports kettlebells are all the same physical size but are available in a wide range of weights. For sizes 8kg to about 32kg they just use steel. For heavier ones they use lead. The very heaviest kettlebells contain tunsten.
- burnished 5y agothis is the sort of value driven advertising that I appreciate
- modeless 5y agoHow about the 4" 40 pound $2,999 one? > WHY? We thought nobody would buy our 17.6lb, 3" tungsten cube. We were so, so wrong
- mensetmanusman 5y agoOnce it gets large enough, it will end up at MOMA.
- EvanAnderson 5y agoPresumably in one of the basement spaces.
- kindall 5y agoImagine how much a really big cube of tungsten would weigh. Installing it at MOMA would itself be the art.
- hellbannedguy 5y agoMy sister owns two shoe stores in LA. It wasen't till she raised her prices significantly things got going. Wealthy measure value by price. (I don't get it.)
- freetinker 5y agoShoes (especially the ones people buy for fashion value – think Louboutin stilettos vs. something more functional like New Balance sneakers) are a Veblen good. Their perceived value increases with their price. Like art. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good
- kragen 5y agoAlso, if a market is efficient, prices will closely track (marginal) use value. If a brand can demand a price premium, it's because their products are higher quality, and nobody has been able to produce a comparable product at a lower cost. Red Wing boots are more expensive than Timberland boots, for example, because they're made from full-grain leather and have good quality control, and they will last the rest of your life if you care for them properly. (They're more expensive than New Balance sneakers, too, but Nike sneakers are the same price as Red Wing boots without being of high quality, for the Veblen-good reasons you cite.) That's why when I buy wine for my girlfriend I don't buy the cheapest brand. It's not that I think the wine market is efficient, particularly when I'm at a supermarket that can charge whatever price they want instead of comparing prices at https://1000corks.com/; https://1000corks.com/; it's that I think my ignorance of wine is deeper than the market's inefficiency.
- at_a_remove 5y agoI wonder why it is 5% nickel/iron -- availability? Machining purposes?
- zanecodes 5y agoThe Amazon seller mentions that pure tungsten is typically too brittle to machine.
- opwieurposiu 5y agoBecause of tungsten has the highest melting point of all metals, it very expensive to cast pure tungsten ingots. Instead, powdered tungsten is mixed with small amounts of powdered nickel or other metals, and sintered. Also pure tungsten is often excessively brittle.
- adammunich 5y agoMachining
- juancampa 5y agoIf you drop it, your floor won't like it. My 2lb one is great though!
- andagainagain 5y agoI bought a set of 1cm element cubes awhile ago. There is definitely a change of perspective of density when you see several things of one generic size, and yet they are dramatically different weights. I think it's fairly common to see volume and assume weight. And less volume is often assumed to be a structure issue, like expanded metal vs solid blocks of metal.
- changoplatanero 5y agoI really want to get a gold plated one. The density of tungsten is less than 1% different from gold
- eurasiantiger 5y agoApply some affordable gold leaf on it after thorough solvent cleaning, and rub it in so it bonds with the surface.
- minsc__and__boo 5y agoThe Amazon reviews make it seem like this is a meme product.
- revolvingocelot 5y agoI'm sure someone is legitimately buying eg the 55 gallon drum of lube. ...that said, had I organically encountered the tungsten cube on Amazon, I absolutely would google around to make sure it was, like, real.
- kragen 5y agoLarge animal veterinarians, condom manufacturers, sex shops.
- revolvingocelot 5y agoSure. The point is that despite the obvious legitimacy of the listing, all the reviews are memes.
- jamesgreenleaf 5y agoSome of the reviews on these are fantastic: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/RZKKKAM6FE5AI https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/RZKKKAM6FE5AI
- lqet 5y ago> Nietzsche once said that a man who has a why can bear almost any how. But a man who has a tungsten cube can bear any object less dense, and all this talk of why and how becomes unnecessary.
- thrown 5y agoDudes posting their W's online
- lisper 5y agoI have a 2kg tunsgsten sphere. Also deeply viscerally satisfying to hold, and makes a great party trick.
- kylebenzle 5y agoI got the big one from Midwest Tungston, about $700. Well worth it. I love letting people hold it. I call it my heavy ball.
- scrps 5y agoI had a neighbor a few years back who was a retired mechanical eng & machinist and as a retirement gift someone gave him a calibrated high percision gauge block set. There was some weird brain tingle I would get handling them, I think simply due to the extreme percision of them, I wonder if the sensation from handling the cube is similar?
- stronglikedan 5y ago> gauge block It's so cool how they wring without magnetism. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5XOk1oMFh0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5XOk1oMFh0
- jrumbut 5y agoThere's only one way to find out...
- devindotcom 5y agoCool cube and I want one. But a metalworking friend of mine warned against getting a ring made out of tungsten. Apparently a climber had one on and broke his ring finger, and the EMTs couldn't get the ring off because the finger had swollen and they couldn't cut the ring due to the strength of the metal. They ended up having to amputate and re-attach the finger (much longer and it would have had to be amputated anyway, it seems).
- tshaddox 5y agoRing avulsion is pretty scary too, and can happen with any metal ring.
- oxfeed65261 5y agoI had to look this up: ‘Ring avulsion happens when a ring on one of your fingers is caught on an object and gets yanked off suddenly and rapidly. The force and pressure of the ring being pulled can strip off and damage finger tissues, including muscles, tendons, and bones. This is called “degloving.”‘ https://www.healthline.com/health/ring-avulsion https://www.healthline.com/health/ring-avulsion
- contravariant 5y agoAh, thanks, those are the kind of search queries that I'm somewhat apprehensive about. Especially with search engines that think it's a good idea to immediately show you images if they think you're searching for something visual. Thankfully the article you linked doesn't contain any images.
- xupybd 5y agoYeah my work mate wears a silicone band at work after almost losing a finger. I still wear my gold band but am rethinking it.
- tshaddox 5y agoThe silicone bands are pretty popular in the “outdoors” community too (hiking, rock climbing, etc.)
- cwkoss 5y agoMy dad owns both a tungsten cube and a tungsten sphere. I slightly prefer the sphere, the smoothness and lack of corners, combined with density, makes it really try to slip out of hour hand. Can be a bit dangerous for your floors, but lots of fun to hold.
- vayeate 5y agoI have a 2" cube and wish I had the sphere instead for sure
- UncleOxidant 5y agoThis reads like they're allegorically throwing shade. At what I'm not sure.
- ortusdux 5y agoI have plenty of samples of explosion bonded metals that I fidget with in a similar manner. Samples that combine metals with different densities feel unnatural in the hand.
- Cous_Cous_Cous 5y agoI held a neptunium (20.45 g/cc) sphere once. It was about the size of a baseball and I hard the hardest time lifting it. It was like lifting a full gallon jug of milk when you think it's empty - you apply a force and it doesn't budge. I had to lift it as if I was lifting a stack of books to get it off the pedestal.
- ISL 5y agoWas it warm? That was a rare experience; not many people will have done so.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- mensetmanusman 5y agoUranium is the heaviest naturally occurring on earth, so after that on the periodic table (uranium, neptunium, plutonium…) things are made with collisions in the lab. I bet a lot of energy went into creating that sphere…
- the8472 5y agoosmium is denser than uranium, the issue is that it's quite expensive.
- kadoban 5y agoI'm quite curious what the circumstances of that would have been. I looked it up because I thought I was mistaken, but ya: it's nuclear reactor byproduct and itself capaple of being turned into a nuclear weapon (or only some isotopes maybe? Not sure). It also apparently is capable of just starting on fire in open air, is poisonous, radioactive obviously and accumulates in the bones. Sounds like fun stuff.
- bsedlm 5y agoI was expecting to read "I love my precious tungsten cube... my precious" in the conclussion
- _caw 5y ago> I struggled a lot with deciding to buy a cube. It felt wrong to spend so much money on a featureless hunk of metal. When I bought my cube, I used it as an exercise to fight back against my frugality. But it wasn't meant to be: it was delivered to the wrong address and I received a full refund. Then my neighbor delivered it to me.
- mensetmanusman 5y agoThe cube thwarted your attempts at frugality, so that it could spend time with you alone.
- TeMPOraL 5y agoA perfect Companion Cube.
- lostlogin 5y ago> But it wasn't meant to be: it was delivered to the wrong address and I received a full refund. Then my neighbor delivered it to me. This must have caused havoc with your frugality.
- ethbr0 5y ago> Then my neighbor delivered it to me The only thing that would make this story more perfect is if they'd said, "Wow. Heavy. What do you have in there? A cube of tungsten?"
- dhosek 5y agoTrue story: When my brother was in college, he played in the University of Illinois marching band. One year, the football team made it to the Rose Bowl. The band flew to Los Angeles to perform and do tourist stuff. On the beach, in a fit of eccentricity, he started picking up rocks from the beach and calling them seashells. He brought the rocks back to Chicago. Our grandfather picked him up at the airport and picking up his suitcase, said, "This is really heavy. What, do you have rocks in here?" "Yes," my brother answered.
- Ashanmaril 5y agoI want to buy one but looking at the Amazon Canada listing, it's gonna rack up to $250 + tax
- jarenmf 5y agoSame in Germany, it's 250 EUR
- huhtenberg 5y ago~ 180 EUR if you order directly from https://midwesttungsten.com https://midwesttungsten.com. Not sure if it's covers the import tax or not though.
- MgB2 5y agoIn Germany, you can get your tungsten at Smart Elements
- eps 5y agoWay more expensive - 120 eur for 1 cm3 cube. https://www.smart-elements.com/shop/tungsten-precision-density-standard-cube-1cm3/ https://www.smart-elements.com/shop/tungsten-precision-densi...
- BoppreH 5y agoIf you are willing to sacrifice a little on the appearance they have 1kg tungsten "ingots" for 99€. https://www.smart-elements.com/shop/tungsten-electrode-99-95-23-92x10x6mm-31-28-grams/ https://www.smart-elements.com/shop/tungsten-electrode-99-95...
- nimbius 5y agoI work sometimes in a metal shop where Tungsten alloys abound. This might be the stupidest hn post I've ever read. You bought a piece of metal at vastly inflated prices for a very narrow range of performance over a specific set of conditions. Nothing more. Being the hardest isn't being the best. Tungsten is extraordinarily brittle. A hard drop on concrete could crack it. I'd also argue without a MA (metal analysis or labsheet) you probably bought some tungsten. Lead, slag, tin and other undesirable byproducts also weigh a lot. Your cube, without proper inspection, may also be slightly radioactive as its likely sourced from scrap. This could be good or bad, but the cube most definitely isn't a meaningful purchase.
- ScaleneTriangle 5y agoEvery material more dense than tungsten costs more than tungsten, and the same goes for anything that even close close. Only thing you need to do to determine if you were screwed or not is measure the density. Since it's a cube the only thing you need is a ruler and a scale. As for the value to a consumer. That comes almost entirely from its density not its hardness, something you'd know if you read OP. As for the "vastly inflated prices" if you have the ability to produce and sell 1 kilogram cubes with the side length of an inch and a half for significantly less than OP paid then you should consider selling that information and retiring.
- kragen 5y agoWhat are the materials with similar, but lower, densities? WC, I guess, at 15.63 g/cc; what else? Apparently wholesale tungsten costs US$30/kg, which is about one fourth the US$130 cost the guy paid. I'd think either wire EDM or wire ECM would be able to dice tungsten into featureless cubes for a lot less than US$100/kg. Its brittleness wouldn't be a problem. Also, it could very easily be impure, or even not tungsten at all; lots of people have gotten tricked into buying tungsten-carbide jewelry they thought was tungsten, and tungsten carbide isn't even metal. The Amazon seller says it's actually 5% nickel and iron, though I'm not clear whether it's an alloy or a powder-metallurgy sinter using those metals as sintering aids. Alloys aren't necessarily less dense than their densest pure component, so impurities might not even lower the density. X-ray fluorescence would be a cheap way to detect heavy-metal impurities (though not, say, boron, carbon, or nitrogen). The guy is excited about how it's durable and will last for a long time. I think he will be disappointed if it really is so brittle that he chips the corner off by dropping it on the floor. Probably the nickel and iron will prevent that.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- dekhn 5y agoi bought a CNC so I could make my own cubes. It's very nice. I often make objects just so I can hold them later.
- ghostbrainalpha 5y agoWait.... are you being sarcastic? Or did you really spend $5,000 on a machine for your hobby of making cubes just so you can hold them? If you are serious, I think we could be friends. Maybe I should make a subreddit for people like us?
- dekhn 5y agoI spent $2K (X-carve). I've made spheres, cubes, boxes, various 3D shapes I bought on Ebay, and keep the parts around (they're nice to look at as well as hold during long meetings). A cube with filleted edges is particularly nice, although you can make that easily with just a table saw and a sander. If you sand it enough, it can be unbelievably smooth. or you can make it rough. note that I'm mainly doing wood because the x-carve can't carve aluminum easily (no idea about tungsten). If I could make metal cubes, I would. The actual hobby here is all sorts of wood projects, like tables, arts, etc, but I still make small geometry pieces all the time because I enjoy 3D graphical objects in the real world. I mainly read https://www.reddit.com/r/CNC/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CNC/ but you may also find this interesting: https://www.instructables.com/Turners-Cube-Manual-Machine/ https://www.instructables.com/Turners-Cube-Manual-Machine/
- ghostbrainalpha 5y agoLove the Turners Cube, can that be done with wood?
- mdorazio 5y agoPro tip: as with many things on Amazon, you can usually get these cubes (or spheres) for a fair amount less on eBay.
- foobarian 5y agoI often marvel at the densities of the various heavy metals especially compared to steel. The densest of them like osmium are almost 3x as dense! I wish I could afford an osmium cube. I guess tungsten is the best cheapest-yet-still-heavy option.
- lisper 5y agoTungesten is only 10% less dense than osmium. I doubt you could tell the difference without a scale.
- ISL 5y agoOsmium is not good for you. If tungsten isn't dense-enough for you, consider platinum or rhenium.
- probably_wrong 5y ago1kg of rhenium costs $265 while 1kg of platinum costs $30K. I'm not saying one is a better choice than the other, but I know which one I'd get.
- sbierwagen 5y agoWhere are you finding rhenium for $265 a kilo? Lowest I found in a few minutes of googling is $1540.20: https://www.amazon.com/Rhenium-Metal-99-8-Pure/dp/B08FCX61QD?th=1 https://www.amazon.com/Rhenium-Metal-99-8-Pure/dp/B08FCX61QD... (Description says it's "great for melting". Good luck with that!)
- ncmncm 5y agoOsmium spontaneously oxidizes to a gas that is deadly poison. A sphere would be safe kept in oil. Do not be around when it is being polished.
- BugsJustFindMe 5y agoThe more accurate title would be "My 95% Tungsten 5% Nickel/Iron Cube"
- ScaleneTriangle 5y agoCalling it a tungsten cube is incredibly accurate. Not very precise though. If you're gonna be pedantic then try to do a good job of it.
- ryandrake 5y agoOne excellent application of a block of tungsten is as a bucking bar for metal riveting. Due to its density, tungsten bars can be much smaller than steel ones, easily fitting into your hand, and fitting into tight spaces. I’ve got a number of tungsten bars and use them almost 100% over my steel bars.
- btgeekboy 5y agoDefinitely. The only time I grab one of the steel bars is when it’s in a particular shape that I don’t have in Tungsten.
- telaandrews 5y agoI've got a couple similarly-sized hunks of aluminum and vanadium that I got from a steel mill tour when in college. I enjoy the difference in densities in my hand, but I don't know about $130 of enjoyment for one more in the set.
- rdevsrex 5y agoThis is cool, but I still want to stack some gold coins.
- 1970-01-01 5y agoMuch cheaper if you can negotiate a price while cutting out the middleman (Scamazon): https://www.tungstenheavypowder.com/tungsten-balls-spheres-cubes/ https://www.tungstenheavypowder.com/tungsten-balls-spheres-c...
- mclightning 5y agoThis is one of those moments I feel so out of touch with the community here. Is this even real life?
- mensetmanusman 5y agoAha, yes. I wanted one for a mini periodic table.
- divbzero 5y agoWould you include radioactive elements in your real life periodic table?
- mensetmanusman 5y agoNo, because they would change into other elements :)
- skohan 5y agoI 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.
- kragen 5y agoTotally by coincidence, yesterday I was trying to plot out the cost/kg vs. density Pareto optimality curve. Construction sand is US$0.03/kg and 2.4 g/cc; magnetite is US$0.10/kg and about 5 g/cc (I don't have the notes in front of me); scrap steel is US$0.20/kg and 7.9 g/cc; scrap lead is US$0.95/kg and 11.3 g/cc or maybe a bit less; tungsten is US$30/kg and 19 g/cc; and osmium is US$13000/kg and 22.65 g/cc. I'm interested to know what I'm missing; is there anything denser than steel but cheaper than lead, for example, or denser than magnetite but cheaper than scrap steel? Is there tungsten carbide that's cheaper than tungsten? 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.
- yrral 5y agoWilliam Osman had a video where he "experimented" with a huge tungsten cube. It's quite entertaining. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O551__3ppM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O551__3ppM Another interesting fact about tungsten is that its density is 99.75% of that of gold. So essentially you can model how heavy something is if it was made out of pure gold with tungsten. Additionally, apparently gold counterfeiters sometimes put tungsten inside of gold bars to fake gold
- code_duck 5y agoI have a collection of thin tungsten cylinders if anyone is in the market! Glassblowers use tungsten rods to pierce borosilicate glass. When you get tungsten and a piece of glass hot, you can push the tungsten through the glass fairly easily. Tungsten doesn’t get “wet” and stick to glass at these temperatures (~2000F), unlike other metals we use such as steel or brass. We tend to buy these at the welding store (arc welders use them as electrodes or something).
- skykooler 5y agoNote that if you're buying welding tungsten as a plaything, avoid the oneswith the red paint on the end - they contain thorium to improve the electrical arc and as such are a bit radioactive, and shouldn't be directly handled for long periods.
- rusteh1 5y agoI'm a hobbyist tig welder. 1-2% thoriated electrodes emit alpha particles that won't penetrate skin. It's really only a risk if you breath in a lot of the dust created by grinding the tip of the electrode to a point. That said, ceriated, lanthanated and pure tungsten electrodes are widely available.
- code_duck 5y agoIndeed, the thorium ones definitely shouldn’t be put into a 5000 degree flame 2 feet in front of your head. All the other metals in glass work are bad enough.
- aappleby 5y agoI love my tungsten cube <3
- BenoitEssiambre 5y agoI didn't realize that tungsten was as heavy as gold. I always wanted to to hold a gold bar for the same reasons. When I see a picture of someone holding a gold bar, I always wonder if they are struggling much more than apparent because of the insane density (almost 20x that of same volume of water, 3x that of steel). I can't afford the $600K for a gold bar however.
- tiborsaas 5y agoThen you'd find this interesting too: there's quite a lot of gold stolen or faked like this: "Exclusive: Fake-branded bars slip dirty gold into world markets" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gold-swiss-fakes-exclusive-idUSKCN1VI0DD https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gold-swiss-fakes-exclusiv...
- saba2008 5y agoBank of England museum had a holdable gold bar. And yes, cage around it was probably for prevention of body damage, rather than theft.
- zamadatix 5y agoI got one as well, around the same time actually, as a gift. I also fell into a strange fascination with it and find it fun to hold in the exact same ways as the author. Folks tend to get me 1" element (or sometimes non elemental but interesting in another way) cubes as gifts now which works out as it gives a great range of price to choose from while maintaining surprise with the guarantee I'll enjoy it. I've had my sites set on something this size https://midwesttungsten.com/tungsten-cube/ https://midwesttungsten.com/tungsten-cube/ for a while now. (about as much as I would feel safe setting down or handing to people considering the hard edges and chance of accidents) I've more than had the spending money to do it for a long time but much like the author I've just had a hard time justifying it. I suppose it's still less ridiculously than what many spend on car hobbies or whatnot. I'm sure I'll eventually get something of the nature. I'll also add I was extremely surprised others enjoyed it as well. Of all of my desk toys/models/prints it's generated the most talk amongst friends and coworkers. I'd like to experience a sizeable amount of iridium some day as well. Edit: One of the most fun gifts I've received (beyond the tungsten cube) was a 1" magnesium cube. Apart from being a ridiculous fire/blinding risk capable of easily melting through the tungsten cube if set off it is even lighter than an equivalently sized aluminum cube.
- divbzero 5y agoFor context, iridium is probably the densest material you’d want for a paperweight [1] but it’s rarer and more expensive than tungsten or platinum. [1]: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-heaviest-metal-I-can-legally-make-a-paperweight-out-of?share=1 https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-heaviest-metal-I-can-legal...
- Taniwha 5y agohttps://luciteria.com/metal-cubes/iridium-metal-cube-9995 https://luciteria.com/metal-cubes/iridium-metal-cube-9995
- BizarroLand 5y ago$9,000 for a 1cm cube. That's "winning the lotto impulse purchase" level for me.
- aranchelk 5y agoAt Christmas my partner’s family always struggle to know what to get me. One year I just said anything made of titanium. Everyone thought that was super weird. Now I’m thinking it must have been the metal’s low density.
- lxe 5y agoI hope I'm not too late to the cube measuring party. My friend gave me the 4 inch one for my birthday, and it's been a source of constant amazement ever since: https://midwesttungsten.com/tungsten-cube/?sku=40400-03914B&_vsrefdom=adwords https://midwesttungsten.com/tungsten-cube/?sku=40400-03914B&... It weighs over 40 lbs and it's almost impossible to lift with one hand. I haven't smashed anything with it yet
- Bud 5y agoMy wedding ring is tungsten; my wife and I decided to go with, shall we say, non-standard metals for our wedding bands to keep the costs down. I got her the usual gold/diamond sort of ring for engagement. We figured we could always get platinum or gold rings later. I've found that I really love it, and now we may not replace mine at all. It's hilariously heavy and has a nice brushed finish.
- jacquesm 5y agoGood luck cutting it off in an emergency.
- sbelskie 5y agoYou can easily shatter it with a vice grip or locking wrench, and with the rise of tungsten wedding bands EMTs and hospitals are more and more equipped for this.
- jacquesm 5y agoThe better way to deal with that problem is by not having it in the first place.
- Godel_unicode 5y agoDon't cut, shatter. Grab some channel locks and be free.
- jacquesm 5y agoVice 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).
- Godel_unicode 5y agoI use channellocks, the width setting feature accomplishes the same goal, using vice grips takes too long. But do you, I suppose.
- frankus 5y agoTungsten 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.
- jacquesm 5y agoNot only that, machining that piece would take ages and wear out a fortune in tooling.
- kragen 5y agoBelow I suggested it would be easy for EDM or ECM. Have I been misled?
- jacquesm 5y agoEDM will take a very long time, you are going to take off a few microns per hit, and ECM will likely take either an insane amount of power or will take forever across such a large surface. Compared to say machining aluminum or steel you will be practicing some patience. Not necessarily a bad thing to have in the world of metal working. ("increased feed speed is not a substitute for bad planning")
- ISL 5y agoEDM can cheese-wire right through blocks of tungsten.
- jacquesm 5y agoThat 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.
- ksec 5y agoI wonder if you could mill a dumbbell out of it, so even the handle itself is made of Tungsten. You would have a fairly normal looking 10Lb dumbbell that weight more than 10Kg or 26Lb. Everyone coming in the house would always (somehow) pick up these Dumbbell.......
- jacquesm 5y agoI can see some practical joke potential here.
- CPLX 5y agoI clicked on this post out of standard curiosity. Now I have a tracking number for a cube of tungsten that will arrive at my office by tomorrow afternoon. Happens.
- gfody 5y agoI wish someone made a standard 608 (fidget spinner, skateboard, etc.) deep-groove ball bearing entirely out of Tungsten - it would be the ultimate desk trinket and I bet it would have the longest and most satisfying spins.
- EvanAnderson 5y agoThe tops look like fun: https://midwesttungsten.com/tungsten-shapes-toys/spinning-tops-toys/ https://midwesttungsten.com/tungsten-shapes-toys/spinning-to...
- sosuke 5y agoLOL at the Pinewood Derby tungsten blocks. Feels like cheating no?
- meowster 5y agoNo, there is a weight limit. There is no practical size advantage compared to using cheaper lead weights.
- hakfoo 5y agoI suspect it does allow for design and distribution flexibility. I bought some of that sort of weight (and some tungsten-infused putty) for trying to add additional weight to improve the pulling power of a model locomotive. The putty's malleability and small size made it more amenable to fitting in the cast body.
- meowster 5y agoIdeally with Pinewood Derby cars, you want to place the weight up as high as possible (in the rear) to convert potential energy into kenetic energy. Tungsten weights are smaller, so the center of gravity can be slightly higher if you elevate the weights. The product page says "Simply position the weights on your pinewood derby car and super glue them in place." So if you're just glueing them to a standard model without elevating the tungsten weights somehow, they would actually be less effective than a less dense material, because the center of gravity would be lower. If you did elevate the tungsten weights, whatever height that would match the top height with standard weights, the extra amount of energy would most likely be negligeable, and possibly lost due to variations in the track. Over a hundred races it would probably come out ahead slightly more ahead, but Pinewood Derby races are single elimination. If one was sparing zero expense, using wind modeling software, etc for their Pinewood Derby, then yes, tungsten weights would be the way to go. (I need to learn how to use wind modeling software now.)
- ComputerGuru 5y agoI 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.)
- banana_giraffe 5y agoI have a tungsten cube and some tungsten dice. They're impressive to hold, and make a nice satisfying thunk when the dice are thrown. I also have a magnesium cube. Really amazing to compare the weights.
- huhtenberg 5y agoDamn. Midwest Tungsten Service now owes 'defaulty' a nice little Thank You card. If anyone wants to compare, my order ID is 10000107xx ;)
- MgB2 5y agoI 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 cube: https://imgur.com/C2YiMqb.jpg https://imgur.com/C2YiMqb.jpg I always had fun handing them over to students because everyone is surprised by the sheer weight of these things. Tungsten carbide is actually quite dangerous after it has been subjected to a lot of stress (Such as being stuck into a 1000 t press for a high-pressure synthesis). They have the mean tendecy to explode into super sharp pieces when you're not expecting it, so wear goggles.
- kragen 5y agoOh, that's really interesting! I guess the energy is storred in them because they underwent some plastic deformation in the press? Is that from plasticity of the WC itself or from a sintering aid such as cobalt? I would have thought pure WC would have no plasticity at all at room temperature or anything nearby.
- fywacro 5y agoFYI, tungsten carbide (tungsten + carbon) is a different substance from the pure metal tungsten... They have very different physical properties. But I do appreciate your story about tungsten carbide, too :-)
- paulgerhardt 5y agoIf anyone knows where to get a tungsten cube I would be interested. I’ve wanted one since reading this post a few years ago but every vendor usually sells alloys.
- falcrist 5y agoI honestly wouldn't have noticed that the Midwest Tungsten Service products weren't pure tungsten, but when I went back to the amazon page, I found a note from the seller: >The tungsten sphere is 90% tungsten with nickel/iron for the remainder, the aluminum sphere is 6061 alloy. This actually seems to apply to most of their products. Not just the spheres. If you search Amazon for "pure tungsten", you'll find vendors selling cubes that are at least more pure than this vendor's stuff. There are also other items that claim to be high purity tungsten.
- trhway 5y agoaround the time of elementary school i had a ~15cm diameter steel (or may be something harder given where it came from - i didn't pay attention what it was made of, it was just pretty heavy) ball from a ball bearing from a driveshaft of a Navy ship. While not tungsten, it was still pretty great toy. We even played soccer using it - the style is very different as just strongly hitting it with or trying to abruptly stop with a foot would only cause pain to the foot, and the ball also would naturally not fly far :)
- markus_zhang 5y agoThis reminds me of Bill Gates who owns a small amount of every chemical element.
- falcrist 5y agoI 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.
- science4sail 5y agoYeah, I imagine that it'd be hard to get ahold of some technetium or astatine
- falcrist 5y agoFrancium is the one I always think about. My understanding is the only source is as a decay product (probably from uranium) and that there's somewhere on the order of one ounce of it in the entire planet at any given time. Not only that, but it's only true francium if it comes from France.
- ffhhj 5y agoI instead bought a lamp with tungsten filament filled with Xenon gas for $5. Sometimes I slowly apply a little current to it to see the filament radiate. This is a 150W halogen bulb. I don't know what the crystal is made of, but tungsten and xenon are interesting.
- MisterTea 5y agoWe use blocks like this in our electron beam welders to set the beam power, shape and focus on older machines (newer machines use a CPU/DSP controlled system). A small 25x25x50mm block sits on an adjustable height stand which is set to the height of the weld joint. You dial in the settings, hit the block with the beam and using the optics, visually check the focus and alignment. Then you move to the weld joint and start welding. For big power jobs we break out "the brick" which is 75x50x155. Its so heavy you need two hands to hold it and sometimes two people to place and line it up in the vacuum chamber. Tungsten is the only metal you can reliably use as our machines have beam powers up to 15kW which can precisely deliver an enormous amount of heat into a pencil point sized area. Even at the common 1-3kW ranges the tungsten instantly liquefies when the beam turns on. Ive seen 1/2 thick aluminum turn into a puddle while the tungsten just gets a dent in it. You'd think copper is a good second bet but nope. Its good at heat sinking but melts way quicker.
- e12e 5y ago> Tungsten is the only metal you can reliably use as our machines have beam powers up to 15kW which can precisely deliver an enormous amount of heat into a pencil point sized area. Even at the common 1-3kW ranges the tungsten instantly liquefies when the beam turns on. I'm sorry - is there an error here? As I understand the rest of your comment, you use Tungsten because it does not liquify?
- zamadatix 5y agoThe whole block doesn't instantly liquify like other metals, just the small point the laser hit (hence the small dent after).
- MisterTea 5y agoNo error. The tungsten liquefies locally to the section of the block where the beam strikes but the surrounding tungsten stays solid. It's a poor heat conductor so it doesn't form a wide liquid puddle. With copper or aluminum the heat spreads rapidly and the pool grows wide very quickly.
- hutzlibu 5y ago
- duderific 5y agoI kind of got the gold bug after the 2008-9 crash and bought a few gold coins. Even holding just an ounce of gold, you notice how much more substantial it is than say, a "silver" dollar, which is the same size but weighs a fraction as much.
- alasdair_ 5y agoI bought a cube of aerogel and feel the same way about it, with the obvious distinction of it being insanely light not heavy.
- anonporridge 5y agoI have a cube of aluminum the same size as my 1kg cube of tungsten. It's weird feeling the insane difference between two solid blocks of metal.
- GloriousKoji 5y agoI've been dreaming about getting the 4" tungsten cube for a while but could never justify buying it. I would need some extra truly disposable income, like as a side effect if I got really lucky gambling a marginal amount. Sadly in the last year it's price has jumped up 50% from $2000 to $3000.
- Kaibeezy 5y ago1” copper sphere. Satisfyingly heavy and wasn’t expensive, maybe $15 at the Smithsonian gift shop. I keep it next to a similarly sized, nearly spherical light gray pumice stone I picked up near Crater Lake years ago. Satisfyingly light! I was given a tungsten carbide ring that’s supposed to be easy on the skin, but it rotted my flesh. I tried not to read anything into it.
- ipsin 5y agoI purchased a 35 pound tungsten racing weight about 15 years ago, 70% tungsten if I recall. It's large enough that it's triggered my "why do I have this?" sense, but it is still cool to hold. It's very important to realize that it's not a safe object, the kind you might leave on your desk at work. If someone tries to pick it up for some reason, it's quite likely that they'll drop it.
- Animats 5y agoYou 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 https://luciteria.com/metal-cubes
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- science4sail 5y agoThey 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 https://luciteria.com/metal-cubes/uranium-cube
- skyfaller 5y agoWhat's not 100% clear to me, after reading through some descriptions, is which metal cubes I could handle semi-regularly without damaging them (iron? will it rust?) or endangering myself (lead? how likely is handling it to poison me?). It seems to me that the point of buying a cube of some metal is to feel its weight and texture, to see it respond to light. If you're just going to keep it in a capsule and never take it out, you could just have a photo or video of the metal. What elements can you hold in your hand without either you or the element taking damage?
- jfk13 5y agoIn case you haven't seen it, https://englishatlc.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/randall-munroe-periodic-wall-of-elements.pdf https://englishatlc.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/randall-munr...
- SilverRed 5y agoI have a few of the non toxic ones. I like titanium most since it has a decent weight and doesn't make my hands smell like copper. Some of them will oxidize and if you want to stop that you can coat them in a clear resin. I wouldn't touch lead even with the resin coating as I wouldn't trust it to not chip off.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- ubermonkey 5y agoDammit, I'm gonna end up buying one of these, aren't I?
- robertwt7 5y agoHmmm, now there goes my compulsive spending over the weekend, yeah i'll get one
- iAm25626 5y ago"The Simpsons Did It" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTLYris4kJU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTLYris4kJU
- tohnjitor 5y agoTungsten rocks.
- karaterobot 5y agoKids ask "ahh, gee, when will I ever need to use geometry?" and the answer is when you realize you got ripped off by paying the same price for a 1.5" diameter tungsten sphere as you would for a 1.5" tungsten cube.
- exmadscientist 5y agoIn terms of bullion value, absolutely. In terms of cost to manufacture, maybe not? I can't imagine making a sphere meeting any kind of surface tolerance is any easier than making a plain old cube to a similar surface tolerance.
- mml 5y agoI too have owned a tungsten rod for the same reasons. it's very nearly exactly the same density as gold, but cheaper.
- liamwire 5y agoSomewhat-tangentially related: I’ve always found the concept of [Rods from God](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_bombardment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_bombardment) (kinetic bombardment of tungsten rods dropped from orbit) fascinating.
- moftz 5y agoI visited a national laboratory for an experiment and saw the tungsten bricks the size of a normal building red brick) they used to shield parts of experiments from high energy particles. They weighed about 60 lbs each.
- cnees 5y agoWe put a $600 tungsten sphere on our secret wedding registry as a joke, along with lobster flavored pillow mints, etc. It arrived in the mail. My husband's high school friends had pooled their resources. Now it's on the mantle, resting amongst warm woolen pom-poms.
- rrock 5y agoTungsten beads are also popular as a weight for fly fishing nymphs due to their density.
- nate_meurer 5y agoI love this kind of thing. My favorite fidgeting things are two 2-inch stainless steel ball bearings I got from Ebay. Perfectly round to the eye and mirror smooth. I sit and clack them together; the sound and sensation they make is addictive to me.
- Natsu 5y agoThis reminds me of the infamous cube of saguaro rib wood from Dwarf Fortress [USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:WOOD:WOOD_TEMPLATE] [STATE_NAME:ALL_SOLID:saguaro rib wood] [STATE_ADJ:ALL_SOLID:saguaro rib] [PREFIX:NONE] Density was determined experimentally. Contact Uristocrat for a sample if you want to verify this yourself. A 6g (+/- 0.1g) piece of dry Saguaro wood had a volume of approximately 14 cm^3 (+/- 1 cm^3) [SOLID_DENSITY:430] [STATE_COLOR:ALL_SOLID:ECRU] Source: the 'raws' link on the page http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Saguaro http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Saguaro
- herval 5y ago…that’s a sphere though
- J5892 5y agoIt's so dense that over time, the corners are pulled to the center by gravity. (the picture is a separate 3kg sphere he bought after the cube)
- speleding 5y agoWhen this was posted in 2019 it compelled me to get a tungsten cube as well. One additional benefit that gives me more joy than fidgeting with it: it is great educational prop. Kids that visit my place have a habit of picking it up, either by their own initiative or prompted by me. Being surprised at the weight they start asking question and are then receptive to hear me give a short explanation. I love that curiosity.
- SpelingBeeChamp 5y agoLove this. I bought a 3" mostly-tungsten cube a few months ago. Almost without fail, every time I walk by it I pick it up. And without fail, every time is satisfying. (The 3" cube weighs ~18 pounds.)
- tcspence 5y agoI have a block of tungsten about the size of my fist. Got it at a missile test range. When the explosives are replaced by the telemetry unit, empty space is packed with tungsten to make up the weight difference. The target area was filthy with tungsten blocks.