Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

-I came across a short length of heavy metal that weighs a little less than tungsten but more than lead, is machinable and leaves powdery chips sort of like cast iron and has a copper-like color.
-the weight is something like .538 pounds per cubic inch where tungsten is .626 and lead is .397.
-It was marked T10W.
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-So I just sort of wanting to know what it is, to know something about it.
-It looks like it could be used for heavy metal balancing of cranks and that would be my intentions.

I don't know what it's called, but when those little green men come around asking for it, you'd better be prepared to surrender it!

Seriously, that's a specific gravity of about 14.9 and I can't find a match with anything in the tables.

-I was sort of wondering about the legality of it.
-I was sort of thinking that maybe it was some sort of highly compacted powdered copper metal.

Hmmmm, is it radioactive?

-how am I supposed to find out if it is radioactive?
-I bought it at a freight salvage place--real cheap compared tungsten at $23 a pound.

bill jones wrote:-how am I supposed to find out if it is radioactive?
-I bought it at a freight salvage place--real cheap compared tungsten at $23 a pound.

Borrow a geiger counter for starters??? hehe

What is the specific gravety of Mallory? You could have a meatllurigical test done which would reveal everything. My guess is it's prob a mix of copper and lead but hard to say.

Where did the salvage place get it from? had they processed it at all before you got it?

Why do you want it? I'm failing to see the advantage of a super dense material here. Your not using it to balance rotating mass right? So will there be a big advantage to using it for ballast over lead etc. ?

-Years ago I bought what I thought would be a life time supply of tungsten to use for balancing crank shafts and I have recently used the last of that supply.
-So when I got to looking at the current prices I found the price to be $23 a pound as the absolute cheapest I could find.
-This freight salvage place has a small area where they have various metals for 30 cents pound for magnetic steel to a buck a pound for non magnetic, so I keep my eye out for heavy metal, I have a good feel for the heavy stuff and I find occasional carbide blanks which are too hard to deal with for balancing.
-But I have found tungsten and then this piece of coppery looking metal.
-If I can scratch the metals with a knife then I know I can saw it and dril it etc so I buy it at a buck a pound.
-So I buy 12 inches x 1" diameter of tungsten for less than $6 where it would cost me $135 plus freight to ship it from elsewhere.
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-This coppery looking piece is heavy enough that it could definetly be used for balancing so I bought it and I have a curosity about what it is because its not listed in common weight and density charts.
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-I have no idea where or why the salvage place got it, and I really don't want to have an analysis done on it and I don't have a geiger counter nor would I know what that would tell me if I did.
-But I'm still curious.

14.88 g/cc. can't find it on the periodic table at http://www.chemicalelements.com/

Must be an alloy.

One od these??

Metal Lead 11.37
Metal Thorium, Ind. melted 11.6
Ceramic Hafnium Carbide 12.76
Metal Mercury 13.57
Ceramic Tungsten Carbide 15.7
Ceramic WC / Tungsten Carbide 15.7
Metal Tantalum 16.6
Metal Gold Coin (US) 17.19
Metal Uranium 18.74
Metal Tungsten 18.82
Metal Uranium D38 18.97
Metal Gold, cast-hammered 19.3
Metal Gold, Pure 19.32
Metal Plutonium, alpha phase 19.35
Metal Platinum 21.3
Metal Iridium 22.16

-I've been looking at about everything I can think of on the internet and I can't find any clue at to what it is.
-I'm thinking it must be some sort of compacted powded metal and maybe the T10W might mean 10% tungsten or 10% W whatever that is.

It's 25% copper 75% tungsten.

Tipaloy makes electrodes out of it. Their version is called T10W; Tipaloy electrode alloy chart

There are other manufacturers of 25% Copper 75% Tungsten alloy; Group B Class 11 25%Copper 75%Tungsten

Also; Properties of Class 11 25%COPPER 75%TUNGSTEN alloy

-Thanks for the information.
-this makes me feel a lot better being able to know about what it is.
-How did you happen across this information?

I think I searched "T10W copper alloy" then "T10W copper tungsten" on dogpile.com

Hopefully what you have is not "depleted uranium".
It's twice as heavy as lead but, it's some pretty scary material.
Read here:
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs257/en/