What is it?

[Marvin S]

I salvaged some of these from a Republic F-105 fighter aircraft thinking they where lead as other aircraft use lead for balance weights on flight controls. The stuff is very hard, I done a quick rockwell test with a 1/16 in ball and 100 Kg load and got about B63. That's harder than 7075 T-6 Alum but this little chunk weighs over six pounds. It has a fine small stream of bright red sparks when applied to a grinding wheel and looks obviously cast. It appeared to have white corrosion on it with a bunch of paint before I bead blasted it. It drills fairly hard also. Remember it is 1950's-60's era. I'm thinking Kryptonite :bigsmyl2: hope I don't need a Geiger counter.

[fryboy]

umm let me finish this sentence for you

" It has a fine small stream of bright red sparks when applied to a grinding wheel and looks obviously cast......" iron

brite red sparks means it has some kind of iron/steel in it , the obvious casting aspect of it furthers this thought , they do have several kinds of cast iron but i dont know them as iron isnt my thing
and i dont know if kirksite throws sparks as i dont recall seeing them

[Marvin S]

I'm leaning towards Depleted Uranium. Way to heavy for cast iron. Probably ought to quit messing with it.

[wcp4570]

I agree with Marvin that is more than likely depleted uranium especially if it was removed from flight control surfaces. The surfaces have to be balanced that's the reason for heavy weights. I remember an extensive avionics mode on the F106A that called for removing a big chunk of lead from the nose section. Could never get my hands on any of the lead. All aircraft have to have weight added or removed to keep the CG (center of gravity) within limits.

wcp

[CountryBoy19]

I'm leaning towards Depleted Uranium. Way to heavy for cast iron. Probably ought to quit messing with it.

Have you checked for density? Iron is only about 29% lighter than lead; may be somewhat difficult to judge on a piece that large with that odd of a shape.

I say weigh it as precisely as you can, then put it in a big jar/bowl of water (filled 100% full, up to the brim), see how much water it takes to replace the water that spills after you put it in the jar. Tip: keep the holes pointed up so the air can escape. From there its just simple calculations and unit conversions to figure out the density.

[Rooster]

I'd try a small batch out and cast some boolits to see if it works and then decide what to do with the MM. Down the road I'd sure as day forget what was in those ingots and accidently use them and then Dr. Murphy would have me again.

[lwknight]

First of all just find out if it will even melt at a reasonable temperature.

[GLL]

First of all just find out if it will even melt at a reasonable temperature.

Agreed ! :)

Magnetic ?

If you get it to melt in your pot at about 2800 degrees F it is iron ! ;)

Jerry

[CGT80]

Could it be tungsten? I use tungsten electrodes for tig welding. A very small chunk of an electrode will really make a thud when it hits the floor. I also read that it melts at about 7,000 F. I don't remember if it sparks when I grind it, as I am looking for a good point when I run it on the grinder. It eats the center right out of a grinding wheel. It is very hard. It looks like tungsten is used for fishing weights because they can be smaller than a lead weight of the same size.

[CountryBoy19]

Could it be tungsten? I use tungsten electrodes for tig welding. A very small chunk of an electrode will really make a thud when it hits the floor. I also read that it melts at about 7,000 F. I don't remember if it sparks when I grind it, as I am looking for a good point when I run it on the grinder. It eats the center right out of a grinding wheel. It is very hard. It looks like tungsten is used for fishing weights because they can be smaller than a lead weight of the same size.
Tungsten is $$$$$... I can't imagine it being used for any type of weight unless it was crucial to have a very high density. In most cases a lead weight will work for much less unless the space is extremely constrained...

[Marvin S]

It turns out to be a mass metal, tungsten matrix. Anviloy is one trade name.

[fryboy]

let's see if this post correctly
"Component Elements Properties Metric English Comments
Iron, Fe 2.0 % 2.0 %
Molybdenum, Mo 4.0 % 4.0 %
Nickel, Ni 4.0 % 4.0 %
Tungsten, W 90 % 90 % "

from the msds sheet here

http://www.matweb.com/search/datasheet.aspx?matguid=423a5e6cebcf4b0ea4838c33442 8b80d&ckck=1

[CGT80]

So I got it right? Sweet!!!

Tungsten is very expensive, at least in the form of welding electrodes. I use both pure tungsten and 2% thoriated (which is actually radioactive and is less popular now a days). It does seem a bit odd that they would use tungsten for such a weight when lead is more common and cheaper.

Marvin, how did you figure out what it is?

[Marvin S]

Survey meter, conductivity, and a few folks at practical machinists. You should try the new sky blue rare earth tungstens or 1.5 to 2.0 lathanated.

[shaper]

It is spent uranium. I was a aircraft inspector for Delta. Spent uranium is added for ballance on most commercial aircraft. What ever you do, DO NOT try to cut it, and especially DO NOT try to grind it. It creates a dust that can be very bad for your respritory system. The best thing you can do now is to GET RID OF IT as soon as you can. That is some bad stuff.

[CGT80]

You should try the new sky blue rare earth tungstens or 1.5 to 2.0 lathanated.

I will have to look into those tungstens. I run an old sine wave transformer machine (miller 330 a/bp 460 amp) which has some limitations compared to the new square wave machines. I have to run pure for AC welding when I do aluminum. When I was taking welding classes, I used 2% thoriated to do aluminum and used a syncrowave machine. I have a big supply of 2%, but I need to buy more pure for aluminum or something else that will work on AC sine wave. I am just a hobbyist (have done a few small non structural paying jobs) otherwise I would run a Miller Dynasty inverter based machine and newer style tungstens.

[wcp4570]

It is spent uranium. I was a aircraft inspector for Delta. Spent uranium is added for ballance on most commercial aircraft. What ever you do, DO NOT try to cut it, and especially DO NOT try to grind it. It creates a dust that can be very bad for your respritory system. The best thing you can do now is to GET RID OF IT as soon as you can. That is some bad stuff.

Now I'm agreeing with shaper that is probably depleted uranium DU. The paint you blasted off the weights was the protective coating. Do an internet search for depleted uranium and aviation. The F105 Thunderchief was designed and built in the late 1950's and I doubt they used tungsten for ballast in that time frame. Tungsten is almost as dense as DU but harder to work with. I don't know how hard it would be to mold tungsten into a shape as the one you show in the initial post. What I've seen on my research says that the reason for using DU is because it is cheap to use. One post I found mentioned that DU was used extensively in commercial and military aircraft in the time frame of the F105, but has been phased out and other materials have taken its place as ballast today. I would not want that anywhere close to my family.

wcp

[Marvin S]

It is of no use use to me so in the scrap bin it goes. I think ill live as blasting was in a hepa filter cabinet and the small spark test was also vacumed. Tungsten is easy to mold in powder form. The KC-135 tanker uses all lead and steel for balance weights.
We use to use all 2% thoriated tungstens for TIG welding but have phased them out within the last two years for health reasons.