Hillbillysmith Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 Anybody know where i can order tungsten carbide stock?? Round stock approximately 1" diameter. I'd like to make a tungsten carbide ring. In addition, does anybody know the weldability, possibly heat treatment, and inlay/engraving potential of this material?? -Hillbilly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 Weldability: None Heat Treatment: None Inlay/Engraving: Using very special diamond tools if might be possible. Making your own tungsten carbide ring: probably cost 10 times more than buying one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmccustomknives Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 Idk, the only thing I could think of that would even come close is tube borium. Stoody makes it. It's tungsten carbides in a lower melting parent material used to build up things like horse shoes. Other than that, spray powders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Tungsten carbide is formed by sintering powder, not by machining, welding, casting, etc. I've never heard of 1" dia. tungsten carbide stock. However if you call a drill tool supplier you may find drill bit carbide "buttons" that'll do. Just be forewarned, you're going to need diamond tools to work it and lots of sticktoitiveness. LOTS. Frosty the Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGGUNDOCTOR Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 I have it up to .500" , but seriously it really isn't a home project. Carbide is running well north of $100 a pound atthe moment. We go through lots of it at work, as we make our own drills, and other cutting tools. You could possibly contact a carbide scrapper on PracticalMachinist.com, and see if any of them have large diameter stock. To work it you need diamond grinding capabilities. Good diamond wheels are not inexpensive. The other problem with carbide rings are that they cannot be resized smaller, bigger only by grinding, and they are brittle. For one of the female operators at work I bored out a couple of bearing races for her, and her husband. Carbide boring bar cut the race easy enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hillbillysmith Posted September 7, 2012 Author Share Posted September 7, 2012 In this particular case, i may consider skipping the tungsten carbide experiment and go on to something else of the wall..... I once found a website that sold beryllium and beryllium alloys. Hehe :-D i even have textbooks that give welding procedures for beryllium and its alloys. Even gives for uranium. -Hillbilly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 I know that you mention Be as just an example of the strange stuff found in old textbooks; *BUT*, Be scares me s******s. Once I read up on it I did a *thorough* purge of my scrap brass supply junking *anything* that may have had *any* Be content---what really scared me was learning that a local company, known to be rather cavalier about their safety practices, would refuse an entire railroad car of brass scrap if *one* piece containing Be was found in it---and would then clean the scrap room down to the floor and walls and wash it before continuing... For rings how about niobium, tantalum; or one to the other metals that are inert to the body yet colour really pretty! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hillbillysmith Posted September 8, 2012 Author Share Posted September 8, 2012 Beryllium is only in a hazardous zone when heated to a point of giving off dangerous gasses. I know a fee gentlemen who used to work in a beryllium plant. Lots of insider information.... You can't beat experience. Buy i understand what you're saying. -Hillbilly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted September 10, 2012 Share Posted September 10, 2012 Be DUST can kill you, not only heating fumes! From a MSDS: "Inhalation: An exposure to airborne beryllium in excess of the occupational standard can occur during routine handling, material transfer, chemical processing or further processing of powdered material and when machining, melting, casting, dross handling, picking, welding, grinding, sanding, polishing, milling, crushing, or otherwise abrading the surface of solid beryllium in a manner which generates finely divided particles. Machining operations conducted under a flood of liquid coolant usually require local exhaust ventilation." As my use for knife fittings would include "grinding, sanding, polishing" I rather be safe than sorry! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGGUNDOCTOR Posted September 11, 2012 Share Posted September 11, 2012 We literally go through tons of CuBe alloys at work. I just tossed some large (around 7/8") bar ends in with a heat treat run I was doing at work. We deburr some parts chemically, and when they come out of the chem they look like gold. So much so that one customer asked us to dull them somehow , as they thought a batch was already gold plated. The maximum content of Be in the alloys is 2%, but that 2% really makes the copper (97%) perform far better than straight copper. Sad part is that it runs around $23 a pound, and scrap is the same value as brass--go figure. Lately there has been severe shortages of Be alloys, so you would have thought the scrap value would have gone up, but it hasn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Hale Posted September 14, 2012 Share Posted September 14, 2012 I made a wedding ring set from stainless pattern welded steel,,Just a thought.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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