How can I buy 99.5% iron bar?

[Winegrower]

I just bought 40 pounds of commercially pure Titanium. So there's one element to start my collection. Though to be fair, I don't really know what commercially pure means.

 

[sdelivery]

Do you have a "Be" sample?

 

[macardoso]

Yes. (Thank you for noticing). I retired a couple of years ago and with more time in the shop my skills have greatly improved. (many many mistakes (aka learning opportunities)). So I have been able to cast many of the lower melting point materials. Even strontium (which reacts with air and so I had to melt while keeping isolated from the atmosphere. I do not have the sort of budget for a vacuum furnace. In this case I welded closed a (slightly oversized) steel container (yes, have learned to weld) before heating.) And the machining, even friable materials like antimony or very fragile materials like sulfur, I have worked up some techniques that work well enough. Like finding after getting a diamond saw blade that cut the silicon I could sand it in mill down to my desired surface finish and size. Won't win any awards, but who else has a bar of selenium on their mantel? I am still working to get some more of the basics (nickel, cobalt, chromium, manganese) at affordable prices. Some commercial outfits are happy to produce perfect samples for me, at several thousand dollars a pop. Way way over my retiree budget--I have much time but little money. I am enjoying the scrounging. And the full macro-size of the pieces in my collection--you really get of sense for their different properties (thermal conductivity (the copper is cold), density (real tungsten is way way heavier than the lead), sound (molybdenum tings beautifully--cadmium thuds worse than lead),...) at pieces this sized. The tiny 1cc and 1in^3 collectors kit pieces are too small to really experience. And their purity is terrible--for example the 1in^3 tungsten commercial sample's density is only 12.8! And, it is highly magnetic. Yes, heavier than the steel, but not by much. And the steel is stainless (making it shiny) but isn't magnetic! So, the tiny commercial samples are far from rocking my boat. Again, thanks for noticing the growth. At some point I'll get all the samples lined up again--I have a few more since that snapshot. -Bill

Bill, I am honestly impressed, it is a very cool project.

Going forward, would you consider a smaller sample size (same proportions, scaled down) for more expensive elements which would be unreasonable to collect in the current 1x2x6 configuration? This might allow you to collect more elements in total.

It would also be interesting to see you find a blown glass block in the correct size for gas and liquid elements, or for metals which oxidize rapidly. Although personally I would not want a couple pounds of lithium, sodium, potassium, or cesium on my mantle.

 

[MrWhoopee]

C1010:

Chemical Composition​

The following table shows the chemical composition of the AISI 1010 carbon steel.

Element	Content (%)
Iron, Fe	99.18-99.62 %
Manganese, Mn	0.30-0.60 %
Sulfur, S	≤0.050 %
Phosphorous, P	≤0.040 %
Carbon, C	0.080-0.13 %

 

[Bill Kahn]

Pretty interesting on the misleading marketing for a lot of these elements.. I hope you're not shooting for a large quantity of fluorine in elemental form .

No fluorine. I am looking for safe and affordable. And, 1x2x6 form factor. I was surprised that sulfur turned out to be possible—the powder from the feed store hardly smells at all. And, it melts easily. But seems to chemically combine with nearly everything, which all do stink. Thus the many coats of the polycrylic. And lo and behold, a bar of sulfur on the mantel the wife does not object to. 2/3 of the bar of lead and the bar of cadmium is coated with one layer of polycrylic. Just barely noticeable if you are looking. That allows those who are concerned about heavy metals and all to handle as well. So, I am paying a bit of attention to safety. Oh and 2/3 of the bar of carbon (graphite allotrope, not diamond) also coated so as not to smudge delicate fingers. I think, unlike collecting butterflies or minerals, my affordable and safe collection is pretty limited. Just a handful more to go and I think I’ll be, effectively, complete as I think coming across a stray large chunk of, say, osmium, at $100 or so, is zero. And I’ve read enough about the dangers of beryllium dust that dispute being fascinated by the material, and that it is also unaffordable, I don’t want to work on sanding it down to size. So yes, you are most right. No elemental fluorine.

 

[francist]

When I was a kid growing up in the Peace River area there was a refinery right on the river that we had to drive past if we were going anywhere north. There was always a huge, and I do mean huge, mountain of freshly “acquired “ for lack of a better word sulphur. I can still see it it in my minds eye today, bright yellow mountain on the far side of the river, just like you’d see a pile of sand in a gravel pit. I don’t suppose they do that anymore, but it sure was cool to see.

 

[Bill Kahn]

Bill, I am honestly impressed, it is a very cool project.

Going forward, would you consider a smaller sample size (same proportions, scaled down) for more expensive elements which would be unreasonable to collect in the current 1x2x6 configuration? This might allow you to collect more elements in total.

It would also be interesting to see you find a blown glass block in the correct size for gas and liquid elements, or for metals which oxidize rapidly. Although personally I would not want a couple pounds of lithium, sodium, potassium, or cesium on my mantle.

I have considered smaller pieces.

I have had a bear of a time working with manganese. It is a common and affordable material (making up a sizable percentage of many steels). But all I have been able to find is manganese flakes. It melts at 2275F. And normally you need to get meaningfully above that to actually get flow—say 2400F or more. And, when it gets hot in air in oxidizes, so I need to heat it in a welded shut steel box. 2400 is at the absolute limit of my propane forge. With great effort I was able to get a 2x2x1/2” melted solid piece of manganese. It is way way hard material—my $28 bi-metal bandsaw blades (the best I can buy) are ruined trying to cut the stuff. The diamond blade can work through it. And the carbide end mills can cut it. In an effort to heat the box better next step is high-temp stainless mold box, and hit it with the rosebud on the oxy-acetylene. Try to get to 2500 on the outside, staying away from melting the box. All very amateurish. And a blast. But, yes, as you suggest, in the mean time I actually do like the slightly lopsided manganese blob. Maybe I’ll start down some path of say 2x2x1/2 for materials I otherwise couldn’t afford. We’ll see.

Regarding glass enclosed samples—well, that is not really my goal. I want to be able to interact with the material. Feel its weight. Play with magnets. Sense the thermal conductivity (the titanium feels warm). Hear its “ting” or “thud”. (Every one of the 18 bars sounds different). So, enclosed in glass, is “having” in a sense, but not really experiencing. So, not for me. I think collections are like this—very personal which stamps or coins or slide rules or whatever one will seek.

-Bill

 

[macardoso]

I have considered smaller pieces.

I have had a bear of a time working with manganese. It is a common and affordable material (making up a sizable percentage of many steels). But all I have been able to find is manganese flakes. It melts at 2275F. And normally you need to get meaningfully above that to actually get flow—say 2400F or more. And, when it gets hot in air in oxidizes, so I need to heat it in a welded shut steel box. 2400 is at the absolute limit of my propane forge. With great effort I was able to get a 2x2x1/2” melted solid piece of manganese. It is way way hard material—my $28 bi-metal bandsaw blades (the best I can buy) are ruined trying to cut the stuff. The diamond blade can work through it. And the carbide end mills can cut it. In an effort to heat the box better next step is high-temp stainless mold box, and hit it with the rosebud on the oxy-acetylene. Try to get to 2500 on the outside, staying away from melting the box. All very amateurish. And a blast. But, yes, as you suggest, in the mean time I actually do like the slightly lopsided manganese blob. Maybe I’ll start down some path of say 2x2x1/2 for materials I otherwise couldn’t afford. We’ll see.

Regarding glass enclosed samples—well, that is not really my goal. I want to be able to interact with the material. Feel its weight. Play with magnets. Sense the thermal conductivity (the titanium feels warm). Hear its “ting” or “thud”. (Every one of the 18 bars sounds different). So, enclosed in glass, is “having” in a sense, but not really experiencing. So, not for me. I think collections are like this—very personal which stamps or coins or slide rules or whatever one will seek.

-Bill

While having all the same size would be ideal, it would also be pretty neat to have access to more elements than you could otherwise.

As far as the glass boxes, I figured this would be the case, just brainstorming how to add elements which are not solid or stable to your collection!

 

[homebrewed]

While you might be able to get your hands on phosphorous, that probably is another one to stay away from, even if it's a solid at room temperature. I believe that depleted uranium can be had, but it still is slightly radioactive. It's interesting because it is pyrophoric, much like lighter flints. Definitely heavy, man

 

[Bill Kahn]

While you might be able to get your hands on phosphorous, that probably is another one to stay away from, even if it's a solid at room temperature. I believe that depleted uranium can be had, but it still is slightly radioactive. It's interesting because it is pyrophoric, much like lighter flints. Definitely heavy, man

Wow. I am all-in for a 1x2x6" bar of DU. I gather that machining it safely is well beyond hobby-level work. (I did make a sort of clean box with a vacuum for machining the antimony--the floating fractured powder is clearly seriously bad to breathe and my 3M P100 mask I don't have all that much confidence in. I think you'd need an actual professional system to safely machine DU). I also think that once machined, it is probably reasonably safe to handle. The problem in reading MSDSs is supposedly everything is really bad. Like half the solvents I use regularly are supposed to be nasty. And lead and cadmium read more like arsenic than like steel. I am guessing after a few more decades my collection will be given to some high school. And, my guess, is the lead and cadmium will not be allowed in the school. Sigh. But DU! Now, that would be worth some work to machine to size. Of course, I have zero idea how to obtain large ingots of DU. Though, putting small pieces into a steel mold and melting it myself seems pretty neat. Sheese, my wife would kill me if she learned my habit had moved me from the mildly apparently serious to the seriously apparently serious. Thank you for the idea. I had honestly never even considered it.