Melting Nickel

[Downunder Bob]

I have a small 1x2x6 metal collection. See snapshot.

It is really quite interesting how different these materials are. Copper has an incredible color. Tungsten makes lead feel light. Magnesium makes aluminum feel heavy. Titanium feels warm (5% of the thermal conductivity of copper). Bismuth has very sparkly crystal planes. I have managed to find inexpensive off-pieces--can't afford commercial prices.

There are many more safe elements that in principle are affordable.

What is a challenge is finding large enough pieces that I can mill down to 1x2x6. Zinc and Lead I was was able to melt myself. Tin and Bismuth I have the material, but need still to melt them (given they are more expensive materials I want to do so with less waste than the bread pan molds I have been using. But I'll get these done in a month or two.)

At times I come across an affordable source of the material, but it is in too small of a form factor. For some of the materials I can remelt them myself (though that is more of a challenge than one might think--I'll tell about my lead experience sometime--a lead brick is harder than you would think (as is true in all machining it seems)) And simply hitting copper with a propane torch simply oxidizes it in funny ways--does not melt it (would need to figure out how to limit the oxygen exposure I guess)

I came across a source of affordable nickel pellets. I just figured someone may have the furnace/mold equipment and be able to reform it for me not too expensively. At least, I want to find out what the cost might be.

From the outside all hobbies are pretty silly. So, I do know that working to acquire macro-sized and human experience-able chunks of elements is silly. It is a small way I connect to the real, tangible, physical world.

Elements I am am gently keeping my eyes open for now include:
Vanadium
Chromium
Manganese
Cobalt
Nickel
Zirconium
Niobium
Molybdenum
Antimony
Neodymium
Tantalum
Indium

If I can find a re-melter/molder the process becomes much easier--there are funny suppliers of scrap all over. But when a single piece is 1x2x6 it often has more than remnant value and so is no longer affordable to a hobbyist collector.

-Bill

Why not get a piece of steel or other common metal machine it to the right size and get it electroplated with nickel. It will look the part and no one will know unless you tell them. It will help complete your collection, and if a suitable piece of nickle becomes available then substitute it.

 

[rwm]

I get that you want pure metal. If you come up empty and are willing to flex a little, cupronickel is damn close to Ni in all physical properties. C70600 is 90% Ni and 10% Cu. It looks an feels just like pure Ni. The melting point is less than 2200F which puts it in the range of hobby casting. I believe I have cast this with propane. Pushing a furnace to get to pure Ni melting point will damage most of the refractory I know of so it could be a one time use furnace! Keep in mind, the furnace is hotter than the metal in the crucible.
Another possibility would be to make an ingot using an arc welder. That would have to be smaller in volume than you are envisioning.
Robert

 

[Aaron_W]

I have a small 1x2x6 metal collection. See snapshot.


-Bill

That is an interesting collection you have there, and no stranger than collecting rocks, stamps or butterflies.

 

[francist]

When I was in my late teens and just getting into serious levels of woodworking I embarked on a similar collection, except not of metals but different types of wood I had worked with. I tried to make each block the same size (about the same as a 1-2-3 block actually) and I finished them all the same way.

I think I got to about five or six different "specimens" if you could call them that before I kind of got bored with it. This usually happens with me -- I start off all gung ho but then after a bit I discover the next shiny thing on my horizon and off I go. I think if I had kept with it though, I would have had quite a stack by now with nearly 40 years into the craft and having repaired and rebuilt countless antiques, not to mention all the local colour from various fruit and boulevard trees.

Sometimes I wish I had kept up with it, but then remember that I rarely take photos of occasions either much preferring to experience the moment in the full at the time. I still know how each of of "my woods" worked, what it smelled like, how it behaved, if it made me sick from breathing it, etc etc. Those memories and reflections will form my sample base for as long as my memory works. And after that, well, I don't think I could rebuild the base without going through the experiences again and that's not going to happen.

I was out walking with my sister the other week as we often do and she said (after I had pulled a great long name out of my head again) "... I think it's really cool that not only do you know the Latin name for all these trees we're walking past, but you know what they're like on the inside too!"

Maybe that's how I finally ended up making my connection with my physical world.

-frank

 

[Bill Kahn]

Well, added to my small 1x2x6 element collection. I now have Molybdenum. Was just barely affordable from some small vendor in China who was very nice in working with me (though, did not quite represent the product being sold as well as they should have. Oh well.)

Molybdenum machines like a hard steel. (I am a beginner, so don’t really have a vocabulary for such matters yet.). But it is noticeably heavier than steel (like 1/3rd heavier—quite close to lead).

An interesting property is that my 1x2x6 inch bar has a lovely ”ring” to it when you tap it. I guess something to do with hardness or elasticity or something. I do not know the material properties that make a material “ring” nicely. Looking at it, just another chunk of grey stuff for the mantle.

-Bill

 

[aliva]

Just a cautionary note, if you get your hands on some magnesium be careful with it. Don't let it catch fire. Water won't put it out, a dry chemical extinguisher with " Purple K " powder is one of the only ways to extinguish it. Check the below links for more info

Magnesium (Mg) and water

Magnesium and water: reaction mechanisms, environmental impact and health effects

www.lenntech.com

Water and Magnesium Fires: Developing an Attack Plan

Eric James explains the changes that fire departments need to consider when responding to magnesium fires.

www.firehouse.com

 

[Aaron_W]

Well, added to my small 1x2x6 element collection. I now have Molybdenum. Was just barely affordable from some small vendor in China who was very nice in working with me (though, did not quite represent the product being sold as well as they should have. Oh well.)

Molybdenum machines like a hard steel. (I am a beginner, so don’t really have a vocabulary for such matters yet.). But it is noticeably heavier than steel (like 1/3rd heavier—quite close to lead).

An interesting property is that my 1x2x6 inch bar has a lovely ”ring” to it when you tap it. I guess something to do with hardness or elasticity or something. I do not know the material properties that make a material “ring” nicely. Looking at it, just another chunk of grey stuff for the mantle.View attachment 303537

-Bill

Possibly a strange request but could you post some photos of that ruler. I grew up in Oakland, CA and that appears to be an interesting piece of local history that has made it all the way across the country.

 

[john.k]

Magnesium catches fire easily.....not........,its quite hard to set alight in a casting or bulk item.....I ve tried with an oxytorch........swarf and the familiar ribbon may burn,the bulk solid doesnt light without a lot of heat.Not one millionth as flammable as the familiar plastics in your home.....and clothing.

 

[Downunder Bob]

I remember when I did my marine fire fighting training at a naval base, we spent most of the day learning how to put large oil fires with various foam mixtures and also just plain water, yes it works if you do it right. Then the instructors set light to an old volkswagen motor and found out what happens when you use water, it just gets worse, they then put it out with some special stuff, don't remember what, too long ago, it was in the mid 80's. But it was pretty exciting to see.

 

[Aaron_W]

I remember when I did my marine fire fighting training at a naval base, we spent most of the day learning how to put large oil fires with various foam mixtures and also just plain water, yes it works if you do it right. Then the instructors set light to an old volkswagen motor and found out what happens when you use water, it just gets worse, they then put it out with some special stuff, don't remember what, too long ago, it was in the mid 80's. But it was pretty exciting to see.

When I went through the fire academy in the 1990s, they taught us magnesium fires (then primarily related to VWs and Porsches) were to be dealt with by protecting exposures and letting it burn out or using copious amounts of water. The book described copious as "more water than you have ever used". The training captain suggested pushing the car into the bay (San Francisco Bay) as an appropriate amount of water to do the job.