Tungsten

[Jax]

I was wondering if anyone has much knowledge of Tungsten?? I have a source of it, and have been collecting it as I see the value is around $17/lbs right now. Anyone know where a good place to cash it in? I hate to go to the local scrap yard cause they like to try and rip you off a bit!

(in the pic, its the metal parts inside the glass)

[jmorton04]

I may be incorrect, but I think that tungsten was considered a strategic mineral at one time. It is / was used in making armor and in making armor piercing projectiles. I have no idea if the use of DU has changed all this or not.

I think that the way you make money from strategic materials is to have a sizeable quantity of it when the normal supply is disrupted. Just keep your eye on the spot market, I guess.

My guess is that tungsten does have value to some one, but you may have to accumulate it in barrel size quantities to make it worth while.
BTW - it was also used in the filaments of lightbulbs. I think that it was used because it retains much of its strength while incandescent.
I hope this is useful to you.
Thanks,
John Morton

[DougF]

There was a story (rumor ?) going around a few months ago that tungsten bars were being gold-plated and sold as gold. Tungsten has almost the exact same density as gold, so the weight of the bars would be correct. There were even claims that some of the gold in Fort Knox was actually tungsten. The story died out, and was probably just another internet hoax, maybe to goose up the price of gold.

[007tallguy]

Originally Posted by Jax

the value is around $17/lbs right now.
(in the pic, its the metal parts inside the glass)

wouldn't it take like a million of those bulbs just to get one pound of the stuff..??? sounds like a LOT of work and broken glass for very little return for your efforts.
also, don't some of those bulbs have a harmful gas sealed inside of them? for your own health you might wanna check that out before you get smashing too many of them!

Pete

[RickO]

Looks like a lot of work for minimal return... however, for the most part... so is metal detecting... RickO

[Jax]

Originally Posted by 007tallguy

wouldn't it take like a million of those bulbs just to get one pound of the stuff..??? sounds like a LOT of work and broken glass for very little return for your efforts.
also, don't some of those bulbs have a harmful gas sealed inside of them? for your own health you might wanna check that out before you get smashing too many of them!

Pete

You'd be surprised at how heavy just one piece of that stuff is! I have a bag of them with 20 or so in there with other little parts and its well over 25lbs. And we are required to break the lamp before we trash it, so its free money from what I can see.

i'll just save the money so I can get a Minelab

[Jax]

Forgot to mention, that Lamp in the pic is small to scale. the normal size is 18in-24in depending on the size of the lamp. 6k lamps are the biggest, and have the largest hunk of metal in them

[DougF]

Originally Posted by 007tallguy

wouldn't it take like a million of those bulbs just to get one pound of the stuff..??? sounds like a LOT of work and broken glass for very little return for your efforts.
also, don't some of those bulbs have a harmful gas sealed inside of them? for your own health you might wanna check that out before you get smashing too many of them!

Pete

The gas is generally argon, which is inert and is present in the atmosphere in trace amounts (that's where it comes from originally).

[Vethraxx]

I was a projectionist for 20 years. Heard the rumors, but no one really wanted to save the ends. I think it is more a 'it's heavy, it must be valuable' I must have tossed hundreds of bulbs. the 6k lamps would barely hit 650 hours before I had to replace them.

Projection lamps are filled with xenon gas. Only had one explode in the projector.

Google seems to say that tungsten is around 13-16 a pound.

If it was truly valuable the theaters would have recycled it themselves.

[Jax]

Originally Posted by DougF

The gas is generally argon, which is inert and is present in the atmosphere in trace amounts (that's where it comes from originally).

They are pretty dangerous! When they explode, I describe it as a pipe bomb going off! We wear safty gear when handling them.