I have the elusive dangerous substance in my possession!

It will be interesting to see the Bridgeport tooling that will machine the mercury.

Pete Stanaitis

Reply to
spaco
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Looks very fun. I would try to find some sort of a tub to contain all uses of mercury.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus534

Hi folks,

Thanks to everyone who made suggestions about where I might buy mercury. In the end I bought some from a local scrap metal dealer. I got slightly over 30 kg for £30. Here it is:

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It's going to make a fantastic barometer. Now I just need the Bridgeport to machine the parts, and that will require some saving!

I think I'll also make a video of mercury corroding aluminium. Should be an interesting thing to do with a webcam.

And as an aside, this is a seriously cool artistic use for mercury:

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Thanks also to Robert Murray for recommending the book Procedures in Experimental Physics by John Strong. I bought a copy of this book and it's fascinating. I'm sure other metalworkers and science buffs would enjoy it too.

Best wishes,

Chris

Reply to
Christopher Tidy

In article , Christopher Tidy writes

That is incredibly cheap, and probably enough to make 50 barometers. I can only imagine it was an embarrassment to the scrap man, he didn't know what to do with it/would have had to pay someone to take it away. Will almost certainly need cleaning; think we had that debate earlier.

It dissolves quite a lot of metals - including gold, so don't handle it while wearing any jewellery.

Let's see: enclosed space, massive surface area of mercury, including lots of splashes/small droplets. Hm, you'd be mad to spend much time in there - or, if you weren't when you went in, you would be when you came out!

David

Reply to
David Littlewood

It does some crazy stuff. I can weld it with a jug!

Chris

Reply to
Christopher Tidy

Yes. I will probably use a steel tray. I won't experiment with it in the house, only in the workshop, which is a separate building. That way any spills won't be disasterous.

Best wishes,

Chris

Reply to
Christopher Tidy

Just read you current update on your search for this metal Mercury,? can be dangerous stuff. have you worked out how to pick up spills.? It would have cost the scrap man a lot more to safely dispose of it to a user than you paid for it. Lucky him. Its your problem now!!. Its I believe on the UK serious hazadous materials list. Are you aware of any/all the handling risks,? What about the vapour pressure? have you researched this? Im familiar with it in the plating industry as a mercury/cyanide quickening agent for non ferrous base metals. Also in the fire guilding of gold onto brass to make ormolou fittings for Louis 16th french furniture, and other silver gilt items. So where can I see your project details for this? Just curious. As for the mercury fountain by Alexander Calser of mobile fame, It cant be in a home can it? highly dangerous in my view. Unless its in a sealed glass display case.

Reply to
Ted Frater

As I think I said, the Labs at work disposed of a Darton Kew barometer (think NPL and I knew of its calibration history). I had been told that it was mine for the taking. When I got there to take it (for you) It had been disposed of via the works services people. When I interviewed them about it, they said that the chap they had paid to dispose of it had seemed quite excited. I'll bet he bloody well was :-|

Mark Rand RTFM

Reply to
Mark Rand

Sounds cheap to me, like they wanted to get rid of it?. I wonder if dealers are supposed to sell Hg to the general public? And the HSE would have kittens at the fountain, unless it was totally enclosed. Not saying it can't be handled safely of course.

Reply to
Newshound

You might want to make your parts out of glass tubing. It's an easy project, and flint glass tube is available from chem. hobby suppliers in appropriate sizes. For simple bends and joints the skill is pretty easy to aquire. Caution: Hot glass looks the same as cold glass. MadDog

Reply to
MadDogR75

mercury:

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That's what I'm thinking of doing. I might not bend the tube, though. I might make the bottom section out of a machined block of steel and attach the vertical glass tube using O-rings.

I think I will vent the opening via a tube to the outdoors, so that none of the mercury vapour ends up in the house.

Best wishes,

Chris

Reply to
Christopher Tidy

mercury:

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The mercury will disolve the steel.

John

Reply to
John

Anything made of steel for a nuclear sub has to be tested for mecury contamination. I was told that if any mercury gets into an important system it can disolve and weaken the itegrity of the system. This is on all the goverment contracts. They might be a little overcautious.

John

Reply to
John

No it won't. Mercury is shipped around the world in steel flasks like these:

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Chris

Reply to
Christopher Tidy

A simple way to recover small amounts of spilt mercury is to use a big medical syringe with no needle just the plastic end where a needle would attach and use this to suck up the mercury and put it back in the bottle.

As your mercury was so cheap it is most likely from some mecanical or electrical device and therfore contaminated at least with its own oxide. This is bad for barometers where the tube is small and the movement also small.

Do you have any drawings yet of what you want to build?

-- John G.

Reply to
John G

The standard way to deal with small mercury spills on the floor always was to sprinkle flowers of sulfur on the floor, sweep it around a bit, wait overnight, and vacuum it all up. The sulfur converts the mercury to HgS, which is also known as cinnebar. Flowers of sulfur is very finely powdered elemental sulfur.

By the way, an O-ring seal on the glass tube of a barometer is not a good idea, as the O-ring will seep air. It's pretty easy to melt the end of a glass tube closed; this is the standard approach.

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn

Yes, mercury is actually dangerous to anyone who gets near a high enough concentration of vapors, Asbestos is generally agreed to be relatively safe if you are not a smoker.

Reply to
Stuart Wheaton

I don't see why not.

Best wishes,

Chris

Reply to
Christopher Tidy

I've never heard of a list by that name. It's certainly considered a dangerous material, but there's a lot of over-reaction going on. It isn't in the same league as asbestos, for example.

Yes. The equilibrium vapour pressure at room temperature is enough to make people ill. So you need to make sure that you can't get that concentration of mercury vapour anywhere you're going to spend a significant amount of time. From the point of view of a home hobbyist, the vapour is definitely the biggest danger. Organic mercury compounds are also dangerous, but you'd have to go out of your way to make those.

When I get started on the project I'll post some pictures online. It might be a while, though, as I'm busy with a lot of other things at the moment. If you want me to update you, let me have your e-mail address.

I believe it's behind a glass wall at the art gallery. Pity, really.

Best wishes,

Chris

Reply to
Christopher Tidy

However, most people who fall ill through exposure to mercury vapour for a short period of time make a full recovery. Most people who get cancer through inhalation of asbestos dust do not. That's why I don't think mercury is in the same league as asbestos.

I don't see the connection between asbestos and smoking.

Best wishes,

Chris

Reply to
Christopher Tidy

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