Beryllium?

[mike93lx]

Ok, i thought you just didn't understand the difference between a beryllium alloy and pure, and was just entertained by the responses being given. Now we find out you DO know what you're being asked to do, with PURE BERYLLIUM as a NEUTRON Reflector???

WHY the hell are you asking about this process on fricking garage journal???? WTF!

Some people just like the drama

 

[no704]

Lots of smart folks here!

 

[no704]

Just finished loading some chunks into a PLA print that is currently setting up in a plaster mold. I will let it burn out over the weekend and over cast it with Bismuth on Monday.

 

[no704]

Casting turned out very nice. It was packaged in bubble wrap for the trip to Ca. It arrived unwrapped and smashed, thanks TSA!

 

[nickelTwin]

Any possibilities of pictures from your up coming project?

I think it could be interesting to see.

If it is not allowed. I can understand that.

 

[no704]

Sure, not really much to look at. Mostly on the atomic level. Check out our website. https://www.servaenergy.com/

 

[jimgood]

Thank God someone is still working on nuclear power.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Not bad.

You can buy it for about $2500/kilo.
This is as far as I went for ordering it, so no idea if the website is real or not...

Am I on a gov list now?

 

[no704]

You were on the list way before that. Got 2 packs, like $260/per. I think 100g.

 

[Daedalus]

Whoa, are you nuts? Beryllium is way more reactive than even magnesium and makes aluminum look damned near inert. ANY oxygen in the casting environment will create beryllium oxide, which will turn into dust and smoke and well, kill you, slowly. But even if you can purge all the oxygen, any nitrogen present will create beryllium nitride at casting temperatures with the same end results.

That's just plain incorrect about the propensity to react; BE is fairly inert. Yeah, oxidation will occur, like with most metals, but smoke? No.

Hopefully many of the comments here can be classified as overreactions, as they would suggest even looking at beryllim wrong might develop into cancer. I've handled a number of pure beryllium parts in the past few years, including aggressive cleaning with wipes and mild solvents. No hazmat suit, but I was in a cleanroom and wearing a mask and gloves. As stated, the risk is with inhalation of dust or fumes, so yes, proper precautions need to be taken in a machining environment. Vacuums with HEPA filters, along with PPE should offer adequate protection. Any particles created from machining operations will be heavy and tend to settle quickly. The smaller the particle, the higher the risk, so I would feel less concerned about cutting chips than, say, sanding, grinding or welding. Yes, fumes are a concern if the metal gets hot enough. The consequences of inhalation can indeed be very severe, but if handled with some care and common sense, the probability of inhalation can be pretty much eliminated.

 

[marinusdees]

That's just plain incorrect about the propensity to react; BE is fairly inert. Yeah, oxidation will occur, like with most metals, but smoke? No.

Hopefully many of the comments here can be classified as overreactions, as they would suggest even looking at beryllim wrong might develop into cancer. I've handled a number of pure beryllium parts in the past few years, including aggressive cleaning with wipes and mild solvents. No hazmat suit, but I was in a cleanroom and wearing a mask and gloves. As stated, the risk is with inhalation of dust or fumes, so yes, proper precautions need to be taken in a machining environment. Vacuums with HEPA filters, along with PPE should offer adequate protection. Any particles created from machining operations will be heavy and tend to settle quickly. The smaller the particle, the higher the risk, so I would feel less concerned about cutting chips than, say, sanding, grinding or welding. Yes, fumes are a concern if the metal gets hot enough. The consequences of inhalation can indeed be very severe, but if handled with some care and common sense, the probability of inhalation can be pretty much eliminated.

Care and common sense are pretty non-specific terms when discussing life threatening possibilities.

 

[Daedalus]

Care and common sense are pretty non-specific terms when discussing life threatening possibilities.

Specifically, don't snort the dust or fumes created when you grind or weld Beryllium.

 

[RoninB4]

Geez....one of the last jobs I was involved with at a mold shop was creating the electrodes (EDM) to burn out molds for plastic crates that gallons of milk are delivered in. The material was some BeCu alloy, trouble with cutting the ribs led us to grind it in on a large CNC horizontal boring mill. Smoke and particulates were abundant.

 

[4xdog]

Chronic beryllium disease, through the metal itself or through its compounds like Be-Cu, is nothing to fool around with. Seriously -- this needs care to be taken.

Berylliosis - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Beryllium poisoning is thankfully rare now, due to diligent controls around high levels of exposure. The beryllium machine shop at the research institute where I started my career in the 1980s was originally built for DOE work in the 1950s, and it was completely separate and access-controlled from the rest of the institute's big machine shop.

 

[Pexto]

I think it was Ross who made two beryllium bikes for racing, they were stolen and I don't know if they were ever recovered. This was in the early 1990's.

litespeed of TN made the frames for Ti bikes, for the manufacturers who wanted them, for either racing or sales to the consumer marketplace. I own one of the first litespeed bicycles built.

American Bicycle Manufacturing out of Minnesota made a couple of Be bikes from tubing supplied by Brush-Wellman. They used rolled welded-seam tubing with glued aluminum lugs. If I remember right there was another outfit called Beyond that also made a very few Be bikes. This was all in the early 90s.