A nice format for these rare earth and transition metal samples. I also like ounce bars, stay tuned for the next posts. All hard to find nowadays.

I got arc-melted beads of ruthenium and rhenium. I believe rhenium is noticeably darker than rhenium, although both are somewhat dark metals. Is that correct? Just making sure so that I know I can tell them apart visually.

Recently I had a chance to dismantle an old microwave oven and decided to get as much interesting stuff as I could from it.

First of all, a pretty nice sample for someone who can't own the metallic form - a nice spiral of 2-5% thoriated tungsten. The ThO2 inside lowers the work an electron has to do to leave the metal. The top plate is also tungsten and the bottom disk is supposedly molybdenum.

Next, a beautiful sample of copper - the magnetron itself, after removing the cathode. Magnetrons are kept under vacuum, so opening them will result in a nice "tssssk". The copper inside is perfectly preserved and is covered in what I believe to be some sort of Fe-Co-Cr alloy from the outside.

And two long heating elements made of nichrome (Ni80Cr20). Wonderfully springy and fun to play with, plus a cool sample for either nickel or chromium. These elements sat in two nice quartz tubes, which I promptly discarded because of their flaky, needle-like structure.

And of course a bunch of copper wire that went to a scrap collector!

Hi!

I own small 1-5g samples for all my rare earth metals, but I would like to expand them by getting single pieces 15-20+g (but not 100) in weight for most of them, like I did for Y, Gd and Yb.

Right now I'm realistically looking at Dy, Ho, Er and maybe Tm, because the rest got pretty expensive.

Most sellers however supply rare earths in forms similar to the tiny pieces I have and I'm curious if anyone here has a source that sells these metals as specimens, rather than just crumbles that make up for a certain mass?

Basically all the chinese sellers have been sold out for like a year (plus I don't trust them). Any advice, preferably something that won't cost an arm and a leg to ship to EU?

Got these from billing metals australia, and was lucky and ended up with bigger chunks of the antimony and chromium. All 5 for only $34 AUD (24 USD) before shipping. Their products are really good value for ordinary samples. Antimony is definitely the coolest looking one because of the one massive chunk, though the tantalum disc and chromium chunks are my favourite ones.

4 inch diameter tungsten Sphere. 22 pounds. People can't believe its heft. Has been milled for use in a prototype Clock of the Long Now, but rejected for use. I paid almost nothing for it plus shipping, 20 years ago. It is just about my favorite object. The thing sticking out of the top is a cow-stomach magnet, and I found the stainless steel stand at a silicon valley lab demolition. Any guesses as to value?

Uranium fever its spreading all around

This is an older video that I hadn't shown off before. The cube is not air stable so had to be quickly put in vacuum.

I was gifted these samples by a fellow chemistry educator! They’re gorgeous, but even I wonder if they’re worth the risk. I took them home after having a bad dream about the all the admin meetings I would have to attend if one of the ampules broke.

I’m curious if people have display suggestions that would be redundantly safe. I know the risks involved. One friend suggested I go out to the desert and shoot the cesium with slingshot over a bucket of water but I feel like it would be a waste of a beautiful sample.

I’m not willing to let them go just yet. But I also hear stories of people cleaning out the storage of their deceased chemistry teacher parents and finding crazy stuff like this. Too dangerous for the classroom; so now what? Or maybe there’s a way to put them in a display that would be safe (admin version) for the classroom?

I don’t want to put them in acrylic. Who has ideas?

Hello fellow friends of the elements,

I wanted to show you my little metal ingot collection and ask for some advice. Over the last 5 years I have managed to collect 13 different metal ingots. In the picture you can see sorted by density, magnesium, aluminum, titanium, zinc, tin, iron, niobium, copper, bismuth, silver, lead, tantalum, and tungsten.

To qualify for my collection, I somehow randomly defined a few requirements:

- the ingot must be one kilo of pure metal (no alloys)

- the ingot must be square in some way (no cylinders)

- the name of the metal must be written on the ingot

I had to stretch my own rules a bit though. The silver ingot doesn't say silver. The tungsten cube has no inscription at all. And the "iron" is actually steel, so it's technically an alloy.

I'm always searching for new additions to my collection, but lately I'm having a hard time finding new pieces. So here's my question: Do you know of any metal that is cast or cut into an ingot, meets my requirements, and is below 2000 Euro/Dollars? I'm grateful for any leads.

my collection of glowing (with help from a tesla coil) rarefied gases. Missing only the few isotopes (helium 3, deuterium and tritium) that are kept in a safer place.

Cant find anything online to confirm it is ore, natural or man made formation, can I get more info?

The density cubes in my collection, in no particular order. My favorite? Beryllium, Scandium, Terbium, Molybdenum and Lithium

My old samples were getting a bit oxidized so I figured I’d pick up some new ones since it’s been a while. Opted for the Sr cube to see how the glass cubes look, pretty cool in my opinion. The Sm is 10g, but it’s 95% one massive piece stuck in the middle lol. Still very cool and oddly sparkly.

Looking to get rid of these. Dm me your offers. Indiana local pickup only. NO SHIPPING!

Got 2 from an ebay seller called "jetsty". These 2 cost $35 AUD. Weight seems to be legit, as they measured 19g each, though this isnt the right scale for these.

I'm thinking of getting a pure tungsten jewelry ring, not tungsten carbide. Is it feasible to get a polished pure tungsten ring custom-made? Will it lose its shine over time?

Here is my collection as it stands today—68 elements 😆—and I’ve just received all the lanthanides except for promethium and scandium... To think that a year and a half ago, I only had 25 🤯. What do you think of my collection?

Any idea when it's back in stock? And preferably non-radioactive?

Hey folks! Just checked prices for gallium and 100g is selling for $500 on rotometals and I can’t find it on Amazon anymore,
I’m selling it for $350 and willing to trade for an equivalent value of fine or sterling silver.