At 12:45 AM 12/8/2012, David Roberson wrote:
I would not mess with that in any manner Abd. Take care my friend.
Thanks for your concern. Don't worry.
The danger of the piece of Beryllium I've purchased is quite small.
This is it: if it's got a white powder on it.... watch out!
If it got hit with a hammer and shattered or broke into fragments,
watch out! Tiny fragments are dangerous, basically anything that can
be inhaled would be dangerous.
It looks in the photo, nice and shiny and solid. The realistic danger
I can see would be fire. I'm not sure how dangerous a 5 gram piece
would be, though.
Here is the photo:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pure-999-Beryllium-Metal-Element-Ingot-5-85-Grams-Science-/321035610716?_trksid=p2047675.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222002%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D13536%26meid%3D4004484138843489494%26pid%3D100011%26prg%3D1080%26rk%3D1%26sd%3D220848114232%26
Yeah, I'm the one that paid $37.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pure-Beryllium-Metal-Element-Ingot-5-85-Grams-Science-/220848114232?nma=true&si=uZ46Rf%2BQ3oyENmIA6gfFNZo38us%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
Someone bid $87 for the same thing. The item was relisted. I'm a
little suspicious, but we'll see what I get.
This material can be sent, as it is, through the U.S. mail, if I'm
correct. Beryllium salts are another matter. Hazardous material.
Beryllium oxide, if fired into a ceramic, is also safe.
It's machining the stuff (Beryllium or Beryllium Oxide) that is
really dangerous, because of dust created.
Now, I just noticed
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pure-Beryllium-metal-foil-plate-x-ray-window-0-2x18x87-mm-/121033022584?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c2e215c78
-- a sheet of Beryllium foil, 0.2 mm thick. Now, I'd be tempted to
cut that thin a piece, in spite of what it says.... But I'm not
buying it now. Seems to me that these foil windows might show up from
time to time if I need it in the future. That one piece, $42 is the
starting bid, would make *many* little buttons for use with Am-241
smoke detector alpha sources as a neutron source.
