"Tim Williams" wrote in message
...
"Harold & Susan Vordos" wrote in message
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My experience in the missile industry

Out of curiosity, what's your opinion of beryllium? (Yes it's poisonous,
I
know; I'm just fishing for metalworking thoughts here.)

Tim

My opinion is it's a wonderful metal for proper applications. Easily heat
treated, even at home. I've worked it all through my machining career,
although never in quantity. I've turned it on a lathe, which is less than
fun, especially drilling or reaming. It's not uncommon to have a reamer
seize in a bore and have to be machined out to recover the reamer. I've
made (flat) springs from it on many occasions, some of which I still have in
my spares box. They were for use in tooling in the aero-space industry.

The toxicity is such that at one of my customer's facility, where they made
various tooling components from it (the source of the tools I built), the
company policy was for machinists to machine it for a maximum of 90 days,
then never work it again. Apparently it accumulates in the body.

If you have a specific question in mind, ask away. If you're looking for
someone to tell you that you should start casting it, and machining it in
the future, I'd suggest you forget it at your young age unless you have a
specific need. No sense risking your health for no good reason.

Harold