Ignoramus9970 wrote:
Someone is selling a few "beryllium copper rods".

BERYLIUM RODS (composition 1. 58 Bery; 0. 28 Cobalt; 0. 12 Nickel,
and
other elements)7018, 7025(334), 7032(113), 7054, 7095. N658864267F302
55

ASTM, B196, C172 alloy (alloy 25)

Each bar is 24" long and approximately 2" thick (heavy stuff).

C172 alloy is described at

http://www.freedomalloysusa.com/be_co_f_r_p.shtml

Each rod should be approximately 30 lbs.

I am curious if these rods have any value at all, if so, what is
their
use, and how much could they sell per lb.

i


I have no idea what the alloy was, but beryllium-copper tools were used
around the shipyard where there were explosion hazards, like around
fuel tanks, flammable gasses and the like. One of my techs needed some
channellocks, all Shop Stores had were the B-C versions. They were
lighter than the steel versions. The alloys are used other places,
usually where there's a need for a corrosion-resistant spark-free
material. Beryllium itself is nasty stuff, a cumulative poison with
bad effects. The local atomic workers are still fighting the
government on that from when the arsenal was producing bomb pits. Not
something to buy to stick on the shelf for an odd project or two in the
future. For most uses, it would be classified as haszardous waste.

Stan

"Ignoramus9970" wrote in message
...

Thank you. I also read that it was not sparking. I will probably stay
away from it.

I am surprised that the government is selling the stuff. It is not
particularly dangerous to possess or handle, but it is very dangerous to
work on. Almost any tool that you put to it will create a plume of
microscoptic dust, dust that is very dangerous to about 5% of the human
population. Beryllium can cause an incurable lung disease. My wife's lungs
were ruined by the stuff.

Vaughn



i

"Vaughn Simon" wrote in message
...
snip--.

I am surprised that the government is selling the stuff. It is not
particularly dangerous to possess or handle, but it is very dangerous to
work on. Almost any tool that you put to it will create a plume of
microscoptic dust, dust that is very dangerous to about 5% of the human
population. Beryllium can cause an incurable lung disease. My wife's
lungs
were ruined by the stuff.

Vaughn

Vaughn,

Can you tell us more? I'm somewhat intrigued by your comment of only 5% of
the population being troubled. I've been under the impression that it is
toxic to all.

I've worked with beryllium copper since the late 50's, but not very much.
It's a super good alloy for certain applications, as you likely know.
Makes wonderful springs. In the early years, we machined it with no
concern, just as asbestos was handled with no concern. Makes me wonder
what the future holds for me!

Harold

Coupla links...

http://www.nationaljewish.org/medfacts/beryllium_medfact.html
http://www.whsc.on.ca/Publications/hazardbulletins/summer2003/beryllium.html
http://www.gao.gov/archive/2000/cg00006.pdf

Scary, but not THAT scary.

--
__
Pete Snell
Royal Military College
Kingston Ontario


The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
- George Bernard Shaw
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"Harold and Susan Vordos" wrote in message
...

Can you tell us more? I'm somewhat intrigued by your comment of only 5%
of
the population being troubled. I've been under the impression that it is
toxic to all.

It is in your genes. Some people's bodies react to beryllium with an
inappropriate immune reaction. If you get even a microscoptic amount of
beryllium in your lungs, this cam cause an incurable scarring of your lungs.

I've worked with beryllium copper since the late 50's, but not very much.

The most dangerous operations are grinding and polishing on the stuff.
I used to use sparkproof tools on the submarine in my Navy days, simply
handling the stuff is not a problem. If you worked for the government or a
government contractor, you are probably covered by special legislation.
That does not help my wife, she was exposed in a dental lab.

It's a super good alloy for certain applications, as you likely know.
Makes wonderful springs. In the early years, we machined it with no
concern, just as asbestos was handled with no concern. Makes me wonder
what the future holds for me!

If you are really worried, there is a blood test.
http://www.nationaljewish.org/medfac...m_medfact.html If you have
no symptoms, (persistant cough, weight loss) I would probably find something
else to worry about. But I would not work with that **** for anybody! They
recently found several OSHA inspectors that have the disease just from
occasional casual exposure in workplaces that presumably were mostly working
within OSHA regulations.

Vaughn



Harold

I know I have some beryllium "brazing" rods.
Trouble is, they've lost their labels, and I can't tell them from others.
Is there a simple test to identify?

On 1 Apr 2005 22:00:13 GMT, Ignoramus9970 wrote:
On Sat, 02 Apr 2005 07:39:33 +1000, Jordan wrote:
I know I have some beryllium "brazing" rods.
Trouble is, they've lost their labels, and I can't tell them from others.
Is there a simple test to identify?

try grinding them, if your lungs scar, they have berillium!

All the beryllium tools I've seen are more "brown" than "gold" colored,
is that useful at all? They were beryllium-bronze tools - not sure
if that's what your rod would be made of.

Then again, brazing rod is pretty cheap - if you're that worried, maybe
find a safe way to dispose of all the suspect stuff, and buy clean?

Dave Hinz

Ignoramus9970 wrote in news:d2joru$mmb
:

Someone is selling a few "beryllium copper rods".

BERYLIUM RODS (composition 1. 58 Bery; 0. 28 Cobalt; 0. 12 Nickel, and
other elements)7018, 7025(334), 7032(113), 7054, 7095. N658864267F302 55

ASTM, B196, C172 alloy (alloy 25)

Each bar is 24" long and approximately 2" thick (heavy stuff).

C172 alloy is described at

http://www.freedomalloysusa.com/be_co_f_r_p.shtml

Each rod should be approximately 30 lbs.

I am curious if these rods have any value at all, if so, what is their
use, and how much could they sell per lb.

i

BeCu is a fairly common alloy. You can be sure that there is some in your
house. I've machined loads of it, C172 cuts similar to 360 (half hard)
brass. It is used in RF connectors for the center contacts. It can be heat
treated and retains its "spring" so its ideal for making slotted and
crimped contacts. It's also used in fibre optic connectors, and as someone
else mentioned for non sparking hand tools. The amount of Beryllium in C172
is fairly low, and machining it is not especially hazardous. To be on the
safe side it's best not to do any machining that creates dust such as
grinding and buffing. A few years back there was a shortage of BeCu and
companies were paying big bucks for it. I'm not sure what the going rate is
for it today.

--

Dan

"D Murphy" wrote in message
...
Ignoramus9970 wrote in news:d2joru$mmb
:

Someone is selling a few "beryllium copper rods".

BERYLIUM RODS (composition 1. 58 Bery; 0. 28 Cobalt; 0. 12 Nickel, and
other elements)7018, 7025(334), 7032(113), 7054, 7095. N658864267F302 55

ASTM, B196, C172 alloy (alloy 25)

Each bar is 24" long and approximately 2" thick (heavy stuff).

C172 alloy is described at

http://www.freedomalloysusa.com/be_co_f_r_p.shtml

Each rod should be approximately 30 lbs.

I am curious if these rods have any value at all, if so, what is their
use, and how much could they sell per lb.

i

BeCu is a fairly common alloy. You can be sure that there is some in your
house. I've machined loads of it, C172 cuts similar to 360 (half hard)
brass. It is used in RF connectors for the center contacts. It can be heat
treated and retains its "spring" so its ideal for making slotted and
crimped contacts. It's also used in fibre optic connectors, and as someone
else mentioned for non sparking hand tools. The amount of Beryllium in C172
is fairly low, and machining it is not especially hazardous.

Sorry, but that is old information. Low percentage beryllium alloys are
indeed dangerous. In the case of my wife, she was working with tiny castings, a
few of which contained beryllium up to a maximum of 3%. Her lungs are ruined
for life. There has been lost of misinformation on this in the past because:
1) There can be decades between exposure and symptoms. ("Been using the stuff
all my life and never a problem")
2) Most of the population is immune. (are you feeling lucky?)
3) Overoptimistic spin by the alloy manufacturers. (you can guess why)
4) Disinformation from the government (Lots of beryllium in nuclear weapons and
they needed workers during the cold war.)

To be on the
safe side it's best not to do any machining that creates dust such as
grinding and buffing.

Good advice, the amount of dust that is dangerous is invisible to the eye,
and it tends to hang in the air. It will go right through a paper filter mask.

Vaughn


A few years back there was a shortage of BeCu and
companies were paying big bucks for it. I'm not sure what the going rate is
for it today.

--

Dan

If I read those specs right, these rods are 98% copper and only 1.58%
Beryllium. That's the standard BerylCo alloy for making springs. You
machine it like copper to the dimensions you need (or stamp it out of
sheet which I'm more used to) and then heat treat it to form the spring.
Before you heat treat it, it works like copper so you can form any shape
you want. When you heat treat it (450 deg. 45 minutes as I remember, but
look it up) the beryllium migrates to the grain boundaries, locking them
and forming a spring. Very hand stuff and ubiquitous in the electronics
industry. All the spring contacts that hold the boards in you computer
are made from it.


Jim

"john" wrote in message
...


Ignoramus9970 wrote:

On Fri, 01 Apr 2005 19:04:47 GMT, Vaughn Simon
wrote:

"Ignoramus9970" wrote in
message
...

Thank you. I also read that it was not sparking. I will probably
stay
away from it.

I am surprised that the government is selling the stuff. It
is not
particularly dangerous to possess or handle, but it is very
dangerous to
work on. Almost any tool that you put to it will create a plume of
microscoptic dust, dust that is very dangerous to about 5% of the
human
population. Beryllium can cause an incurable lung disease. My
wife's lungs
were ruined by the stuff.

Thank you. My wife would have an instant heart attack if I bought
beryllium rods and she learned about toxicity of berillium.

i


Dont tell your wife that they use berillium copper in many switches
and
electrical contacts. You probably have berillium copper in many parts
of
your house.

John

But he does not machine it or even get it out of the device it is part
of.
--
John G

Wot's Your Real Problem?

Ignoramus9970 wrote:

On Fri, 01 Apr 2005 19:04:47 GMT, Vaughn Simon wrote:

"Ignoramus9970" wrote in message
...

Thank you. I also read that it was not sparking. I will probably stay
away from it.

I am surprised that the government is selling the stuff. It is not
particularly dangerous to possess or handle, but it is very dangerous to
work on. Almost any tool that you put to it will create a plume of
microscoptic dust, dust that is very dangerous to about 5% of the human
population. Beryllium can cause an incurable lung disease. My wife's lungs
were ruined by the stuff.

Thank you. My wife would have an instant heart attack if I bought
beryllium rods and she learned about toxicity of berillium.

i


Dont tell your wife that they use berillium copper in many switches and
electrical contacts. You probably have berillium copper in many parts of
your house.

John

Ignoramus9970 wrote in
:

On 1 Apr 2005 23:30:30 GMT, D Murphy wrote:
Ignoramus9970 wrote in
news:d2joru$mmb :

Someone is selling a few "beryllium copper rods".

BERYLIUM RODS (composition 1. 58 Bery; 0. 28 Cobalt; 0. 12 Nickel,
and other elements)7018, 7025(334), 7032(113), 7054, 7095.
N658864267F302 55

ASTM, B196, C172 alloy (alloy 25)

Each bar is 24" long and approximately 2" thick (heavy stuff).

C172 alloy is described at

http://www.freedomalloysusa.com/be_co_f_r_p.shtml

Each rod should be approximately 30 lbs.

I am curious if these rods have any value at all, if so, what is
their use, and how much could they sell per lb.

i

BeCu is a fairly common alloy. You can be sure that there is some in
your house. I've machined loads of it, C172 cuts similar to 360 (half
hard) brass. It is used in RF connectors for the center contacts. It
can be heat treated and retains its "spring" so its ideal for making
slotted and crimped contacts. It's also used in fibre optic
connectors, and as someone else mentioned for non sparking hand
tools. The amount of Beryllium in C172 is fairly low, and machining
it is not especially hazardous. To be on the safe side it's best not
to do any machining that creates dust such as grinding and buffing. A
few years back there was a shortage of BeCu and companies were paying
big bucks for it. I'm not sure what the going rate is for it today.




Thanks... I could not find the going rate for it, either.

i

Call these guys. They are right off of 90 by RT83.
http://www.brushwellman.com/

--

Dan

"Vaughn" wrote in
:

Sorry, but that is old information. Low percentage beryllium
alloys are
indeed dangerous.

Not wrong I just should have elaborated a little more. Around 2%, give or
take and depending on who to believe, of the population is succeptible to
Chronic Beryllium Disease or CBD. CBD can be fatal over the long term,
and even if it's not a fatal case it's a serious condition that you don't
want. CBD is caused by inhaling Beryllium dust. So welding, melting,
casting, abrasive cutting of any type ie grinding, buffing, polishing,
sanding, light milling, etc are not advised without proper ventilation
and filtering. I have read where people who show sensitivity to it when
handling it (skin rash, dermititus, pneumonia type symptoms) may be more
susceptible to CBD. I've mainly turned it under flood coolant on Swiss
screw machines. At one company I worked at there were a couple of Levin
Lathes that were used to turn it dry. I avoided that area like the
plague. Beryllium is a known carcinogen. The woman that ran that Levin
lathe for 30+ years got cancer. You could see the BeCu dust in the light
from the work light sparkling in the air. Also makes me wonder if someone
bought that lathe used over the years and took it home and cleaned all
that dust out of it.

In the case of my wife, she was working with tiny
castings, a few of which contained beryllium up to a maximum of 3%.
Her lungs are ruined for life. There has been lost of misinformation
on this in the past because: 1) There can be decades between exposure
and symptoms. ("Been using the stuff all my life and never a problem")

True.

2) Most of the population is immune. (are you feeling lucky?)

With a name like Murphy? Never.

3) Overoptimistic spin by the alloy manufacturers. (you can guess why)
4) Disinformation from the government (Lots of beryllium in nuclear
weapons and they needed workers during the cold war.)

They were working with nearly pure Beryllium. Most got cancer.


To be on the
safe side it's best not to do any machining that creates dust such as
grinding and buffing.

Good advice, the amount of dust that is dangerous is invisible to
the eye,
and it tends to hang in the air. It will go right through a paper
filter mask.

I'm sorry to hear about you wife. All in all I'm more worried about the
carcinogenic effects of it than the CBD though. Overall my exposure as
far as I know has been fairly low. It seems a lot more people that work
with Beryllium get cancer than CBD. Neither one is a picnic. Anyway, you
wouldn't find me grinding or abrading the stuff. I doubt that I would
ever bring a bar of BeCu home and machine it either. Grinding carbide is
also fairly dangerous to your health. As I've gotten older Carbide dust
will make my heart pound. Probably the Cobalt. The dust from carbide
grinding is carcinogenic as well.

--

Dan

"D Murphy" wrote in message
...
snip------

.. Grinding carbide is
also fairly dangerous to your health. As I've gotten older Carbide dust
will make my heart pound. Probably the Cobalt. The dust from carbide
grinding is carcinogenic as well.

--

Dan


I've always been quite sensitive to the dust from ductile or cast iron.
Luckily, very few of the jobs I ever held machined very much of either one.
When I had to do it in my own shop, I used a vacuum cleaner that discharged
outside, so the dust wasn't much of a problem. It's not a bad idea to
avoid breathing these things, given a choice.

Harold

There is currently an argument going on between the Naval Tankerman
Association and the Australian Navy over past use of Jason Pistols, used
for scouring paint and rust from ships. Apparently these tools used
vibrating rods coated with an alloy containing beryllium.

Here's a link. The article is about half way down the page.

http://www.rancba.org.au/QSO.htm

ignore the reference to beryllium being a heavy metal - they're only
reporters, after all. They've probably never even heard of 'light
metal', and anyway everyone knows that 'heavy metals' (eg lead, mercury
etc) are the baddies, don't they

rant OFF about reporters

Incidentally, from webelements.com

"Aquamarine and emerald are precious forms of the mineral beryl,
[Be3Al2(SiO3)6]."

Roger



Vaughn wrote:
"D Murphy" wrote in message
...

Ignoramus9970 wrote in news:d2joru$mmb
:


Someone is selling a few "beryllium copper rods".

BERYLIUM RODS (composition 1. 58 Bery; 0. 28 Cobalt; 0. 12 Nickel, and
other elements)7018, 7025(334), 7032(113), 7054, 7095. N658864267F302 55

ASTM, B196, C172 alloy (alloy 25)

Each bar is 24" long and approximately 2" thick (heavy stuff).

C172 alloy is described at

http://www.freedomalloysusa.com/be_co_f_r_p.shtml

Each rod should be approximately 30 lbs.

I am curious if these rods have any value at all, if so, what is their
use, and how much could they sell per lb.

i

BeCu is a fairly common alloy. You can be sure that there is some in your
house. I've machined loads of it, C172 cuts similar to 360 (half hard)
brass. It is used in RF connectors for the center contacts. It can be heat
treated and retains its "spring" so its ideal for making slotted and
crimped contacts. It's also used in fibre optic connectors, and as someone
else mentioned for non sparking hand tools. The amount of Beryllium in C172
is fairly low, and machining it is not especially hazardous.


Sorry, but that is old information. Low percentage beryllium alloys are
indeed dangerous. In the case of my wife, she was working with tiny castings, a
few of which contained beryllium up to a maximum of 3%. Her lungs are ruined
for life. There has been lost of misinformation on this in the past because:
1) There can be decades between exposure and symptoms. ("Been using the stuff
all my life and never a problem")
2) Most of the population is immune. (are you feeling lucky?)
3) Overoptimistic spin by the alloy manufacturers. (you can guess why)
4) Disinformation from the government (Lots of beryllium in nuclear weapons and
they needed workers during the cold war.)


To be on the
safe side it's best not to do any machining that creates dust such as
grinding and buffing.


Good advice, the amount of dust that is dangerous is invisible to the eye,
and it tends to hang in the air. It will go right through a paper filter mask.

Vaughn


A few years back there was a shortage of BeCu and

companies were paying big bucks for it. I'm not sure what the going rate is
for it today.

--

Dan

rlincolnh wrote in news:424F3D99.5020302
@yahoo.com.au:

There is currently an argument going on between the Naval Tankerman
Association and the Australian Navy over past use of Jason Pistols, used
for scouring paint and rust from ships. Apparently these tools used
vibrating rods coated with an alloy containing beryllium.

Sounds like the Jason Pistols are non sparking needle scalers. Probably
using BeCu needles. It's hard to imagine that in that case a lot of dust
was created from the needles themselves. I suppose they could be abraded by
the steel plate and cast iron below the paint that was being removed. The
lead in the paint and the Asbestos in the ship would be none too good for
you either. I don't understand why the doctors can't tell the difference
between asbestosis and CBD in these patients.

--

Dan

Tnanks, good advice, but I've got a fair quantity of bronze rods.
Being color-blind doesn't help much either, but I can borrow someone
else's eyes.
I think I'll use the rods I KNOW are non-Be first.

Jordan

Dave Hinz wrote:

I know I have some beryllium "brazing" rods.

Is there a simple test to identify?


All the beryllium tools I've seen are more "brown" than "gold" colored,

Then again, brazing rod is pretty cheap - if you're that worried, maybe
find a safe way to dispose of all the suspect stuff, and buy clean?