Re: [PHISH] RE: Tungsten,2% Thoriated or Pure?

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Mike <megavolts61@xxxxxxxxx>

Hi all,

And also recognize that everyone has a different risk acceptance
posture and that it evolves with time and situation.  What I thought
was perfectly ok when I was an indestructible 20 year old is a tad
different in my forties with two kids.
<big snip>

     I guess my seemingly cavalier attitude 
towards this thread has been taken wrong.    I 
would never advocate carelessness in any aspect 
of coiling.  If a person decides do grind/cut or 
whatever thoriated tungsten electrodes,  by all 
means  wear at minimun a dust mask.   Simple 
logic....inhaling an alpha emitting isotope of 
any element is definitely bad(breathing tungsten 
dust will irritate your lungs too).   Earlier I 
was attempting to point out 'relative' danger of 
various radioactive materials,  but common sense 
still dictates that you take measures to avoild 
inhalation of any radioatctive materials.    It 
might be noted at the same time that the chemical 
toxicity of uranium is worse than the 
radoactivity of it....but that's beside the point.
      I will certainly applause Jeff Parise's 
stance that one needs to err on the side of 
caution when dealing with lawyers etc.   He knows 
his game and plays it well.   As Jim points 
out,  fear is in the eye of the beholder.    I 
worked for years in a research lab and thought 
I'd share two incidents that are nearly totally 
contradictory.   As you all know,  kerosene is a 
fine fuel for heating and even is used in diesel 
engines in winter months.    We had a project at 
this research lab that involved the use of 
kerosene as a solvent.   The engineer in charge 
was talking to me at the beginning of it and was 
thinking that smoking should be banned in the 
building due to the flammability of 
kerosene.   Seems reasonable,   I know.   He was 
a mining engineer...and really had not looked 
into this.     Most people don't realize that the 
reason kerosene is used as a heating fuel is 
because it is actually not that easy to 
ignite.   It has to be heated failry hot before 
it burns easily.   Again....I'm not advocating 
smoking around a barrel of the stuff....but it's 
really not that dangerous.   I put a fair amount 
into a beacker and took this engineer outside 
into the parking lot.....just in case.....I lit a 
cigarette and tossed it into the beaker....it 
went out.    He was stupified......I repeated the 
exeriment a few time just to make sure 
lol.      Kerosene has a really low vapor 
pressure at room temperature.....diesel engines 
operate on the basis the the super high 
compression heats up the fuel air mix to a point 
where it will ignite spontaneously....but a room 
temperature...diesel and kerosene are not that 
easy to light.   That's why kerosene heaters are 
popular in rural areas....    On the other 
hand,   if the project managers had read the MSDS 
or even mention to me what they had designed,   I 
could have saved that company serious 
embarrassment and loss of a mulit million dollar 
contract.    The geniuses in charge of the 
project  decided to use pure ethylene glycol as a 
heat transfer fluid...about 1000 gallons of it 
for this process they set up.   Funniest thing is 
that the guy in charge was the president of the 
company and a chemical engineer.....   Sure the 
boiling point of ethylene glycol is well above 
100ºC.....that is all they looked 
at....DOH!!!    They did not consider that it has 
a flash point down around 60ºC.....They burned 
down a brand new building and lost the biggest 
contract the company ever had.....I don't even 
know if the insurance covered it.   When I showed 
up for work that morning and saw the mess,  my 
first question was:  What mixture with water were 
you using?    When they told me the were using 
pure ethylene glycol.....I laughed my ass 
off.  Anyone with any organic chemistry 
background knows that ethylene glycol is just one 
functional group different from ethyl alcohol and 
will burn great.   One lil spark from a relay and 
POOF   up in smoke..... ....It's all about common 
sense....whether dealing with chemicals....high 
voltage....compressed air even(that can be 
seriously powerful  in a bad way)......
     I didn't mean to seem to downplay the use 
of reason and common sense earlier....It pays to 
learn as much as you can with whatever you are dealing with before you start...
Mike




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