Gilded Posted March 20, 2005 Author Posted March 20, 2005 Exactly. And it's easy to make a choice between a professional grade 9-iron and an osmium block the size of your fist. (Both are good for "clonking" burglars though)
MulderMan Posted March 20, 2005 Posted March 20, 2005 well ebay seems to be my best freind for elements right now. does anyone have the foil samples of metals such as gold that ive seen around? im not exactly rich but would still like nice samples of the elements.
jdurg Posted March 20, 2005 Posted March 20, 2005 I've got a full set of the elements and I've probably spent over $3,000 on them combined. I don't have an exact tally, but because of the sizes and prices of the PGMs that I have and some of the diamonds I've purchased, it's been quite a bit of money. Still, my other hobby of playing poker has helped pay for this hobby of element collecting.
Lance Posted March 20, 2005 Posted March 20, 2005 well ebay seems to be my best freind for elements right now. does anyone have the foil samples of metals such as gold that ive seen around? im not exactly rich but would still like nice samples of the elements. Yes, I bought gold and palladium foil from ebay. I am happy with them. It would be nice to have a big chunk of gold though.
jdurg Posted March 20, 2005 Posted March 20, 2005 Well, if you want some gold I'd suggest saving up pretty quickly and buying it now. The price of it will only go upwards so it won't get any cheaper. I'm really pissed at myself for not getting a few ounces when it was down at around $250 an ounce. Now it's about $450 an ounce and getting more expensive. Same can be said of Platinum. With the commonly traded PGMs, your best bet is to purchase them as soon as you can because they will only get more expensive as time goes by.
MulderMan Posted March 20, 2005 Posted March 20, 2005 ill look into that then. where do you get your vials? ive just been using the ones that my elements have came in and some that i keep insects in for microscope things.
Gilded Posted March 20, 2005 Author Posted March 20, 2005 "I've got a full set of the elements and I've probably spent over $3,000 on them combined." Ahh, but you're lacking some super awesome elements like radium, thorium and promethium. Although, so am I currently. :/ And Lance, those vials look rather nice! Too bad they only ship to U.S. and Canada.
jdurg Posted March 20, 2005 Posted March 20, 2005 Hehe. Well, radium and promethium are exceedingly dangerous in the quantities and forms that I would want to have samples of them in. (I.E. multi-gram quantities of the pure metal). Not to mention nearly impossible to get. With thorium, I just haven't found a place to get a large enough sample that won't cost an outrageous amount of money to purchase from. For vials, once again I'll say talk to Dave Hamric. Nearly all the vials I have were purchased directly from Dave, or Dave has made a special order for me for a set of vials. Shoot him off an e-mail and say that you are looking to purchase some vials and would like to buy some from him. Or just purchase an element or two from him and ask if you could also buy some empty vials at the same time.
BenSon Posted March 21, 2005 Posted March 21, 2005 I just want to find a good australian supplyer for elements im sick of getting slayed for shipping... ~Scott
MulderMan Posted March 21, 2005 Posted March 21, 2005 same for me really, you can get the occasional good lot on ebay in england, but for the rest its europe and the stated. and also some element sites and ebay sellers dont want to go international for some elements!
jdurg Posted March 21, 2005 Posted March 21, 2005 That's because the Hazmat fees and fines you get for trying to avoid the Hazmat fees are insanely high. Trying to ship things like mercury, alkali metals, bromine, chlorine, arsenic, etc. is a bit iffy due to the reactivity and toxicity of the stuff.
MulderMan Posted March 21, 2005 Posted March 21, 2005 suppose so, i do know somewhere that does alkali metals in the uk but im not sure how good the price range is 10g potassium £39.40, 25g sodium £17.95. oh and i got 0.8g of mercury without hazmat!
Gilded Posted March 21, 2005 Author Posted March 21, 2005 Heh, the HazMat fees are indeed quite phenomenal. I recall that 450£ is the sum you have to pay if you wanted an RGB element collection shipped to Finland. Edit: And MulderMan, the price for those kno3.com sodium and potassium pieces is quite high too, but it sure is the best I've seen in Europe yet. :<
MulderMan Posted March 21, 2005 Posted March 21, 2005 forgot to say it wad kno3, good guess. they run a good ship there, i bought some iodine crystals a while ago from them for some forensics exp.
collector Posted March 22, 2005 Posted March 22, 2005 Proud! I have 79 of the 81 elements with at least one stable isotope. After more than 27 years of collecting, with numerous problems and even unpleasant suppliers around the globe. Today missing: F,Cl, and the black, stable allotrope of phosphorus. The more exclusive ones are: 2g Sc in glass ampoule from Johnson Matthey, the reactive lanthanides under argon in glass ampoules (La,Ce,Pr,Nd,Eu) from Hamric, beautiful large crystalline ingots of Bi, 10 grams glass ampoules of Rb and Cs respectively (kept locked in a fire proof safe!). Not so pleasant: a HUGE 1 kg bottle of sodium sticks, analytical grade; 250g potassium, and almost 50g Li. These under paraffinum oil. And locked away inside the same safe. Yikes...!
collector Posted March 22, 2005 Posted March 22, 2005 Well... My own hard experience about collecting elements: If I had knew 27 years ago what I know today, I would never have gotten into this rather weird and dangerous hobby! I would collect stamps instead.
Gilded Posted March 22, 2005 Author Posted March 22, 2005 Quite a collection, collector. I'd be more than happy to take a look at it when I visit Sweden the next time.
darmstadtium Posted March 28, 2005 Posted March 28, 2005 I have been collecting elements for the post two months and have just realized I have no MSDS for them . Could I be poisoning myself? Also, all the elements I have are in either a solid for or a gas. If I was to handle, say, a piece of manganese in a solid lump is it going to kill me? Any help would be great .
MulderMan Posted March 28, 2005 Posted March 28, 2005 manganese should pose no threat, the only info I got in a msds is highly flamable. my Mn looks quite strange really, in some light it just looks like a rock, then in another it looks all shiney and glisenes.
jdurg Posted March 28, 2005 Posted March 28, 2005 MSDS sheets can be a bit misleading. If you read the one on water, it makes it seem as if water is an incredibly deadly chemical that will kill us all. So take that information with a grain of salt. If you are collecting elements it's a bad idea to do so without doing your research first. An element collection is a great thing to have, but it can be just as dangerous as a loaded gun if you are not careful. Most people wouldn't go hunting without some proper training first, and you really shouldn't go out collecting elements without doing some research first. A LOT of the elements will quite readily kill you in their pure form. Arsenic, thallium, lead, tellurium, antimony, bromine, chlorine, mercury, cadmium, barium, beryllium, rubidium, cesium, potassium, sodium, lithium, strontium etc. are all very nasty things and deserve a lot of respect due to their reactivity and/or propensity to end your life. I don't mean to scare you here, but I just want to make sure you are aware of what you are getting into. I believe that in either this thread, a sticky in this forum, or over at http://www.chemicalforums.com they have an entire section devoted to the safe collecting of the elements. It's vital that you read that so you can make sure you know what you're getting into. If you do have any questions that aren't readily answered here, feel free to PM me as I've been collecting elements for a few years now and have a substantial collection and have done a ton of research on the safe handling of these samples.
darmstadtium Posted March 28, 2005 Posted March 28, 2005 I totally agree about the research thing (I store everything in a safe...which probably shouldn’t be in my bedroom ). I have spent hours reading, it’s just so hard to find a concise body of text on safety. I'm going to swallow my pride and go to my chemistry teacher and see can I scab anything off him. Thanks for the help, the chemical forum is great!!!!
jdurg Posted March 28, 2005 Posted March 28, 2005 Good good. Important things to remember are that the reactive elements should be isolated from everything. You can store your alkali and alkaline-earth metals together, but try and keep them away from any halogens or anything else. (I.E. have a fireproof safe and put your Group I and Group II elements in there). It's also important to realize that you don't need massive samples of the elements to see everything you need to see about them. Two grams of sodium will show you all that need to see about sodium metal. Two ounces is just overkill and is a safety hazard. My elements are all contained within safe, secure vials and sealed in ampoules if needed. The reactive elements are stored under inert mineral oil the caps are never taken off of the vials, or the vials are NEVER unscrewed. Yes over time they will eventually oxidize away, but that is why I am currently working on a way to safely melt them down into a sealed glass ampoule. My halogens are all permanently sealed in glass ampoules which have been tested at various temperature extremes to make sure they don't explode. (I'm pretty certain that my bromine is safely secured since it was able to withstand temperatures up to about 150 degrees F before a test ampoule exploded). But the halogens are fully sealed up and unable to escape their surroundings. The white phosphorus is carefully stored in it's own protective container, and the rubidium and cesium are in glass ampoules which are then placed inside another vial for protection. Mercury is securely locked away as well as being inside a glass ampoule. (If you'd like pictures, download http://www.chemicalforums.com/~jdurg/FullPTP.zip and you can see my entire collection). My Uranium is stored inside a glass vial in a double layered, lead-lined box. I have a lot of respect for the damage these samples can cause if mishandled, so that is why I go by the 'bigger isn't always better' mantra. Going to see you teacher and letting him know about your collection is another good idea. He can probably give you some advice on storage and some safety tips. He may not be able to give you any samples, however, due to liability reasons. (Let's say he gives you some potassium and you accidentally set your house on fire or get hurt with it. He'd then be responsible since he gave the sample to you and I'm assuming you're under 18?) So have fun and if you have any questions, feel free to ask. Collecting elements is a potentially dangerous hobby, but a really interesting and fun one once you do all your research.
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