Geoff
spending too much on rocks
Please add 1074 to my post number.
Member since December 2012
Posts: 446
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Post by Geoff on Jun 14, 2013 22:33:49 GMT -5
I never realized how much my job in the oil field would support my rock hobby! I get free silicon carbide from the face seals in some of our tools. Crushed up and classified down to 50 grit and it does wonders in the rotaries. Not so great in the vibes. I get free tungsten carbide from washed-out tool parts. I am trying to accumulate 25 pounds for my new, bigger "hot box". The one I have now is 1/2 inch lead and is packed full of radioactives. The new one will be a combination of lead and tungsten, tungsten being a better gamma shield. And now! Thanks to a serious miscalculation on my alternate's part, we have 2200 pounds of extra borax decahydrate! Seriously. He did the calculations on how much borax we needed for a task, figured out the density, the volume of the containers... And ordered 4500 pounds of technical grade borax decahydrate. Well, today I started to fill up the 12 containers with a borax slurry and quickly realized that he didn't account for the water! So instead of 366 pounds of borax per container, It's 195. So, boss man said I can bring home a bag or two. Each bag is 55 pounds. Who's not buying any borax for the next 10 years? This guy. pictured: 2.25 tons of refined borax.
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snuffy
Cave Dweller
Member since May 2009
Posts: 4,319
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Post by snuffy on Jun 14, 2013 22:45:50 GMT -5
Geoff,ya need 20 mules to haul that much borax?
snuffy
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2013 12:45:12 GMT -5
Geoff,ya need 20 mules to haul that much borax? snuffy snuffy, you are awesome!
Goeff, whattaya gonna get next? High grade hard rock gold ore from an excavation??
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herchenx
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2012
Posts: 3,360
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Post by herchenx on Jun 15, 2013 22:55:35 GMT -5
That's a sweet deal!
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Post by Bikerrandy on Jun 16, 2013 10:39:18 GMT -5
One box of Borax has lasted me 5 years so far. lol
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panamark
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2012
Posts: 1,343
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Post by panamark on Jun 19, 2013 9:34:50 GMT -5
Hey Geoff, just curious what are you using the hotbox for? Irradiating gemstones?
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Geoff
spending too much on rocks
Please add 1074 to my post number.
Member since December 2012
Posts: 446
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Post by Geoff on Jun 19, 2013 10:55:46 GMT -5
20 mules or 1 me. I ended up using 2699 pounds, which means I have 2699 pounds left. Math is hard I guess. Hey Geoff, just curious what are you using the hotbox for? Irradiating gemstones? No, well... Yes. I keep all my radioactive specimens in there, plus a 1 uCi Co60 source and 275 uCi of Ra226. I have a couple quartz crystals in there that are getting darker from the high energy gamma rays emitted by the Co60 source.
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mc2
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since April 2009
Posts: 1,147
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Post by mc2 on Jun 19, 2013 11:01:25 GMT -5
I have a piece of quartz that was made black by radiation. It looks fantastic!
Mike
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panamark
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2012
Posts: 1,343
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Post by panamark on Jun 19, 2013 23:41:42 GMT -5
No, well... Yes. I keep all my radioactive specimens in there, plus a 1 uCi Co60 source and 275 uCi of Ra226. I have a couple quartz crystals in there that are getting darker from the high energy gamma rays emitted by the Co60 source. Drop a nice diamond in there and wait. Gets a nice tint!!! Please be careful though. Working for the gov't, I had to help clean up a mess that some guy back in the 70's made. He was trying to make some big money by irradiating diamonds this way. Apparently the diamonds are very valuable. He had a glove box in his garage!!! And he was using some really hot sources. Anyway, it was a bad scene all the way around. This stuff can get bad very easily and was very expensive to all involved. It did make beautiful dark diamonds though. - Mark
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pporky
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since May 2007
Posts: 1,932
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Post by pporky on Jun 20, 2013 6:24:25 GMT -5
A friend had some radioactive specimenss in his flouro's display and they were pretty amazing pieces.
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Geoff
spending too much on rocks
Please add 1074 to my post number.
Member since December 2012
Posts: 446
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Post by Geoff on Jun 20, 2013 9:52:08 GMT -5
Well, I can assure you of a few things. First, I am the on site radiation officer for my company here in Prudhoe bay. I have been through all of the training required by the NRC, twice. I was the RSO of a gamma imaging section in Afghanistan before I took this job. I work with 10Ci AmBe neutron sources on a daily basis, I am no stranger to the risks. As for my sources, the Co60 is manufactured by Spectrum Techniques. It is an NRC approved limited quantity sealed source. The Ra226 is also a sealed source. I use RadPro to calculate the thickness of my box based on the Ra and Co. The half value layer for those two is much thicker than any of my NORM. I have a calibrated Ludlum model 18 survey meter with GM probe, and borrow a NaI scintillation probe and microrem survey meter from work anytime I prepare my radioactive specimens.
That said, do you have a diamond I can have? ;p
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panamark
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2012
Posts: 1,343
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Post by panamark on Jun 21, 2013 12:10:41 GMT -5
Well, I can assure you of a few things. First, I am the on site radiation officer for my company here in Prudhoe bay. I have been through all of the training required by the NRC, twice. I was the RSO of a gamma imaging section in Afghanistan before I took this job. I work with 10Ci AmBe neutron sources on a daily basis, I am no stranger to the risks. As for my sources, the Co60 is manufactured by Spectrum Techniques. It is an NRC approved limited quantity sealed source. The Ra226 is also a sealed source. I use RadPro to calculate the thickness of my box based on the Ra and Co. The half value layer for those two is much thicker than any of my NORM. I have a calibrated Ludlum model 18 survey meter with GM probe, and borrow a NaI scintillation probe and microrem survey meter from work anytime I prepare my radioactive specimens. That said, do you have a diamond I can have? ;p LOL!!! No diamonds to give, but I have a few you can borrow/expose though It would be really interesting to put a bunch of different gems in there and see what affect it has. I haven't studied the other gemstones, but I know quite a few are sensitive. BTW: as far as I know, that guy's irradiated diamonds are unfortunately still in the cleanup drums safely buried somewhere I can't remember. Unless one of the workers stole them first. You certainly seem to have all the safety concerns covered. You using the sources on the job to x-ray welds, etc?
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Geoff
spending too much on rocks
Please add 1074 to my post number.
Member since December 2012
Posts: 446
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Post by Geoff on Jun 21, 2013 14:13:52 GMT -5
Nope, well logging. We use Cs137 density sources and Am241Be for porosity. lets you calculate the makeup of the reservoir.
Shame about his diamonds. Couldn't have been that "hot".
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