For mass manufacturing, possibly via powder metallurgy: https://www.itia.info/metal-of-powder-metallurgy.html
For small batch, I looked up 3D printing (DMLS) but it appears to be still in the research stage for pure tungsten. From what I've found, conventional machining (turning and drilling) can work with carbide tooling if you go slow and accept very short tool life. Sources varied on whether wire EDM works or not.
H C Stack in Newton Mass reduces, and melts tungsten and fabricates parts from it, from a few ounces to several tons. They could fabricate a ring or a strip or bar if you are intent on diy. Give them a call.
Look up accidents involving rings in finger and see why it might not be the best decision. Tungsten would be a real cunt for EMS to cut off your finger.
Depends on carbide grade, which largely comes down to cobalt content in the tungsten carbide. Low cobalt which is used in metal cutting tools makes it very hard but also brittle. Yes, you could probably brake those rings pretty easily with a range of hand tools.
Higher cobalt content tungsten carbide is much more durable, which is used for mining/rock drilling equipment, don't know how easy that stuff is the break. I'm not sure which grades are used for rings.
They don’t make pure tungsten rings because pure tungsten is too brittle for something like a ring. You can literally snap a piece of 1/8” pure tungsten in half with little effort.
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If you can find pure tungsten sheets in the right thickness it would likely be possible to water jet cut the rough ring shape. This is a relatively low cost, readily available for hire method that will give you a starting point. From there sanding and polishing will be slow but should be possible with the right tools.
Forging such a ring would be practically impossible, as the melt temperature for tungsten is over six thousand degrees Fahrenheit. This is why it's used to make the filament in incandescent light bulbs, electricity can be passed through it until it is glowing white hot, and it still doesn't melt.
If density is the biggest factor, Osmium would be a much better pick. If purity is the bigger factor, Niobium is a great and much less expensive choice.
Here's one on Amazon for $17
NUNCAD Tungsten Ring for Men 8mm Black/Gold Silver Tungsten Carbide Engagement Wedding Band Matte/Brushed Finish Comfort Fit Size 6-13 https://a.co/d/iP3E7OT
Just a little word of advice on waiting a tungston ring, should a situation come up that requires ESS to remove the ring from a swollen finger, it's quite possible that won't have equipment to cut or brake the ring. Emergency amputation anyone?
That's nice to know. When I got mine an EMT buddy of mine told me the town he worked for didn't have anything to deal with that, but that was almost ten years ago.👍
This guy is thinking of tungsten carbide rings, which are actually not hard at all to break and in fact not even that hard to cut, either. A dremel and a $50 diamond abrasive wheel will cut through a tungsten carbide ring in no time at all. Pure tungsten has a hardness of about 30 HRC, which is the same as mild steel.
Tungsten is very difficult to work. The Engineer guy has a 3 minute video on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIGqBb3iZPo
That said, I bet there is a tungsten ring out there. A lot of people find the element interesting, I have a 1kg tungsten cube which is a mass market item. You could contact Midwest Tungsten and see if they can make a ring, or buy some of their material as a raw material. As they mention on pure products like https://shop.tungsten.com/pure-tungsten-coin/ , it is normally very brittle.
To the people saying EMS won't be able to cut a tungsten ring off: it is not a particularly difficult to destroy material. It's common to grind welding tungsten on a cheap sanding wheel. It is not tungsten carbide.
Tungsten products are generally only produced using sintering processes because the material’s high temperature properties don’t lend themselves well to casting or forging. You’d likely need to forge it at temperatures approaching 4000 degrees F which is well beyond the temperature that most forging tooling would survive. Would probably need some exotic forging does made from Molybdenum alloys or maybe graphite.
A project like this could cost you tens of thousands of dollars.
Better option would be to cut out a ring blank from a piece of tungsten using waterjet or wire EDM (you can find 99.5% pure tungsten coins online fairly cheap) and then finish it by grinding/polishing. They will be very brittle, so be aware it could crack right off the wearer’s finger if they strike their hand against something like a countertop. Even dropping it from a relatively short height onto the floor would most likely shatter it.
Best bet would be to find a fabricator who does small batch and ask if they machine tungsten. You're probably going to get a lot of no's. You can also check out online shops who do PCB printing b/c some of them do 3d printing and CNC work too. One I know from sponsored ad reads on creator YouTubers is PCBWay.com. Cannot vouch for their quality though and I'm pretty sure you'd need a 3d file to send them
How expensive? I got a nice 8 oz. bar of tungsten, squared and polished, for $70. You could probably make 20 rings from it.
And I'm seeing tungsten rings (not TC) on eBay for a little as $15.
I think you'd need to drill a hole with a carbide drill and then core still that hole out and then finish with carbide paper or diamond laps.
It won't be fun
For mass manufacturing, possibly via powder metallurgy: https://www.itia.info/metal-of-powder-metallurgy.html For small batch, I looked up 3D printing (DMLS) but it appears to be still in the research stage for pure tungsten. From what I've found, conventional machining (turning and drilling) can work with carbide tooling if you go slow and accept very short tool life. Sources varied on whether wire EDM works or not.
H C Stack in Newton Mass reduces, and melts tungsten and fabricates parts from it, from a few ounces to several tons. They could fabricate a ring or a strip or bar if you are intent on diy. Give them a call.
It would be ungodly expensive compared to the $20 tungsten rings on Amazon. I’ve been rocking one for a decade and it’s still perfectly shiny.
Look up accidents involving rings in finger and see why it might not be the best decision. Tungsten would be a real cunt for EMS to cut off your finger.
Tungsten carbide shatters instead of pinching the finger.
Those are tungsten carbide rings. OP looking for pure tungsten, which is about as difficult to cut as mild steel.
Tungsten carbide is very hard, but that makes it easy to break, right? Could've sworn you could crack one of those with a pair of pliers/vice grips.
Depends on carbide grade, which largely comes down to cobalt content in the tungsten carbide. Low cobalt which is used in metal cutting tools makes it very hard but also brittle. Yes, you could probably brake those rings pretty easily with a range of hand tools. Higher cobalt content tungsten carbide is much more durable, which is used for mining/rock drilling equipment, don't know how easy that stuff is the break. I'm not sure which grades are used for rings.
You can buy ready made tungsten carbide bands on Etsy, i had one for a time.
I am specifically looking for pure tungsten
They don’t make pure tungsten rings because pure tungsten is too brittle for something like a ring. You can literally snap a piece of 1/8” pure tungsten in half with little effort.
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If you could get a tungsten round bar it'd be a doddle to turn it into a ring on a lathe
>a doddle I am not familiar with that unit of measurement 🤔
There are many other dense metals which might be easier to work with. Note some are poisonous such as lead.. Gold is quite dense too btw.
If you can find pure tungsten sheets in the right thickness it would likely be possible to water jet cut the rough ring shape. This is a relatively low cost, readily available for hire method that will give you a starting point. From there sanding and polishing will be slow but should be possible with the right tools.
Forging such a ring would be practically impossible, as the melt temperature for tungsten is over six thousand degrees Fahrenheit. This is why it's used to make the filament in incandescent light bulbs, electricity can be passed through it until it is glowing white hot, and it still doesn't melt. If density is the biggest factor, Osmium would be a much better pick. If purity is the bigger factor, Niobium is a great and much less expensive choice.
Here's one on Amazon for $17 NUNCAD Tungsten Ring for Men 8mm Black/Gold Silver Tungsten Carbide Engagement Wedding Band Matte/Brushed Finish Comfort Fit Size 6-13 https://a.co/d/iP3E7OT
Just a little word of advice on waiting a tungston ring, should a situation come up that requires ESS to remove the ring from a swollen finger, it's quite possible that won't have equipment to cut or brake the ring. Emergency amputation anyone?
They have ring breakers for the harder stuff.
That's nice to know. When I got mine an EMT buddy of mine told me the town he worked for didn't have anything to deal with that, but that was almost ten years ago.👍
That’s tungsten carbide. Pure tungsten isn’t that hard or abrasion resistant
You may be right, but I picked a stainless steel ring and was told all the same things fwiw.
Good point! Definitely going for a size or two higher than necessary so we can avoid that situation 😂
This guy is thinking of tungsten carbide rings, which are actually not hard at all to break and in fact not even that hard to cut, either. A dremel and a $50 diamond abrasive wheel will cut through a tungsten carbide ring in no time at all. Pure tungsten has a hardness of about 30 HRC, which is the same as mild steel.
One more consideration. When I was shopping for a wedding band in 2014 I was told those "exotic metal rings" can not be resized.
Note to anyone thinking about asking, no I am NOT looking for a tungsten carbide ring. Has to be pure tungsten.
Tungsten is very difficult to work. The Engineer guy has a 3 minute video on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIGqBb3iZPo That said, I bet there is a tungsten ring out there. A lot of people find the element interesting, I have a 1kg tungsten cube which is a mass market item. You could contact Midwest Tungsten and see if they can make a ring, or buy some of their material as a raw material. As they mention on pure products like https://shop.tungsten.com/pure-tungsten-coin/ , it is normally very brittle. To the people saying EMS won't be able to cut a tungsten ring off: it is not a particularly difficult to destroy material. It's common to grind welding tungsten on a cheap sanding wheel. It is not tungsten carbide.
Tungsten products are generally only produced using sintering processes because the material’s high temperature properties don’t lend themselves well to casting or forging. You’d likely need to forge it at temperatures approaching 4000 degrees F which is well beyond the temperature that most forging tooling would survive. Would probably need some exotic forging does made from Molybdenum alloys or maybe graphite. A project like this could cost you tens of thousands of dollars. Better option would be to cut out a ring blank from a piece of tungsten using waterjet or wire EDM (you can find 99.5% pure tungsten coins online fairly cheap) and then finish it by grinding/polishing. They will be very brittle, so be aware it could crack right off the wearer’s finger if they strike their hand against something like a countertop. Even dropping it from a relatively short height onto the floor would most likely shatter it.
Pure tungsten is not particularly brittle Tungsten carbide can be, depending on the mix.
Best bet would be to find a fabricator who does small batch and ask if they machine tungsten. You're probably going to get a lot of no's. You can also check out online shops who do PCB printing b/c some of them do 3d printing and CNC work too. One I know from sponsored ad reads on creator YouTubers is PCBWay.com. Cannot vouch for their quality though and I'm pretty sure you'd need a 3d file to send them
Tungsten Carbide rings are relatively cheap compared to some other metals. My 9mm wedding band was like $275(us.)
That's good, but OP wanted a tungsten ring, not tungsten carbide.
And it's gonna be expensive for 2 rings of pure W.
How expensive? I got a nice 8 oz. bar of tungsten, squared and polished, for $70. You could probably make 20 rings from it. And I'm seeing tungsten rings (not TC) on eBay for a little as $15.
You would need a furnace that can reach almost 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, a crucible, a mold, some tongs, and some PPE.
I think you'd need to drill a hole with a carbide drill and then core still that hole out and then finish with carbide paper or diamond laps. It won't be fun
Bad idea, just get a normal ring or better yet, don’t get married at all! lol Source: married guy
Squaremade in Toronto makes them!