Looking for a bit of entertainment - another opportunity for an anchor war

Seriously, though. What are the mechanical properties of the material? Does it corrode in seawater? Is it suitable for through-hulls? What about making anchor chain from it - or at least, moorings ground chain..... Better than concrete, the mooring lumps themselves....

;)
 
zoidberg said:
Seriously, though. What are the mechanical properties of the material? Does it corrode in seawater? Is it suitable for through-hulls? What about making anchor chain from it - or at least, moorings ground chain..... Better than concrete, the mooring lumps themselves....

;)
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Ive been told It’s heavy for its volume, understand better than lead
 
NormanS said:
Strange that it was posted yesterday. Today would have been much more appropriate. :D
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The world is a big place and we are well ahead of you, in time at least - it appears to have been posted so that it was available for us on the correct day. it might have been chance - but maybe he put some thought into his timing (certainly some appeared to take it all quite seriously).

A more appropriate story here was that Bunnings, the store you all love (but apparently does not appeal to your wives) was offering free sandpaper (one day only and only in Australia) if you were dressed in white and wearing a green cap. Being a true Scot I got all togged up, as I have some sanding to do in replacing some windows - to discover the store was closed.
 
Apart from the ha-ha April 1st side of it, I wish people would remember that depleted uranium is the U238 left when you take out the U235 needed for reactors, and that with a half-life of 4.5bn years it is barely radioactive at all. Even U235 has a half life of about 700m years, which puts it in the "meh" category as well ... as long as you don't try to store much in one lump, of course.
 
I did check it on Wiki, and found that it is quite a useful metal. No hazards in normal use, about half as dense again as lead but not as soft. Some reaction with chlorides, although seawater is not specifically mentioned. Is used for bullets and ballast in ships, apparently.
 
JumbleDuck said:
Even U235 has a half life of about 700m years, which puts it in the "meh" category as well ... as long as you don't try to store much in one lump, of course.
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So not recommended for bulb keels, then.....?

I'm wondering if someone put an ad for the stuff in the 'Wanted' sub-forum, that someone might get a 'knock on the door' in short order.


As for '.....Some reaction with chlorides, although seawater is not specifically mentioned....' surely one could just overpaint it, or do the equivalent of galvanising? After all, steel 'wire' used in chain corrodes in seawater once the galv is abraded off.
 
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vyv_cox said:
I did check it on Wiki, and found that it is quite a useful metal. No hazards in normal use, about half as dense again as lead but not as soft. Some reaction with chlorides, although seawater is not specifically mentioned. Is used for bullets and ballast in ships, apparently.
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I thought it burnt quite readily.
 
lpdsn said:
I thought it burnt quite readily.
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Doan' know about that, but ( some ) titanium and magnesium alloys most certainly do, as does aluminium, I'm told..... provided you heat 'em enuff in the presence of oxygen.
All of those may be found in a modern sailboat, together with many other substances which burn 'quite readily.'

In fact, if one gathered all the COSH leaflets relevant to all the stuf fin a modern boat, one would need another boat towed along behind to carry them!
 
zoidberg said:
Doan' know about that, but ( some ) titanium and magnesium alloys most certainly do, as does aluminium, I'm told.....
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Air-cooled VW Beetle gearbox/transmission housings were made of magnesium alloy, as some clumsy operators of oxy-acetylene torches spectacularly discovered ...
 
Depleted Uranium is radioactive and you don't want to be near it for long periods. It is heavy, very very heavy, almost twice the weight of lead and very very dense, and therefore very difficult to machine and the swarf is pyrophoric. Casting and machining of DU requires special techniques and very expensive containment to avoid contamination; the hvac system is very expensive; dry machining is almost impossible, wet machining produces aqueous waste which is almost impossible to dispose. DU has special qualities for specific requirements. You will NEVER see an anchor made of Depleted Uranium.
 
( Psssst! If we ask him very nicely, maybe that kind and considerate Ozzie engineer could get an anchor or two made up in DU by his mates in China - them wot does the anchors and chain for other prominent Antipodean designers......

Then he could test it, and we could have a whole year of new anchor arguments! )
 
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