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Machined Stainless Steel or Tungsten D20

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Machined Stainless Steel or Tungsten D20

Jan 8, 2018

I have both the Steel and the Tungsten die, they are the same size but the steel one weighs 39.7g and the Tungsten 86.0g.
Looking up densities on line, steel does not have a fixed density but is usually in the 7-8g/cm3, whereas Tungsten is 19.3g/cm3.
This is a ratio of about 2.5 times greater density of tungsten over steel.
So as the ratio of my die is 86/39.7=2.14 it appears that either the steel is particularly dense, or the Tungsten is not Tungsten.
Anyone else picked up on this?

Vote

lailoken

249

Jan 8, 2018

PurdahOr... you could be within all the margins of error.

BenBear

Jan 8, 2018

PurdahTungsten is a fairly soft metal, it's very unlikely that anyone would machine anything out of pure tungsten. Common tungsten alloys used in machining seem to run from 90 to 95% tungsten, with copper iron and nickel being alloys commonly mixed in. This would put your density at anywhere from about 17 to 18 g/cm3 for the 'tungsten' die, meaning that your ratio of 2.14 fits squarely within reasonable expectation.

Purdah

Jan 8, 2018

BenBearI am not sure about your reference to Tungsten being soft, its hardness rating (Wikipedia) is 7.5 which means it is harder than glass.
I was also suspecting that it was some sort of Tungsten alloy and agree that lower density ratio between the two die would be due to the use of a Tungsten alloy and also Lailoken point that my scales (0.1g resolution) would only allow for an indicative comparison between the two die.
Thanks for the replies.