mercury from fluorescent tubes and cfl's?
I use a fair bit of mercury, clockmaking, jewellery, baros etc. My stock is running a little low and the substance is becoming increasingly hard to obtain. I am aware of the elfin safety stuff re. hg but it really is not the monster depicted. It is the vapour that's damaging to the body and not the liquid form. Thanks, Nick.
There's about 4mg per CFL bulb:
You're going to need a lot of bulbs, then.
-- Richard
Go round the dentists who are doing large numbers of mercury filling removal procedures due to the effects of them on their owners' bodies.
In fact, go in for removal yourself...
Mercury arc rectifiers use gallons of mercury:
I have a bottle of mercury I don't want. It's a bit hard to get rid of these days, nobody seem to want it!
Where are you? I'll take it.
I've not done this, just thoughts...
pile of cut bulbs in belljar, electric element to heat them up, wait till everythings cold before opening it again.
If you can get old fluoro tubes, eg from the 80s, they contain far more mercury
NT
Needlessly (though, no doubt, remuneratively) it would seem:
Anyway it's amalgam, the OP would need to do some processing to extract elemental Hg
Yes well that is true of course, but never ever drop it on a bit of aluminium please. Brian
Not sure that new fillings in children are equivalent to old, large fillings in adults which may have been there for decades. Certainly there is a hugely profitable amalgam removal industry but it is interesting that amalgam has already been banned in a number of countries.
The suggestion was actually meant jocularly as any responsible dentist knows they have to abide by strict waste disposal procedures and not give it to any totter who happens to knock on the door.
IIRC, the .nz in Matty's email address accurately reflects his location :-)
I can just put the mercury in an envelope and post it airmail can't I? What happens when a litre of mercury spills inside a plane? My aircraft engineer brother says they have to scrap the plane!
That is not a problem.
I don't know if this is aimed at me or Richard. Please explain last few words.
Agreed, and I am not a totter.
As OP I have first bagsies !
Please see my previous message to Matty F.
Hello Matty, use a stout envelope! From what I've heard, the cost of repairing a mercury spill on an aircraft can be upwards of 100K. No doubt this would be sufficient to write off smaller and older aircraft. I imagine 1L of hg would weigh about 10kgs+, that's a fair bit of quicksilver. What part of NZ are you? Some time Nov '13 ~ Mar '14 I will be at Waipukurau. Would V much like to meet you and see some of your amazing projects, particularly trams. Nick.
At some point in the 1960s, I worked for a short time in a laboratory where there was an open bath of the stuff.
Have you seen what happens to aluminium when you remove the oxide layer by rubbing mercury on it?
There are commercial devices you can use. Basically they crush the tube and flush the mercury into a container at the bottom with water. (All boxed in and automatic) Very low tech. We put thousands through, when we checked there was enough mercury to fill half a thimble.
So, you are on a hiding to nothing.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.