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Tungsten Beads - 1 ounce




What is Tungsten?

The word "tungsten" literally means "a substance of high density", and is derived from the Swedish language, "tung", meaning "heavy," and "sten", meaning "stone." The name is appropriate as tungsten is a metal with one of the highest densities. In fact, tungsten is 1.7 times heavier than lead. Only gold, platinum, and a few other rare and expensive metals have a similar density.

Applications of Tungsten

Tungsten is completely non-toxic and environmentally friendly so it is gaining increased use in weighting applications where lead is not appropriate. For example lead has been banned in many streams, so tungsten is often substituted for lead weight on fishing flies. The high density coupled with the non-toxic nature makes tungsten an ideal metal for this application.

For similar reasons tungsten is a superior product for weighting pine derby cars. Tungsten is 3.2 times the weight of the no-lead weighting material often used on pine derby cars, thus it enables tremendous flexibility in the design of the car. Coincidentally, tungsten has been used by NASCAR for the metal roll cage and as frame ballast to lower the center of gravity of the race car.

How to Use this Product

Tungsten Beads are ~3/16 inch diameter spheres. Your 1 ounce shipment will contain about 29 beads.

Tungsten Beads are typically used for fine-tuning the weight of a car. This is accomplished by drilling 3/16 inch holes in the bottom of the car, and then gluing beads into the holes.

Tungsten Beads are specifically required for the following cars.


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