- Joined
- Feb 14, 2020
- Messages
- 166
The "gun" likely is a hand-held XRF analyzer. It shoots x-rays at the object and looks at the x-rays emitted by the unknown metal. The emitted wavelength/energy is specific for each element. A few of us are working on making our own -- check out this discussion. It's a bit on the long side, partly because it took some back & forth to settle on XRF as the preferred method. Not to mention it's been a fun exercise so far.Thanks guys. It’s solid bar stock and it is magnetic. I had no clue a gun exists to test a metal. I’ll look for a scrap place.
Unfortunately I can’t get a better picture. I only have 2 at the house and the rest in my storage unit. If you can’t make it out from the picture it has 2 letter/number sequences. Here they are:
HM15306
HT:SA1708A4-D10
The business closed. I picked up a few of their material lots at the auction and most of it is still wrapped with original paperwork letting me know what it is. Unfortunately these bars didn’t have any paperwork. The owners daughter lives right around the corner from me so if I can’t figure it out maybe I’ll just walk down when he’s at her house and have him identify some steel for me.I am guessing that those are drops from the cut off saw. It is common for companies to mark in house info on stock. In house they do not stock by material but by in house part number. If you knew where these came from you might be able to contact them for more info.
Most 300 series SS is not magnetic, 400 series is magnetic but not as strongly as steel. You could do some spark tests (there are a lot of youtube vids showing what the sparks look like for various metals) to at get an idea.