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Tungsten Cylinders - 4 ouncesa




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 Cylinders are 3/8" in diameter and a little over 3/8" long. Your 4 ounce shipment of Tungsten Cylinders will contain eight, 1/2 ounce cylinders.

Tungsten Cylinders can be easily used for pine derby car weighting by drilling one or more 25/64" or larger diameter holes into the block and then inserting the desired number of cylinders. The hole can then be plugged with a piece of 3/8" dowel rod. Since the Tungsten Cylinders are very hard, do not plan to drill out any extra weight. Instead, use an alternate method to make fine adjustments such as adding/removing tungsten beads.

Tungsten Cylinders are specifically required for the following cars. a4 ounce nominal weight - actual weight ranges from 3.9 to 4.0 ounces



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