How Strong Is Tungsten Ring? Hydraulic Press Test! 

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Be careful with these very strong rings. Something like tungsten can be difficult to impossible to cut in an emergency situation, and if you have a swollen hand and a swollen finger you can end up with what's called compartment syndrome which can result in the loss of the finger. Any ring that you're thinking about wearing that's made of a hard material and I mean steel tungsten titanium anything like that must have a built-in fracture line somewhere so that it can be broken. We had several cases where a hand was swollen and we could not get the ring off and we were left with very unattractive and narrow choices. And in order to break a couple of tungsten rings in the theater we had to mow the finger pretty bad to get a tool under the band so we could then snap it.

Gorgeous rings! I’d love to see the distortion on the rings after they were squished on their side, instead of just the view of the squishing.

A small note. Tungsten as metal or alloy with other metal is supposed to be malleable and not brittle. On the other hand, tungsten-carbide is a CERAMIC. It is a chemical compound that creates a lattice of tungsten and carbon in 50/50 ratio distributed in a balanced matrix. So, tungsten-carbide is very hard and brittle, while tungsten-metal alloys have very different properties depending on the mix and type of metal being added.

It was super neat seeing up that close to the point where you could see the grain structure of each material coming through, and how the finer the grain, the stronger the material seemed to be

The cracking nature of Tungsten is exactly why I chose the ring I do. I worked in a job where finger injuries were possible, and a swollen finger would make it impossible to get the ring off. If Titanium, it'd need specific cutters. Tungsten could just be squeezed with any decent channel locks and break it off. Much safer for me.

There are multiple kinds of cast iron. The "traditional" cast iron is gray cast iron and it is very hard and brittle; you can smash it like a clay pot with a hammer. Ductile iron is still a cast iron; it is just treated slightly differently to make the graphite residues spheroidal instead of graphite flakes.

Anybody notice the state of the press tool after it flattened the copper?

Cast iron and zirconium got mixed up in the first test, you can tell by the finish and how it performed.

Would have liked seeing the flattened rings. Interesting results...

Great camera work, I especially liked how the silver ring started to almost dimple as it was being crushed! That would be a nice looking ring if they could make one like it.

that iron ring was way stronger than I expected it to be

Hot tip: make sure your ring can be cut or broken off in an emergency without excessive deformation or fancy tools. Generally that means soft or brittle materials that machine well.

With some of the stronger rings it’s pretty important that they can be broken in case of emergency, if it were to get crushed onto your finger or your finger got swollen up you need a way to cut the ring off. Some of the best made rings will have pre cut weak spots so that you can get the ring off in case of emergency. Otherwise you want to get a relatively soft ring that can easily be cut

Great video, sharp picture when crushing and well thought-out editing. Special compliments to the Blade Runner -like background music in the latter series of presses, the atmosphere so created was superb. One of your best videos up to date in my opinion.

This was great from start to finish. Nice tests, great footage, fantastic editing. And fun!

Very cool video! When it comes to Zirconium it is normally a silver colored metal but when torched with high heat it creates an oxide layer on the outside that turns black but is also very resistant to scratching and knicks. Would love to see this same experiment but with pulling the rings instead of crushing them. I wonder how much weight they could each hold if used as a carabiner.

The silver ring got a very interesting surface texture before crumbling. Just imagine that as an option: manufacture, press, redo to fit, leave external texture. Neat.

It would be very interesting to see the results after hardening the rings. I don't know if the company offers hardened versions, but it could be done at home if you know how.

Pretty cool how some metals almost appear to liquify under pressure.

I was surprised by how well the iron held up. Remember gentleman: Always wear a ring that is safe when working with your hands and won't make you regret wearing it if something does happen.

That Mokume-Gane Titanium ring is utterly gorgeous, I want that as my wedding ring. It's interesting how differently black zirconium behaved compared to regular zirconium, and even more intriguing was how the orientation changed how regular zirconium behaved too.

Interesting video, especially the close-ups. I'd also like to see thermal imaging of the metal as you press it.

As a machinist, 0.01mm is indeed extremely similar, and some of your materials are really hard to machinate to that precision. Congrats lol

You should include the weight of each ring so we can see what the pound strength per pound mass ratios are.

a fitter i once worked with made some rings out of a billet of titanium alloy that was used to make jet engine compressor blades if the rings where deformed a bit they would return to being round after a few hours

There are different types of cast iron. The iron ring was probably "ductile," which *is* cast iron, but it doesn't shatter.

My wedding ring is tantalum. I would love to see what the press would do to that and other metals. Also it might be interesting to try pressing the copper/gold/other soft metal a few times to try and create the thinnest sheet of metal you can

I almost lost my finger getting my titanium ring caught on a ladder last week. Very humbling knowing your ring can skin your finger instantly like that.

My favorite ring is tungsten carbide due to its hardness. It’s unscratched and could have been made yesterday. Its hardness is unreal, unlike any material I encounter normally.

In the first position there was little cross-sectional area. That's why the result is not so noticeable. The second position was interesting. Shows why knowledge about materials makes such a difference.

Looking great !! I love the way you crushed those haha.

Idea for you. Make rings with square edges and the same exact dimensions but with rounded edges and see if there’s any difference in how much strength they have

I think the cast iron and zirconium got mixed up in the box somehow on the first run. If I were to wear one it'd be the copper or stainless.

There was enough hardness in the copper to actually deform the press bit! Cool! And you made a really nice pendant in process.

In the future, if you want to apply the same pressure to something, you could put a relief valve in the line and use the sensor to set it.

he never learns! last time he squished metal, he needed to replace his window!

6:00 I've worked with zirconium before and I wouldn't say it's especially "soft" It's not nice to cut and it's reasonably brittle, at least in my experience

Squaremade rings are awesome! glad for this collaboration!

First I've ever seen Psychedelic Titanium. Prrritti Guud.

If I recall correctly, with Tungsten copper alloys, the tungsten is usually suspended in a copper matrix, so you're probably not getting the properties or "pure" tungsten. Pure tungsten is super hard to process as it has the second highest melting point of any known element (behind carbon). Additionally, powdered metal parts (at least classically) tend to fail in a brittle mode (cracking) as opposed to ductile bending. You probably know already, so just putting that out there for the comments.

Two ideas: 1) Do a similar test sequence but with pairs of rings -- one normal and that has been heat-treaded (tested separately). It would be quite educational to see the effects of heat-treatment. Maybe one of the educational RU-vid channels would like to collaborate. 2) Sell the results (maybe on eBay) -- the copper one would make a nice pendant. It could make some revenue for the channel. I would bid...

That was great to see. I would have loved to look at the rings after they were smooshed laying flat. ☺️

Anyway you can add a FLIR camera to your set up when you are compressing metals (like in this video)? Would love to see the real time temperature changes.

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I think the Cast Iron and Zirconium rings got switched around by accident

The way the iron crumbled like that was insane. It crunched unexpectedly.

The music you put in was a kool addition. It went really well with this setting. Fun video and that was nice of that ring company to send those to y'all. Hope y'all have a great day.

I love the premise of "what is the best material for your ring" as though people are gonna get the strength of it tested one day when their hand gets stuck in a hydraulic press or something.

That iron ring couldn't have been cast iron! Far too flexible.

OMG These rings are gorgeous I just bought one CAN'T WAIT!!!

3:08 Mokume-gane (木目金) is a Japanese 🇯🇵 metalworking procedure which produces a mixed-metal laminate with distinctive layered patterns; the term is also used to refer to the resulting laminate itself.

The stronger the ring, the worse your finger looks after hooking the ring on something. Wear nylon wedding bands when working.

The video quality is very impressive and great!

Some really beautiful shots in this!

I would argue that you’re better off with a brittle ring that shatters…. Along the lines of steel toe boots that pinch your toes off, a doctor is going to have an ugly hard time getting that bent ring off of your smashed finger..

Jesus loves you all and have a great day also remember to not say the Lords name in vein and to say your blessings before you eat food and to not hate anyone no matter what.

I would love to see the heat change as things especially metal gets pressed. Some kind of Infrared thermometer set up would be cool. Great videos, idk why but watching the press smash things is satisfying!!!

Another great video, could we have more tension tests please.

this is insanely informative for ring shoppers. I feel if you made a poster with this info, you could sell it to jewlery shops easy. thank you for the experiments

Yeah, tungsten has a high melting point, but it’s brittle. We use it in welding because of those properties, and also some more physics stuff I’m in no way qualified to explain. In TIG, the process that uses it, we have to be very very clean and avoid contamination at all costs. If the tip of the tungsten electrode touches the weld pool or the filler rod, we use that brittleness to snap the dirty tip off and grind a new one into it.

This week's show was "smashing".. Thank you.

Try Tungsten Carbide Vs. Titanium Aluminide ⚔️

Your channel is interesting to watch. The tungsten ring performed as expected. Was surprised about the titanium ring.

From submarine to hydraulic press on RU-vid, Pavel never fails to entertain us.

Good to see a post from you all.

I was really wanting to see the rings after you flattened them, especially the copper ring. Flattening the rings down should make a cool looking pattern

Kinda fun that I have the exact same lens, it is a great lens. Amazing price to performance.

another great video, nicely done 👍

I just threw my lab top against the wall after there was no extra content at the end

Still loving this channel ✌️

Could you ever get your hands on some Inconel 718 and try similar with a chunk of that too? 🤔

I have titanium kettles for the outdoors. They dent but they are optimal as they are still tough and light.

Another enjoyable video. Thank You!

Curious, what is the music that you put in after the first ring when they are laying flat against the static part of the press?

Thanks! That's super awesome!

If you’re able to get your hands on some single crystal tungsten, i’d love to see a video on it.

Mokume-gane is categorized in the Damascus Family, it's a very ornate Damascus with contrasting colors and it's supposed to look like wood, hence it's name, Wood-Grain Metal. The reason why it gave out so soon is that Damascus has the infamous tendency to delaminate, acquire cold shuts and explode (rarely)

Very nice camera work in this one.

Would those flattened rings work as money clips? The mokume gane piece looked amazing afterward.

Love your videos that was super interesting how the Damascus titanium ring failed

Ok this is a crazy coincidence but I just got married yesterday (the day this video came out) and I got a tungsten wedding ring. On top of that, I was telling my wife how tough tungsten and we was both wondering how it a tungsten would dial if crushed. Then I wake up late I’m the day, turn on YT for the the first time in a couple days and this is the very first video in my feed. So yea, a few crazy coincidences lol.

How about attaching a micrometer to the ram with the tip on the plate beside the part being crushed. You could then see the deformation vs the pressure.

Translated mokume is something like wood grain metal. I think it’s mostly using different materials to get that pattern you see on the ring.

If a concrete sewer pipe cracks it tend to look a lot like that tungsten ring. Usually the top of the pipe protrudes into the pipe more than the bottom of the pipe so it is slightly more heart shaped.

Would a hydraulic press help with flower preservation, or would it just pulp the flowers?

3.2m subscribers the real meta to RU-vid is have access to industrial machinery

Awesome 👌, I thermal camera would give an interesting view on stress points

Wow, that's super cool, their pricing is just right too.

Did you get the zirconium and cast iron mixed up maybe?

Those macro shots are amazing

Beautiful camera and lens

Good video! Thank you! Zirconium ring. That one I've never seen, it burns in open air when heated enough like titanium. You should melt down all the rings and see if they'll aloy.

just found your channel, and i would just like to say, you have an amazing accent

Obviously you can press different metals together to make alloy rings ... what did you eventually do?

Captivating stuff whodraulic press channel ! Show us the horizontally compressed ring remnants! I saw lurches during compression, which rings developed cracks? Was that malleable iron not cast? Please show the rings.

titanium as a ring is a hidden gem :) 12 years ago i was shopping in a new opened Chinese shop. tipical to chinese shops, they had all stuff from clothes to headphones and jewels , watches, etc. all kinds of very cheap things , knock-offs of brand merch , etc. i wanted to buy something since everything was so cheap and i felt sorry to just watch things for 30 minutes not buying anything. so i bought a titanium ring for equivalent of 2 euro. for 10 years that ring never left my finger. i used it top open beer bottles, i worn it at work were i worked with big car parts like engines, gear boxes, i had it in contact with all kinds of solutions and heavy metals. that ring barely had a scratch not to mention it never bend or anything. it was like i found a 2 euro treasure :) i got bigger with age so it started to be too small for my finger and since i couldn't remove it anymore, i had to cut it. I went to the section of the factory were the maintenance mechanics work and for 10 minutes we tried with all kind of stuff to cut it . dude, that ring was nearly invincibile. we finally made it with a very HUGE pair of scissors like those that you need two hands to operate and cuts thick sheets of metal and has 1 meter long handles. That was best 2 euro i ever spent . amazing material.

I'm curious if a tungsten carbide ring will shatter as expected. That's the type of ring I have. FYI for curiosity sake and in case of an emergency, I tried diamond dremmel bits on an extra ring and they will cut through

This one was really cool. Would have loved to see them all flattened out, and to see the material grains pressed out flat out. Great macro shots!

The video was great. :D