Technical What is this?

So I found a couple of these rods in a box of miscellaneous stuff I acquired. It looks, feels and marks on surfaces like pencil lead. So I'm going out on a limb and going to say they are probably graphite.

So my question is. What would these have been used for? Obviously ive' never seen a mechanical pencil that big in my life, so im stumped. Any thoughts guys?

 

Not sure without having it in my hand, but if you put a graphite bar in a hole you can weld right up to it without the weld sticking, to repair a wallowed out hole. What does the diameter measure?

 

So far I have found two of them. One is 1.5", and the other is 2" in diameter.

 

Probably a radioactive uranium rod...

 

Hmm, I was wandering why I'm growing a third arm from my chest! Lol.

 

Could be from big old battery. Found a bunch like them in an old dump years ago.

 

Could also be from a carbon arc search light. Like the ones used in WW2 to spot enemy planes. Car dealerships used them in the 50's and 60's when the new models came out to attract attention.

 

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Close- Graphite can be used in for energy storage in large "heat banks" made up of hundreds (or thousands) of these, or similar shapes, heated up to hundreds of degrees. Or maybe it is a blank of compressed graphite waiting to get ground up get used for lubricants.

 

What are electrodes for a EDM made of?

 

Graphite or copper

 

Thanks for the imput guys. Now I'm just trying to figure out what I'm gonna do with them.

 

maybe it's just raw stock.

 

Hmm, thanks squirrel! That makes a ton of sense, the man who originally owned all this stuff was a maintenance man for the boiler room at a large hotel.

 

After the discovery of a similar set of 'rods' behind a barn in Winton, I was told they repelled carbon steel like similar magnets...the possessor called them 'platinum iridium'!
I called him full of shit.
I think they were similar to your graphite rods, if not the same. He was 'good for a story'...LOL
I like the inclusion of such a thread, relevant as it is. 'HOT RODS'.....

 

I looked that stuff up when I needed to replace a carbon clutch release bearing.

Sent from my Trimline

 

Carbon arc lights used rods about 5/8 in.dia. and copper plated . positive and negative rods were different , also had daylight and tungsten color . ran on D.C. power . A rod that large would use a very high amount of amperage.

Sent from my VS987 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

a friend gave me a 4" section of that stuff. he told me it came from the eagle pencil factory in town. i use it to back up holes to weld up as mrmike mentioned. it works well for that but gets really hot fast.

 

An old machinist told me that he would save graphite brushes from electric motors and generators and he would shape them like woodruff keys and weld up cranks and pump shafts that had stripped keyways . He said he put the graphite key in the stripped keyway and weld up to it then machine down the shaft.