8 ms·

How expensive would a solid piece of metal that size be?

by Paul-ish 6y ago

umvi 6y ago
Depends on what type of metal. Tungsten? Very expensive. Steel? Somwhere between $1000-5000
- kijin 6y ago
  It's also going to be extremely heavy. Assuming the "monolith" is around 10ft tall with a 1.5ft square base, it would weigh 5 tonnes if it were made of solid steel. Whoever installed it would have needed serious machinery to haul it over there and stick it in the rock. Thin sheets of metal, either welded or riveted together, would have been much easier to build and install. It could even have been filled with some other material (e.g. sand) before the top was put on.
  - devy 6y ago
    > Thin sheets of metal, either welded or riveted together, would have been much easier to build and install. It could even have been filled with some other material (e.g. sand) before the top was put on. Yes, it was a prism shaped object with 3 pieces of stainless steel panels riveted together, the bottom has concret and silicone:) https://www.instagram.com/p/CH_212pAKpr/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CH_212pAKpr/
Forbo 6y ago
If you look closely there appear to be small rivets, so I don't think that it is solid.
7952 6y ago
A lot if its platinum.
crote 6y ago
A quick look around the internet[0] gives 6" aluminium square bars at $1,473 for 144". The monolith is about 141" long, and has sides of about 23.5", so 16 of those bars would neatly fill it. So if it is solid aluminium, that's about $23,500 in material. [0]: https://www.onlinemetals.com/en/buy/aluminum/6-aluminum-square-bar-6061-t6511-extruded/pid/12864 https://www.onlinemetals.com/en/buy/aluminum/6-aluminum-squa...
- TylerE 6y ago
  That does t hold. Aluminum that big isn’t just something you’d buy from McMaster-Carr.
  - dboreham 6y ago
    Aliens may not know that. Since McMaster Carr is the web site with the best UX for materials supply, and has been so for 20 years, they would have not known any better, especially given the propagation time for their TCP packets.
- sarajevo 6y ago
  Good math... Aluminum comes in different alloys, this is likely 6061 (precipitation-hardened aluminium alloy, containing magnesium and silicon as its major alloying elements) - 6061 is about two bucks per pound [2]... Using the weight calculator [1], and plugging in 23.5/23.5/141 (all in inches) I am getting about 7.7K lbs, or around $15K in material costs. Given it’s unusual shape, I’m assuming that normal is producing it. This would require additional costs for machining and processing Dash I’d probably say it would be several thousand dollars in additional costs. Overall this looks to me like a $25,000 piece of metal... [1] https://www.bostoncenterless.com/tools/metal-weight-calculator/ https://www.bostoncenterless.com/tools/metal-weight-calculat... [2] https://fastmetals.com/collections/aluminum-extruded-square-bar-6061-t6511 https://fastmetals.com/collections/aluminum-extruded-square-...
DavidPeiffer 6y ago
For just that weight of metal...not too expensive. To get it formed into that shape, potentially very expensive. It looks like aluminum. Someone posted 23.5" x 23.5" x ~144" as the dimensions. This comes out to be 46 cubic feet, and would weigh about 7,700 lbs. A floor of the price would be ~40 cents/lb scrap price, or ~$3,100. Ballpark 80-120 cents/lb might be a more realistic price if it were straightforward to manufacture like that (which it's certainly not). As an industrial engineer and former employee of one of the largest aluminum plants in the world, I can safely say I doubt it is solid rolled aluminum, and bet it would be way bigger of an extrusion that is possible. And logistically, it would be far easier to transport to a remote location via helicopter if it wasn't solid. Any machining, metal forming, etc. would require specialized large equipment, and would quickly drive the cost up, potentially an order of magnitude higher than material costs.
- usefulcat 6y ago
  > And logistically, it would be far easier to transport to a remote location via helicopter if it wasn't solid. Cue reddit researchers combing through old helicopter flight plans/paths from the relevant time frame? Though I would have thought an off road vehicle might be more likely; looks like it's only about 2-3 miles from the nearest road. Edit: actually there appears to be a dirt road ~1k feet or less away
  - DavidPeiffer 6y ago
    I didn't realize it was so close to a road. I'd really like to think it came in via helicopter though, because it's a more cool and clandestine story.
  - chrissnell 6y ago
    The road is Lockhart Basin Road, well-known among Utah off-roaders. I've been there, and also camped on one of the fingers of Hatch Point, directly above the monolith. I took this one on the point overlooking the monolith: https://www.instagram.com/p/BUFR5GZF2fX/?igshid=11nr2ljs2dh67 https://www.instagram.com/p/BUFR5GZF2fX/?igshid=11nr2ljs2dh6... I took this photo not too far from the monolith: https://flic.kr/p/8MWSQp https://flic.kr/p/8MWSQp
scotty79 6y ago
Isn't it hollow?
- bni 6y ago
  I would bet it is just metal sheets cut to size and then riveted or screwed together on site, then filled with rocks for stability. Metal sheets could be carried there, hole dug out and then assembled by 1 person basically.
- rtkwe 6y ago
  It looks to be. In this video you can see what are most likely rivets holding the sheet metal sides on. https://youtu.be/LUFyGGU0cxo?t=37 https://youtu.be/LUFyGGU0cxo?t=37
IshKebab 6y ago
There's no chance it is solid. It's probably 5mm thick at most.
- blovescoffee 6y ago
  The news reporters linked on the original reddit post said it was solid.
  - jandrese 6y ago
    Did the news reporter drill into it? How would they know?
    - bigbubba 6y ago
      Probably they hit it with a rock and decided it didn't sound hollow. They may also have noted an absence of seams. Seams could be hidden with welding and grinding, but that would suggest it wasn't assembled on site.
      - IshKebab 6y ago
        "Probably". I wouldn't trust journalists on this sort of thing. It would be completely insane to make this solid. It's almost certainly welded sheets with ground welds, assembled off-site.
  - justinclift 6y ago
    While that's true, there are clearly screws or rivets in the video's of it. It's extremely unlikely to be solid metal, though it may be filled with rock/sand/something.
analog31 6y ago
It looks like it might be sheet metal screwed to a wooden frame, judging from what look like screws near the edges. Why would aliens bring a solid block of aluminum all the way across the 8th dimension? Given that the excitement will have died down by the time its precise structure is revealed, I'd say a simpler design served its purpose quite well.
reustle 6y ago
Looking at this video, it seems to be sheet metal https://www.instagram.com/p/CH_iU8JgeIr/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CH_iU8JgeIr/

How expensive would a solid piece of metal that size be?

umvi 6y ago

Depends on what type of metal. Tungsten? Very expensive. Steel? Somwhere between $1000-5000

kijin 6y ago
It's also going to be extremely heavy. Assuming the "monolith" is around 10ft tall with a 1.5ft square base, it would weigh 5 tonnes if it were made of solid steel. Whoever installed it would have needed serious machinery to haul it over there and stick it in the rock. Thin sheets of metal, either welded or riveted together, would have been much easier to build and install. It could even have been filled with some other material (e.g. sand) before the top was put on.
- devy 6y ago
  > Thin sheets of metal, either welded or riveted together, would have been much easier to build and install. It could even have been filled with some other material (e.g. sand) before the top was put on. Yes, it was a prism shaped object with 3 pieces of stainless steel panels riveted together, the bottom has concret and silicone:) https://www.instagram.com/p/CH_212pAKpr/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CH_212pAKpr/

Forbo 6y ago

If you look closely there appear to be small rivets, so I don't think that it is solid.

7952 6y ago

A lot if its platinum.

crote 6y ago

A quick look around the internet[0] gives 6" aluminium square bars at $1,473 for 144". The monolith is about 141" long, and has sides of about 23.5", so 16 of those bars would neatly fill it. So if it is solid aluminium, that's about $23,500 in material. [0]: https://www.onlinemetals.com/en/buy/aluminum/6-aluminum-square-bar-6061-t6511-extruded/pid/12864 https://www.onlinemetals.com/en/buy/aluminum/6-aluminum-squa...

TylerE 6y ago
That does t hold. Aluminum that big isn’t just something you’d buy from McMaster-Carr.
- dboreham 6y ago
  Aliens may not know that. Since McMaster Carr is the web site with the best UX for materials supply, and has been so for 20 years, they would have not known any better, especially given the propagation time for their TCP packets.
sarajevo 6y ago
Good math... Aluminum comes in different alloys, this is likely 6061 (precipitation-hardened aluminium alloy, containing magnesium and silicon as its major alloying elements) - 6061 is about two bucks per pound [2]... Using the weight calculator [1], and plugging in 23.5/23.5/141 (all in inches) I am getting about 7.7K lbs, or around $15K in material costs. Given it’s unusual shape, I’m assuming that normal is producing it. This would require additional costs for machining and processing Dash I’d probably say it would be several thousand dollars in additional costs. Overall this looks to me like a $25,000 piece of metal... [1] https://www.bostoncenterless.com/tools/metal-weight-calculator/ https://www.bostoncenterless.com/tools/metal-weight-calculat... [2] https://fastmetals.com/collections/aluminum-extruded-square-bar-6061-t6511 https://fastmetals.com/collections/aluminum-extruded-square-...

DavidPeiffer 6y ago

For just that weight of metal...not too expensive. To get it formed into that shape, potentially very expensive. It looks like aluminum. Someone posted 23.5" x 23.5" x ~144" as the dimensions. This comes out to be 46 cubic feet, and would weigh about 7,700 lbs. A floor of the price would be ~40 cents/lb scrap price, or ~$3,100. Ballpark 80-120 cents/lb might be a more realistic price if it were straightforward to manufacture like that (which it's certainly not). As an industrial engineer and former employee of one of the largest aluminum plants in the world, I can safely say I doubt it is solid rolled aluminum, and bet it would be way bigger of an extrusion that is possible. And logistically, it would be far easier to transport to a remote location via helicopter if it wasn't solid. Any machining, metal forming, etc. would require specialized large equipment, and would quickly drive the cost up, potentially an order of magnitude higher than material costs.

usefulcat 6y ago
> And logistically, it would be far easier to transport to a remote location via helicopter if it wasn't solid. Cue reddit researchers combing through old helicopter flight plans/paths from the relevant time frame? Though I would have thought an off road vehicle might be more likely; looks like it's only about 2-3 miles from the nearest road. Edit: actually there appears to be a dirt road ~1k feet or less away
- DavidPeiffer 6y ago
  I didn't realize it was so close to a road. I'd really like to think it came in via helicopter though, because it's a more cool and clandestine story.
- chrissnell 6y ago
  The road is Lockhart Basin Road, well-known among Utah off-roaders. I've been there, and also camped on one of the fingers of Hatch Point, directly above the monolith. I took this one on the point overlooking the monolith: https://www.instagram.com/p/BUFR5GZF2fX/?igshid=11nr2ljs2dh67 https://www.instagram.com/p/BUFR5GZF2fX/?igshid=11nr2ljs2dh6... I took this photo not too far from the monolith: https://flic.kr/p/8MWSQp https://flic.kr/p/8MWSQp

scotty79 6y ago

Isn't it hollow?

bni 6y ago
I would bet it is just metal sheets cut to size and then riveted or screwed together on site, then filled with rocks for stability. Metal sheets could be carried there, hole dug out and then assembled by 1 person basically.
rtkwe 6y ago
It looks to be. In this video you can see what are most likely rivets holding the sheet metal sides on. https://youtu.be/LUFyGGU0cxo?t=37 https://youtu.be/LUFyGGU0cxo?t=37

IshKebab 6y ago

There's no chance it is solid. It's probably 5mm thick at most.

blovescoffee 6y ago
The news reporters linked on the original reddit post said it was solid.
- jandrese 6y ago
  Did the news reporter drill into it? How would they know?
  - bigbubba 6y ago
    Probably they hit it with a rock and decided it didn't sound hollow. They may also have noted an absence of seams. Seams could be hidden with welding and grinding, but that would suggest it wasn't assembled on site.
    - IshKebab 6y ago
      "Probably". I wouldn't trust journalists on this sort of thing. It would be completely insane to make this solid. It's almost certainly welded sheets with ground welds, assembled off-site.
- justinclift 6y ago
  While that's true, there are clearly screws or rivets in the video's of it. It's extremely unlikely to be solid metal, though it may be filled with rock/sand/something.

analog31 6y ago

It looks like it might be sheet metal screwed to a wooden frame, judging from what look like screws near the edges. Why would aliens bring a solid block of aluminum all the way across the 8th dimension? Given that the excitement will have died down by the time its precise structure is revealed, I'd say a simpler design served its purpose quite well.

reustle 6y ago

Looking at this video, it seems to be sheet metal https://www.instagram.com/p/CH_iU8JgeIr/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CH_iU8JgeIr/