Cobalt 60
A replica radiation source you can fidget with. Machined by MB Machine in Sanford, Maine.
The Cobalt 60 is a machined brass spin stick styled after a sealed cobalt-60 source capsule: DANGER RADIATION, the radiation trefoil, and DROP & RUN · Co 60 · 3540 CURIES · 7-1-63 engraved around the body. The middle ring spins, the halves pull apart, and it rides on the keyring it comes with.
It is not radioactive. The other side says so in plain letters: REPLICA · NO RADIATION PRESENT. Matthew Favre, who machines these at MB Machine and works in nuclear power generation, first made a plain solid-brass keychain version, then decided it wasn't different enough from the real thing to be safe to carry. When he went looking for the look of his own spin stick, he came back to the capsule: as a fidget, it's obvious enough that it isn't actually a source.
Cobalt 60 by MB Machine
$175.009 of 9 remaining
Machined brass, keyring included. Made in Maine, shipped by Drop Beacon.
Add to order — $175.00Your order
Cobalt 60 by MB Machine
$175 · 9 left
- Items
- $175
- Shipping
- Free
- Sales tax
- at checkout, where it applies
- Total before tax
- $175
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Details
- Machined brass spin stick styled after a sealed cobalt-60 source capsule
- Engraved DANGER RADIATION, the trefoil and DROP & RUN · Co 60 · 3540 CURIES · 7-1-63
- Replica: engraved REPLICA · NO RADIATION PRESENT (not radioactive)
- The middle ring spins and the halves pull apart
- Made by Matthew Favre at MB Machine in Sanford, Maine
- Material
- Brass
- In the box
- Keyring
- Made in
- Sanford, Maine, USA
See it in hand
Spectrum Boy EDC unboxes the Cobalt 60. Drop Beacon sent him this one for the video.
Watch one come together
Matthew assembling a Cobalt 60 at MB Machine.
The maker: MB Machine
Matthew Favre has been a machinist since 2005, in aerospace and military work, musical instruments, firearms, and now nuclear power generation, as a CNC operator, setup man, foreman and today a programmer. He started MB Machine in Sanford, Maine, in 2018 as a turning shop for local ISO shops, and has worked in super-alloys like Inconel and K-Monel, titanium, stainless and aluminum.
Fidgets are his passion project. MB Machine still runs industrial production parts, so machine time for pieces like the Cobalt 60 is fitted in around that work. Since the shop opened in 2018, MB Machine has given 10% of its gross income to charity, usually local food banks, where Matthew says more of it reaches the people who need it.