Go to all that work and then get found out by using shitty spray paint.
They even put the parts back in the original air compressor. Hilarious.
They did a variant of Goldfinger’s smuggling technique?
Isn’t gold also heavy?
Gold is 2.45 times heavier than iron by volume. https://www.theworldmaterial.com/density-of-metals/
Tungsten carbide and gold are about the same density. Tungsten carbide is about 3 times as dense as iron/steel. Steel is about 3 times as dense as aluminum.
If you’re expecting a steel part and come across a gold (or carbide) one, you’ll know it immediately, just as you’d know a steel part from an aluminum one.
It is.
They screwed up making them look like machine parts. They should have made them look like tooling. Tungsten carbide cutting tools and inserts are almost the same density as gold. They are frequently coated in titanium nitride, which is gold-colored.
A shipping crate gets mislabeled. A box of “tungsten carbide” drill bits gets routed to a warehouse, then distributed out to various Harbor Freight locations.
People buy them, and they get dull and break upon use, and the people throw them out and swear they’ll never buy Harbor Freight junk again.
Now that’s good. I wonder how they got caught.
…technicians removed the motor casing and found a rotor “wrapped in a cord wheel which was tied to tape.”
“It was not similar to a normal motor,” he added.
After examining the rotor, authorities found traces of glue at both ends of the machinery part. Using a hammer, they then tapped the part and “noticed unevenness,” indicating the metal was far more malleable than it should have been. Scraping away at an outer layer of silver paint showed flecks of gold.
Yeah somebody snitched. Airport security isn’t going to disassemble an air compressor and start hitting things with a hammer.
You haven’t seen how they’ve inspected my guitar and a shitload of imported things over the years lol
You’d think the first clue would be that gold is 2.5x heavier by volume than steel and is 7x heavier than aluminum.
I did the math lower down:
Probably don’t notice when you’re using a forklift.
My math says that’s 133 kg of gold. Not all that much. If you replaced the metal volume, the additional weight is approx 81 kg.
Reading the article, the paint was the last thing they tested after all of the other indicators. Not sure how a more expensive/higher quality of paint would have made any difference at that point.