[modeleng] Re: Mica?
- From: "Terry Lane" <tel@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <modeleng@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 8 Aug 2004 23:55:38 +1000
Electrics - ain't that the system that runs on lil smoke-filled copper
pipes?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Allen Messer" <al_messer@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <modeleng@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, August 08, 2004 11:40 PM
Subject: [modeleng] Re: Mica?
> Sorry, Roger, electrics are beyond my ken. Hopefuul
> one of the others will know. Is there no "little
> electric repair shop" tucked in a little space "round
> the corner from Main Street" in your town that
> specializes in repairs of this sort?
>
> Al Messer
>
>
> --- Roger Mason <roger.g3tdm@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I've just had a disaster!
> >
> > I have a large electric soldering iron (300
> > watts). I was using
> > this the other day when a sort of Frying noise came
> > from it. Shortly
> > afterwards I realised that it was cooling down,
> > despite still being
> > plugged in and turned on. I quickly discovered
> > that the element was
> > open circuit.
> >
> > So in the "nothing ventured - nothing gained"
> > spirit I opened up the
> > iron. I eventually found the secret to getting
> > inside it and found the
> > element very easy to get to.
> >
> > The element was a simple coil of heater wire
> > insulated in sheets of
> > translucent material which I assumed was mica.
> > However as I delved
> > deeper into the element the sheets of mica became
> > "welded" together.
> > It appears that the element produced a 'hot-spot'.
> > In this region the
> > mica has changed in appearance and texture.
> > Instead of being sheet
> > material with a slippery feel, it was a pink
> > brittle uniform
> > substance, which looked for all the world like the
> > pink plaster one
> > uses on walls of a room. I carefully chipped this
> > away and came to a
> > hollow lump of what looked like a black glassy
> > substance - very like
> > silver solder flux which has melted and solidified.
> > I presumed this
> > is where the frying came from - a little arc between
> > the element and an
> > end wire.
> >
> > My questions are - was this insulation material
> > really mica? Does
> > mica behave in this way? If it was not mica what
> > was it? Have the
> > chemists come up with a modern alternative for
> > natural mica?
> >
> > In the meantime I am trying to find a source for
> > a new element.
> > The iron was made by Goot, a Japanese company who
> > have a web site, so
> > I have asked if they have a U.K. dealer who can
> > supply me - but maybe
> > someone on this list has this knowledge.
> >
> > I look forward to the list's input on this
> > topic.
> >
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> >
> > Roger Mason, in St. Agnes.
> >
> > MODEL ENGINEERING DISCUSSION LIST.
> >
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> >
>
>
>
>
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