Re: Mica (and turning)

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "ebyng by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <ebyng-at-netlimit-dot-com>

yeah, I looked into it a little more and......
Its the pure stuff all right, but because its SOOOO brittle, its been
"ground into a flour and Stabalized"  Apparently, this means that the mica
was put into a blender, chopped really fine, and mixed in with a Hard
plastic compound with a reasonably similar dielectric constant.

Its supposed to be really strong then, and be more workable.

For 50 Bucks a square inch, Im not gonna risk trying anything with it...
If anyone wants to put their hard earned $$ on the line, I can hook you up
with him, but theirs a minimum of $200 or somewhere around there.

I'm just gonna stick to PVC or Pyrex for now...
:)
S
----------------------------------------------
Original Message
From: "Tesla list"<tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Subject: Re: Mica (and turning)
Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2001 18:08:25 -0700

>Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>"
<Leik3-at-aol-dot-com>
>
>Hi All,
>I imagine that if it is pure mica (not the "particle board" stuff) it
would 
>be extremely difficult to turn on a lathe as mica is a mineral with one
plane 
>of cleavage (i.e. it will break along one plane, and many planes parallel
to 
>it) so when the tool digs into it, it would likely chip off on the
cleavage 
>plane. Now, I've never tried to turn the stuff but I have worked with it
in 
>it's natural state and it's hard to just handle without it flaking off. It 
>would have to be high quality, mature mica for it to have a chance to work.
>Interresting idea though......keep me posted if you do try to turn it.
>-Dennis
>
>
>
>

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