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RE: Better bottle caps
At 08:17 PM 5/28/00 -0600, you wrote:
>Original Poster: "Richard Barton" <richardbarton-at-caving5.freeserve.co.uk>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Tesla List [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
>Sent: Sunday, May 28, 2000 6:28 PM
>To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>Subject: RE: Better bottle caps
>
>
>Original Poster: "Dan and Nancy" <ntesla-at-logicsouth-dot-com>
>
>At 06:57 PM 5/27/00 -0600, you wrote:
>>Original Poster: "Richard Barton" <richardbarton-at-caving5.freeserve.co.uk>
[snip]
>Also, I saw plans a long time ago for van de graaf terminals that used
>varnish mixed with a great deal of aluminum powder. Almost like aluminum
>glue, I'd guess. You could mix a lot of that powder with some varnish or
>polyurethane and coat the insides and outsides of your bottles with it and
>let it dry. That would probably work better than filling the bottles with
>just the powder.
>Hope this helps,
>Dan Kline
>ntesla-at-logicsouth-dot-com
>
>Hi Dan
> If you mix aluminium powder with something inflammable like
>varnish...... isn't that getting towards rocket booster fuel ?
> Richard.
Heh ;)
In my understanding, it's the solvent that's flammable, not the residual
leftover coating. Of course this *could* be why all the old plans caled for
shellack. Shellack is in alcohol, but after the alcohol evaporates, there's
no danger of ignition. I'd use polyurethane or epoxy thinned with acetone.
And I'd use so much powder that the carrier would be in so little amount
that it would have no other purpose than to bind the aluminum particles
together. It would look like aluminum syrup ;) And it's not like you'd have
to worry about flammability issues after the solvent is gone. The area
should be well-ventilated, and the usual safeguards should be used as when
using anything flammable. But after the coating is "dry", I don't think
there's any danger.
If I'm wrong, I need to know about it though ;)
Dan Kline
ntesla-at-ntesla.csd.sc.edu