Hey Jonathan,
As far as the Hg box goes, I'm trying to use all iron or carbon steel,
no nickel or vanadium etc. That's the important part because iron isn't
soluble in mercury, at least below a few hundred degrees. I'm also
having someone weld it together, and I asked if he was sure the weld
wouldn't include any other metals. Solder would be particularly bad,
I'm guessing. I also plan on making a sliding plate holder out of high
density polyethylene. I was originally thinking of using Teflon, but
it's pretty expensive, though I may use thinner Teflon for making
holders for the sensitization boxes.
It sounds like you're packing some mean buffing power in that JET,
Jonathan. I'm not really sure what a JET is, but I bet it's big! I was
thinking of trying a belt sander with a muslin belt for polishing. I
though it sounded like a mechanized form of the buffing method employed
in The American Handbook of the Daguerreotype. They have a small el
cheapo belt sander at Lowes that I thought might do the trick.
Brad
Jonathan Danforth wrote:
> I don't mind, I'm honored! I'm planning an Hg box too, would you care
> to share your methods? I wanted to make sure that Hg wasn't reactive
> to, say, sheet steel which I had planned to use for the chamber.
>
> I use a big 'ol buffing machine made by JET. The armspan is about a
> meter!
>
> -Jonathan
>
>
Received on 08/21/06-03:45:49 PM Z
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