Oxidation

[Pete Turnbull]

On 19/01/2009 04:23, Mike Loewen wrote:
> 
>    I'm in the process of rejuvenating an IBM model 29 keypunch, and a 
> couple of areas have some sort of oxidation on them.  The card drum is 
> the worst:
> 
> http://sturgeon.css.psu.edu/~mloewen/CardDrum.jpg
> 
>    The steel parts are fine, but the rest has a white material over most 
> of it.  I'm not sure what sort of metal it is, looks a bit dark for 
> aluminum but the white material looks similar to aluminum oxidation. 
> What's a good approach to cleaning it up?

It looks to me like Mazak, which is a zinc-aluminium (and sometimes some 
magnesium and copper) alloy used for die-casting.  You could try steel 
wool or a wire brush but I would bet it's badly pitted and probably 
needs machined.

-- 
Pete						Peter Turnbull
						Network Manager
						University of York