place your bets

[Chris M]

--- dwight elvey <dkelvey at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Hi
> I do know that Shugart used a poor quality pot metal
> on
> the hub a floppy drive. I've only see it once but
> I've seen it a lot
> on older radios. It is easy to spot, the metal is
> all expanded
> and crumbles.
> I'm told that it is caused by aluminum
> contamination. It seems
> that aluminum doesn't alloy well. It tends to
> accumulate at the
> crystal boundaries. When it oxidizes, it causes that
> typical
> look of cracks and expanded metal.
> Dwight

 Yep, pot metal (i.e zinc alloys) will do that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pot_metal. Contamination
is likely (I've heard of problems with other metals
too, lead...tin...I'm drawing a blank currently). I've
heard mention that electricity could do that too, but
I think it was an erroneous statement (a dude I used
to know sold old model trains, and some of the frames
would blow apart as mentioned, and he figured it was
due to the current running through it).
 And I don't think that aluminum doesn't alloy well,
but rather it's particular in how it alloys.


 
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