3 Dec
2008
3 Dec
'08
9:47 p.m.
On 3 Dec 2008 at 20:56, Paul Koning wrote:
That reminds me of another low melting point alloy
with interesting
properties: Cerrosafe. I don't know if there are other suppliers, but
one is Brownells (Montezuma, Iowa, a famous supplier of gunsmithing
tools and supplies). If I remember right, it has the property of
essentially zero change in volume at the transition from solid to
molten, which means you can use it to take an accurately sized measure
of some hollow object (like a barrel).
The way Cerro metals describes the stuff is that it shrinks as it
hardens and then expands to the original molding size as it cools
further. So you can pour it into a chamber, let it solidify a bit,
then remove it and let it cool to room temperature and have a perfect
model of the chamber.
Sounds like very handy stuff.
If cadmium scares you, there are two low-temp alloys without it--
Cerrolow 136 and Cerrolow 174.
Low temp alloys appear to be available in the UK from Bendalloy:
http://www.bendalloy.co.uk/
Cheers,
Chuck