Bakelite/phenolic Was: Fly EFI....

[nicksimc at plu.edu]

Phenol-formaldehyde is derived from wood.  I think that Robert and you are
right in that it is the difference in the filler that makes it Bakelite or
phenolic.  The phenolic I've seen used in vacuum tube holders feels much
harder and looks 'glassier' than Bakelite.  This is just from surface
observation, and I'm not sure what filler they use in phenolic.  Knowing
that Bakelite is very flammable above a certain temperature (not sure
which), I wanted to make sure that the lister (Gerard?) in Africa didn't
have his local shop fashion an IM gasket out of the 'wrong' one with
potentially hazardous effects.

-Matt

82 4ks
84 4ksq (RIP)

On Fri, 17 May 2002 Eric_R_Kissell at email.whirlpool.com wrote:

> The wood was most likely just a filler. It may have been the wood that
> rendered the material flammable. So, change the filler to glass or
> something else and maybe the same resin yields a material with high
> temperature abilities.
>
> I do not know the history of bakelite, but there are a number of resins used for
> these types of materials. Generally they have good high temperature properties
> because they are thermoset. This means that once the chemical reaction is
> complete the material holds whatever shape in which it was formed, as opposed to
> thermoplastic materials which melt and are used for injection molded and
> thermoformed parts.
>
> Just my thoughts without much BTDT on Bakelite,
> Eric Kissell