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Old 23rd Dec 2021, 8:25 pm   #1
mark_in_manc
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Default In praise of Milliput

I have been messing with a Variac someone gave me, which has a rectifier and (now) a smoothing cap in it - so a variable HT supply. It had been dropped and the mains indicator neon bezel was smashed and half was missing.

I have been wondering what to do about this - in the end I glued a very short length of steel pipe inside which was about the right OD (to fit inside the remaining bezel) and ID (to fit around the neon bulb). Then I built up a big splodgy replacement bezel piece in Milliput, freehand, and let it go off. Then I got it more-or-less centred in the lathe and turned it down and polished it a bit. Then I took a super-macro picture with an old digi camera, which shows me (and you) that my polishing leaves a bit to be desired. Maybe I'll call that a 'key' for when I get around to painting it

Well, there it is. Milliput is useful stuff.
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Old 23rd Dec 2021, 8:34 pm   #2
paulsherwin
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Default Re: In praise of Milliput

Not bad at all for a freehand job.
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Old 24th Dec 2021, 12:14 am   #3
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Default Re: In praise of Milliput

Quote:
Originally Posted by mark_in_manc View Post
I have been messing with a Variac someone gave me, which has a rectifier and (now) a smoothing cap in it - so a variable HT supply. It had been dropped and the mains indicator neon bezel was smashed and half was missing.

I have been wondering what to do about this - in the end I glued a very short length of steel pipe inside which was about the right OD (to fit inside the remaining bezel) and ID (to fit around the neon bulb). Then I built up a big splodgy replacement bezel piece in Milliput, freehand, and let it go off. Then I got it more-or-less centred in the lathe and turned it down and polished it a bit. Then I took a super-macro picture with an old digi camera, which shows me (and you) that my polishing leaves a bit to be desired. Maybe I'll call that a 'key' for when I get around to painting it

Well, there it is. Milliput is useful stuff.
It is excellent - and available in many colours. I've used white Milliput to modify a washbasin (made of High-Impact PolyStyrene - 'HIPS') for a mobile leisure Customer. It can act as both an adhesive and filler (grateful thanks & acknowledgement to the team at Plas-Tech Thermoform at this point).

An incredibly versatile material ... who's up for having a go at using it for manufacturing replacement gears for the HP8640 A9 'frequency range vs. FM deviation' assembly?

Gosh, is that the time? I must be going ... (cue Goon Show 'whoosh' sound effect at this point)

Happy Christmas everyone!

Guy
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Old 24th Dec 2021, 10:08 am   #4
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Default Re: In praise of Milliput

I've used black Milliput to wrap around new yellow polyester capacitors, plasticene fashion, to replicate those horrible Philips waxies encased in black pitch.
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Old 24th Dec 2021, 11:12 am   #5
mark_in_manc
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Default Re: In praise of Milliput

That sounds good Dickie. Got a picture?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nymrod121 View Post
An incredibly versatile material ... who's up for having a go at using it for manufacturing replacement gears for the HP8640 A9 'frequency range vs. FM deviation' assembly?
I'm not familiar with those gears Guy, but if you tell me the OD around the addendum I'll make some blanks and post them down to you for filing the teeth in

Happy Christmas to everyone from me too

Mark
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Old 24th Dec 2021, 1:11 pm   #6
Dickie
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Originally Posted by mark_in_manc View Post
That sounds good Dickie. Got a picture?


Mark



There's not much to see really, just a lot of black sausages! though I did impress the value of them using a cocktail stick before the Milliput hardened. The set is the infamous V5A, hence the untidy wiring!
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Old 24th Dec 2021, 2:05 pm   #7
mark_in_manc
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Default Re: In praise of Milliput

I like it. I haven't got any 'black' (which is why I have to paint my thing, having done it in the original yellow colour) - it would be a useful addition, although I don't get through a whole lot of the stuff.

On that subject, although one of the two parts seems to harden a bit in the packet over years of storage , I have found that cutting equal lengths and then squashing them together between clean flat bits of scrap steel in the vice a few times, rolling them together between each squeeze, gets the stuff moving again - and that having done this it cures fine, even though it seems it might be spoiled. Just a tip which seems appropriate for this thread.

Also I second Guy's point about its adhesive qualities, as well as its use for gap-filling and 'bulk' - but for people unfamiliar, it only really sticks things when it has really gone off, before then one gets the feeling it is not really very sticky at all. If it fails to stick, you do get a good close-fitting impression along the join line - so once cured, you can try again with a thin adhesive like superglue.
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Old 24th Dec 2021, 2:52 pm   #8
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Default Re: In praise of Milliput

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dickie View Post
I've used black Milliput to wrap around new yellow polyester capacitors, plasticene fashion, to replicate those horrible Philips waxies encased in black pitch.
Wish I'd thought of that .... now you tell me !
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Old 24th Dec 2021, 6:35 pm   #9
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Default Re: In praise of Milliput

Milliput is indeed handy; in times past I have used it to repair knobs which have been broken through the authorised use of excessive force to pull them off their spindles; packing the rear void [between the dished part of the knob and the broken-off central spigot] with Milliput worked rather well, and once it had hardened I was able to drill and tap the Milluput 6BA to take a socket-head screw as a replacement for the spring-clip which had originally held the knob to the control-spindle.

Does anyone know if Milliput has a decent high-voltage 'creep resistance' or fireproofness rating? I've got a mains-connector here that has been dropped and a piece [now long lost] broken out of it. Milliput would seem a possible repair-path but not if it's likely to burst into flame or be sufficiently electrically-conductive that it could shove 3-phase AC into someone when unplugging it.

[A complete replacement made by 3D printing has alternatively been suggested, but when I asked the suggester about the voltage- and fire-resistance characteristics of his 3D-printed things he looked back at me with a facial expression more usually seen on a fishmonger's slab and so I declined his offer]
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Old 24th Dec 2021, 7:38 pm   #10
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Default Re: In praise of Milliput

Here's a sheet I found on the web...

https://www.stonehouses.co.uk/wp/wp-...7/milliput.pdf

It claims it is 'non-flammable'. I have also read claims elsewhere that it is 'electrically insulating. I think if I were to use it as an insulator, I might put a lump across a Megger to start with.
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