Return-Path: Received: from lanfear.nidlink.com ([216.18.128.7]) by truman.olsusa.com (Post.Office MTA v3.5.1 release 219 ID# 0-52269U2500L250S0V35) with ESMTP id com for ; Wed, 22 Sep 1999 11:05:55 -0400 Received: from enaila.nidlink.com (root@enaila.nidlink.com [216.18.128.8]) by lanfear.nidlink.com (8.9.0/8.9.0) with ESMTP id IAA06735 for ; Wed, 22 Sep 1999 08:09:45 -0700 (PDT) Received: from regandesigns.com (tnt132-101.nidlink.com [216.18.132.101]) by enaila.nidlink.com (8.9.0/8.9.0) with ESMTP id IAA08260 for ; Wed, 22 Sep 1999 08:09:43 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <37E8F10C.6BA362D6@regandesigns.com> Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 08:09:00 -0700 From: Brent Regan To: Lancair List Subject: Re: Infra red X-Mailing-List: lancair.list@olsusa.com Mime-Version: 1.0 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<--->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> << Lancair Builders' Mail List >> <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<--->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >> Metal Vapor Deposition is not a difficult process to do. You put a clean part in a vacuum chamber, pump it down to 1 x 10E-6 Torr, back fill with a little ultra pure Argon and fire up the electron beam gun. All you need is a high vacuum system, a chamber large enough for the part, an electron beam gun (basically a filament and a magnet), a high voltage power supply and a chunk of pure gold. I have all the equipment you need to do a canopy except the large chamber and the chunk of Au. There is a lot of surplus vacuum equipment in the Silicone Valley area, Hmmmmmm... Got any Canadian Maple Leafs, Krugarands (sp), Mister T accessories??? My concern in coating a plastic part is outgassing. You may have to hold the part at a high vacuum to get all the water and other volatiles out of the part. This could take days, weeks or ????? I recall that my father had a chemical spray system for depositing a conductive film on non conductive parts that could then be electroplated. I believe this is how plastic reflectors in tail lamp assemblies are made. One time we gold plated a dragonfly (the bug not the airplane) using this process. Perhaps there is a chemical process that could be utilized. Perhaps a hard vacuum is not needed. As a teenager I built an electric car. One day I managed to short the main buss of the battery pack with a 12 gage copper wire. The wire exploded with a fire cracker report giving my hand a nasty flash burn and copper plating my thumb and index finger. Before I washed up I checked my thumb nail with an ohm meter and found it to be conductive, thus demonstrating that some people are born to be engineers. Regards Brent Regan >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> LML website: http://www.olsusa.com/Users/Mkaye/maillist.html