Whats this made of?

[Dieselman 63]

I have two switches made by MEM from the 60s, one has a ceramic block but the other (which I first thought was very dirty ceramic) seems to be some kind of metal. Is this right? Or is it some sort of asbestos product I should be aware of?

 

[Pete.]

Left one looks like porcelain. Right one looks like a more modern equivalent ceramic.

 

[dobbslc]

Wot he said. ^

 

[Dieselman 63]

Left one looks like porcelain. Right one looks like a more modern equivalent ceramic.

I wire brushed it (manually) and it started coming up a bit silvery like zinc. It’s definitely not as heavy as the ceramic.

 

[dobbslc]

If it was metal it would go pop with power supplied!!!
All old and new MEM gear has this stuff in it.

 

[Wallace]

The silvery finish is from your wire brush and could cause a flash over in the switch. A light sand blast should clean it up nicely and be safer.

 

[Seadog]

The silvery finish is from your wire brush and could cause a flash over in the switch.

Which is why you should never clean spark plugs with a wire brush.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Which is why you should never clean spark plugs with a wire brush.

Not even a brass one?

 

[Seadog]

Probably not. That's not to say I've never done it myself

 

[CompoSimmonite]

In the pottery factory I worked for a couple of year during mid '70's dirty biscuit ware (unglazed) was sandblasted to clean. Spark plugs and small car / bike parts occasionally found there way into the cabinet

 

[Dieselman 63]

Just another reason why I love this forum - lots of great advice, thank you for helping out! I had just today left to sandblast this and I was in the nick of time too. Looks much better.