I actually meant I could never find Bon Ami in stores.
I assumed Diatomaceous earth was mostly calcium since it's Diatom
skeletons. Shoulda looked it up. I see that it's actually about 80%
silicon.
It sure is amazing what you can find out in the FOT in just minutes.
-----Original Message-----
From: Randall Young [mailto:ryoung@NAVCOMTECH.COM]
Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2002 3:45 PM
To: fot@autox.team.net
Subject: RE: Lapping/Seating Piston Rings
> I think Bon Ami has diatomaceous earth in it, and I think
> Jewelers rouge does too. I've never been able to find it in stores.
There are two different grades of Bon Ami, "cleaning powder" has only
feldspar which is very soft, while the much more common "cleanser" has
both
feldspar and calcite, which is harder. Note that the cleanser says "not
safe for glass" on the package. "Cleaning powder" is.
Diatomaceous earth is silicon dioxide, basically an extremely fine sand,
and
probably not what you want to use as a lapping compound. It's readily
available at any pool supply store, and at most animal feed stores (in a
slightly different form).
Jeweler's rouge is finely ground iron oxide (rust) possibly with some
binders in it.
They may work the same for lapping rings, but they aren't the same thing
at
all.
Randall
|