Piggin Homobase

[Bill Taylor]

Mazak was a zinc alloy that didn't have a very good reputation.

Wikipedia says: "In the early 1930s Morris Ashby in Britain had licensed the New Jersey zamak alloy. The high-purity refluxer zinc was not available in Britain and so they acquired the right to manufacture the alloy using a locally available electrolytically refined zinc of 99.95% purity. This was given the name Mazak, partly to distinguish it from zamak and partly from the initials of Morris Ashby. In 1933, National Smelting licensed the refluxer patent with the intent of using it to produce

99.99% zinc in their plant at Avonmouth."

[Andy Dingley]

It had a much better reputation than the diecast zinc alloys before it. Diecast zinc was around a few years earlier than the Zamak alloys, but they were really dreadful and cracked or distorted after a few years as their iron impurities precipitated out between the crystal grains.

Hmmm.... That article text seems strangely familiar 8-)

[Jon Fairbairn]

I'm not sure how I'd tell. I suppose I could measure the density, but to do that I'd have to strip off the plastic part and most of the corrosion before I could measure the volume.

You could be right. It's heavy enough in the hand that it might be something denser than aluminium.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Sounds like muckite. Other name pot metal. A mixture of sweepings off the floor. ;-) Once much used on cars for intricate decorative mouldings etc. It can be chrome plated easily - unlike aluminium. Trouble is it is pretty prone to corrosion which causes pock marks all over it.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

And muckite. ;-)

[Jules]

Exactly. And it's not very strong structurally - it has a habit of shearing quite easily (whereas aluminium tends to just bend), or at least I've seen it happen quite often on old car parts made of the stuff.

cheers

Jules

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yup. The outside door handle on my BMW sheared off - made of this stuff. The replacement plastic. Only good thing is you don't have to dismantle the door to replace it.