Hi Dean and List, It is crazy using alcohol in a saw that was not designed for it. You need a very low speed saw (1-300RPM) with the motor isolated from the cutting reservoir and fumes or else you are asking for a trip to the emergency room. Alcohol also destroys the rubber seals that protect your bearings and dissolves the grease in them causing premature saw failure.
Oil does no permanent damage to meteorites so long as it is filtered on a regular basis. Literally every polishing operation I have seen uses distilled water. Using tap water is being cheap as it introduces chlorine into the meteorite creating long term reactions that break down the metal component and a few other minerals. Oil acts as a temporary sealant during the polishing operation preventing water from being absorbed into the specimen. The polishing operation removes most of the oil. A pure ethyl alcohol bath can be used to extract the rest of the oil trapped in the specimen. A final treatment should be to slow dry the specimen in a humidity free environment. We use a halogen lamp for this purpose. All specimens should be polished immediately after cutting because it reduces the surface area in which moisture can be trapped. I hope this helps, Adam Hupe The Hupe Collection, IMCA 2185 ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
