[ARC5] WHINK and crystals.

[Dennis Monticelli]

Ken,

A bubbler sounds good.  Ultrasonics would represent aggressive agitation.

I used a piece of a plastic hair brush to suspend the blank on the tips of
the plastic points.  I just cut off a section of the old brush to fit the
container and placed it on the bottom.  The blank rests on the narrow teeth
and the slightest agitation slides the blank across the tips.  The only
agitation I used was occasional manual swirling.

You're right, the HF method rounds the corners and I have verified that
with a microscope.  The old literature recommends re-grinding only one or
two edges (but not all) to help restore activity.  I have had mixed results
with that trick.  Maybe I don't have the right grinding powder or flat
enough plate or magic technique.  Or maybe it worked for one guy in the
30's the story just repeated itself over the years :-)

Dennis AE6C


On Thu, Jun 27, 2013 at 11:16 AM, Kenneth G. Gordon <
kgordon2006 at frontier.com> wrote:

> On 27 Jun 2013 at 10:22, Bob Moody wrote:
>
> > Dennis said, " You need to insure the solution has good access to both
> sides without
> > > masking off a part of any surface."
> >
> > So did you stir, shake or flip the xtal while it was soaking, or just
> let it
> > sit?
>
> I just let it sit. I was leery of agitating it enough to make it splash.
>
> > Maybe a tank with a bubbler to keep the xtal blank agitated?
>
> I have a bubbler. Good idea. I'll put that to work here.
>
> > Wonder how Bliley did it in the old days.......
>
> I dunno. Maybe someone on the ARC-5 list knows.
>
> Obviously, I need to make some improvements in my methods here. This was a
> first
> experiment for me, and everything was done somewhat haphazardly. But it
> worked.
>
> I am pleased at this first attempt.
>
> Ken W7EKB
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