[MRCA] Radium Dial Paint

[Hay Ewe]

I bought a 1 oz. container of 'Europium' powder online for my comm 
shelter restoration project. I found a mechanical clock (8 day 
chronograph) for it that had the radium on the hands made back in the 
60's. I was going to paint it with some sort of binder and the powder. 
The Europium glows for hours after exposure to light. I've left the 
bottle in sunlight and come home to find it glowing brightly many hours 
into the night. The only issue I found is the powder is too granular and 
needs to be ground down in a mortar and pestle, and the clear nail 
polish I used as a binder didn't stick very well and flaked off. I'll 
try to use model paint for a binder next time, after I grind it to the 
consistency of corn starch. The GRC-106 meters (I got one with the 
originals) still glow. My 1 oz bottle will last me several lifetimes... 
I hope this helps.
73
Steve
KA1LHZ

Here's the place I bought the powder from.
http://www.unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=28_45&products_id=383 
<http://www.unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=28_45&products_id=383>

On 01/26/2012 01:48 PM, Steve Hobensack wrote:
> Some years ago, there was an article in Electric Radio magazine that had a chart showing relative levels of
> alpha particle radiation from dial paint in various military surplus radios. I have a GRC-9 that I got from Fair
> Radio about 25 years ago. The paint glows very faintly after charging with  a flashlight beam, but I think there is safe paint that will do the same thing.
> Does anyone know about the GRC-9 paint?
>   
> Steve N8YE
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