[ATM] Synthetic pitch, Acculap - some perceptions

[J Killea <jkillea@yahoo.com>]

I just poured an 8" lap using Acculap synthetic pitch , obtained at www.salemdist.com.  It was of
"Intermediate" hardness, somewhere between Gugolz 64 and 73.  Here are my limited-experience
thoughts on the stuff, for anyone interested:

Behaves just like pitch except:

1.  Odorless and crystal clear  (yeah, yeah, big deal).

2.  When cutting channels in the the lap with a razor blade (utility knife) I experienced many
fewer spurious, undesired chunks flying off my lap's facets.  With burgundy pitch this problem
drove me crazy!!  Could have been my pitch was too hard or something else but the Acculap was much
better behaved for me.  Also noticed it cut particularly well while the lap was just the slightest
bit warmer than room temperature (about 70 deg. F).

3.  I am waiting to notice any flow to the remaining chunks that I unpacked originally.  It's been
about 4 hours since I put them in a plastic freezer bag (NOT in the freezer, however), rather than
a rigid container, and the flow seems to be minimal.  I believe pitch would have started to ooze
noticeably by this time.  If this is so, I imagine Acculap must have a much sharper transition to
its softening "phase" versus temperature than pitch has.  Just a guess - haven't seen any
documentation on that.  If so, this could be good for keeping the channels from closing up while
the lap sits unused.

I'm not trying to make this a commercial for Acculap, your mileage may vary - I have hardly any
experience with it so far. But all's well at the moment.

-Jay






	
		
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