Paul K. Dickman wrote:
"Michael Gray" wrote in message
news
Well, Google so far has NOT been my friend.
With a HSS 2-56 tap broken off in a lump of bronze I did my search -
found reference to "jewellers' screw remover, a white paste". Looked all
over the place in jewellers' webpages and couldn't find a thing.




The jewelers stuff is just alum. Every generation seems to forget the trick
and someone capitalizes on this by putting a bunch of alum in little
bottles.


Howdja know I did just that with a buddy named Ed about 45 years ago?

We packed the alum in cardboard tubes with metal ends and slide off lids.

The name we sold it under was "Bust Out" and the label featured a photo
of Jane Mansfield wannabe with her nice rack protruding from a low cut
dress.

Didn't sell enough of it to keep up the project more than a few months,
but IIRC we didn't lose any money doing it.

Ed and I moved on to develop and patent a machine for keeping the
counter help in pool halls from robbing the owner blind by pocketing
cash being charged for pool table rental.

Quite simply, I built a console which had a bunch of switches to control
the lights over each pool table individually, and when a light was
turned on to let people play a Veeder Root counter (one per table)
clicked up the rental charge for the time they played, and that's what
they paid when done. A master counter totalized the "clicks" from all
the individual meters, and if the cash taken in didn't match what it
read for that day the owner knew something smelled.

Thanks for the mammaries,

Jeff
--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.





They sell a bunch and disappear before the old timers can stop laughing.




There was recent reference here to the use of alum (septic pencil), but I
believe that was for use for a tap snapped off in aluminum.
I could move the hole over and retap, but it would throw off the symmetry
of the piece - however if the worst comes to the worst.
Help!




Alum works fine on bronze.

Use a saturated solution. You have to keep it hot and the tap immersed. If
you can't do either, you are just gonna waste your time.

You used be able to get alum at drug stores, but it is getting harder to
find. It seems drug stores don't want to sell anything that doesn't come in
a blister pack.

It is also used by textile dyers. Check for places that cater to craft
dyers.

And they're called "Styptic pencils"


Paul K. Dickman