[MaximX]

Please read this.

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/hid6.html

I did not realize that mercury could be really hazardous. I thought it was an overreaction by the government. But after my research, it seem reasonable to me that if the mercury was sucked into the engine, it could cause you to become sick (and not just a little sick) just from one exposure.

Also, if it spills, there are reports that just a few drops can make you sick from a few weeks or months of exposure to the vapors. Yes, mercury does evaporate, and I didn't know that either.

So please be careful! I am not going to get rid of my mercury, I just wanted to be educated on how to be careful.

 

[fog]

Another old Fog's story,

This one's about Mecury. Way back in about 1950 as a kid we played in a lot of empty lots and places that your mom wouldn't let you go to today (I don't think my mom would have then either). Sombody discovered that if you dug a shallow hole over near the old factory fence that it would fill up with Mercuty. Well we did, and I had quart jars full of the stuff, as did everybody else in the group. We did every thing that we could think of with it except drink it (maybe some did) plated pennies and floated steel boats. got tired of it and left a jar on the shelf in the cellar for about 5 years when we were moving I just dumped it out in the garbage .

Who knew? Didn't seem to hurt me.... much. But it did improve my disposition.

FOG

 

[MaximX]

But it did improve my disposition.

FOG

Ha Ha! ;D

Actually, I think it is supposed to make people crazy. Not happy. But are you talking about being more cordial?

 

[MrSciTrek]

That's scary to think how much mercury must have been in that soil.

My grandpa was a miner in Oregon and always had cool mineral samples in his garage. Also had this pickle jar full of mercury... my first experience with some really dense material.

Shoot, we kids of the 50's would get little plastic 2-D games or 3-D mazes with drops of mercury.

All our schools had to get rid of our mercury thermometers because of the "danger." One 7th grade teacher had an old one still in the mix & a kid broke it. By school board policy (there's a great Mark Twain quote on school boards) they had to get the kids out of the room & call the fire department to oversee the clean-up. Seems like an over-reaction though folks usually prefer that we err on the side of caution when it comes to the health of the kids.

The major warning i read was NEVER try too clean up mercury w/ anysort of dustbuster or vacuum cleaner. The fan/turbine blasts some of the mercury into a fine inhalable mist which can cause real problems.

Many older home thermostat & cars still have mercury used as gravity switches. In homes they are attached to temperature sensitive bimetal coils. For cars they can be used for trunk & underhood light switches. Other?

 

[Mad Matt]

I think that they are having to put filters on crematorium stacks now because the melted down fillings release a pretty good amout of mercury and other metals in gaseous or powered form. I think that inhaling mercury is way worse for your health than just touching it since I've heard of a fair number of cases like FOG where people played with it as kids and did not have obvious physical problems. I can't speak to mental issues and in any case I'm no fit judge of sanity standing just outside the 3rd standard deviation myself.

I made up a carb balancer for my ultralights using two-stroke oil that I've pressed into service for use on the EX and EN. It jumps a little but being so much lighter than mercury means that if you are within a half inch you are synched tight. It seems tow work well and so far I've managed not to suck up any oil.

Interestingly enough as the ultralight engines got bigger and more expensive I ended up tuning using exhaust gas temperature and the synch tool became redundant but when I would hook it up as a double check it would often show a pretty good vacuum difference between carbs when the exhaust gas temps were right on. These were usually not CV carbs though but Bing, Mikuni, Tillotson or Dellorto slides and throttle bodies so they went where the cable sent them.

 

[fog]

"These were usually not CV carbs though but Bing, Mikuni, Tillotson or Dellorto slides and throttle bodies so they went where the cable sent them."

They didn't need CV carbs because those engines almost always ran at a steady speed. Throttle response was/is not a big issue.
FOG

 

[maverick9611]

we use em at work on our heaters. they are called mercotacs.

 

[Super Sneaky Steve]

Mercury isn't that bad for you unless it's heated. Drinking it has little effect.

 

[MaximX]

Mercury isn't that bad for you unless it's heated. Drinking it has little effect.

That was kind of my point - if it gets sucked into the engine - it is definitely going to get heated!

Also - apparantly - just sitting in a hot garage unsealed can cause it to evaporate and the levels to be way above acceptable. My sticks are relatively well sealed, so I am not going to worry too much.

 

[longhaul747]

I am not a big fan of Mercury. I try to stay away from anything that might cause bodily harm. Well motorcycles are exception I guess ;D

For my carb tuning needs I use the Morgan Carbtune II. It was a bit expensive but works great. I have other motorcycle friends I know stop by for a sync so it actually gets a lot of use. Its all cool because they have special tools I sometimes need so I can stop by and use there stuff freely.

http://www.carbtune.com/

 

[unworthy]

Here's a little worthless bit of information since we're on this topic:

The phrase "Mad as a Hatter" comes from the overexposure to mercury that people in the hat making industry faced in the 18th and 19th centuries. The mercury affected their nervous systems leading to trembling (known at the time as hatter’s shakes), loosening of teeth, loss of co-ordination, and slurred speech; mental ones include irritability, loss of memory, depression, anxiety, and other personality changes. This was called mad hatter syndrome.

 

[Guest]

^^^^

It's funny, when you read something like that, how we think they must have been stupid to be using Mercury to make hats and such.

What stupid things will people look at us for in 100 years. (Besides the obvious such as smoking, motorcycles, fossil fuels and such!)