Mercury for tonearm

[Darren D]

Hi, I have a Kieth Monks tonearm that uses mercury as a conductor.

Alas it doesn't have any in it. Anyone here able to pass a small quantity on so I could get it sorted.

Before someone pipes up, mercury is relatively safe in liquid form. A real problem when vaporised, as in making hat's, where it got most of it's bad reputation from.

"Mad as a Hatter"

Yeah, bout sums me up too

Thanks

Did you just buy the one on ebay?
I was going to go for that but decided not to.
I was thinking of using a thin film of oil over the mercury to seal in and nasties.

[Darren D]

Thats the one,

It looks a nice arm, unipivot too

[alnewall]

Just found an old mercury switch, about 2 1/2 inches by 1/2 inch. Its about 1/3 full of mercury.
PM me with your address if its any use.

How much did it go for in the end?
I'd not heard of this arm before, and couldnt find any reviews or anything.
I did find some specs and statments somewhere, they said these wernt very well made. No opinions on its sound though.

I keep getting tempted by various unipivots, but keep deciding to try making my own.
Good luck with this one.

[Darren D]

I've not seen one before so can't comment on build quality, will let you know in a few days. Kieth Monks was very well regarded in the past from what I remember and it should have fetched much more than 68 tokens? Difficult to compare though, not seen one for sale before. I went for it as it was a unipivot, can nestle with the others..

Thanks Alnewall, will PM you, very much appreciated indeed !!!

I was relying on his reputation for other products too.
I cant see it being rubish, and for that money its worth a go.
Good luck.
As mentioned before, maybe a thin film of oil ovr the mercury, just to be on the safe side.

[andrew ivimey]

Darren and others, mercury vapour is appallingly dangerous, true; because it can be breathed in and get into your blood supply about as efficiently as possible.

But mecury in its liquid form IS very dangerous too. Mercury can be ingested slowly through the skin, so it should NEVER be touched. Mercury is never expelled by the body and it comes to rest on the liver. Depending on teh individual's health and amount of mercury it can then cause permanent illness, blindness, brain damage, death and genetic abnormailty that you may live to see in your chilldren.

That is why you don't see mercury in almost anything the public can get their hands on, any longer.

Be very careful.

- gets off high horse, puts stethoscope away -

[Paul Barker]

I gues when I played with Dad's mercury out of his thermometers I escaped all but brain damage and genetic abnormality then!

[Scottmoose]

And just think, it used to be used as a cure for... well, various discreditable conditions.

I seem to remember some gibbon a few years ago had the bright spark of an idea to try using it for speaker cables and interconnects. Perfect for when you're moving the old Dyson about and you're not concentrating.