Bought this machine for $7 at the recycle shop today: it appears to be a heated wax pot of some description but it's not pressurised, just gravity fed through a tap. It's made in France with the "Robinet" switch translating to "Tap" in English. The hard green wax inside seems almost identical to some recycled hard investment casting wax I have rather than identical coloured lens blocking wax which is a bit stickier to touch. Lens blocking wax is used to stick plastic lenses to the aluminium base used for grinding and polishing the lens to shape and the machine involved has pressure fed wax similar to investment casting wax pots. Surprisingly I have a use for the machine as I can use it to pour hot wax over metal parts to mask them off. Anyone seen something like this before?.
Gross (pathology) examination equipment? https://www.cardinalhealth.com/en/p...grossing-stations/paraffin-wax-dispenser.html Pete
Interesting suggestion, so the link is for a dispenser to mount samples before slicing them for the microscope. I see it also has a heated tap to keep the flow happening. The wax remaining in the pot is quite hard too, a lot of waxes start out blue and only go green with lots of reuse. Edit: I did a search on "wax dispenser" and that's exactly what it appears to be: biological samples get embedded in wax ready to slice on the microtome....I wonder if they reuse the wax and get all sorts of biological crud mixed in with it.
The symbol on the Walker tag looks medical to me so that seems likely. I kinda doubt they'd re-use it, but who knows. Yuck!
Asclepius, the god of medicine,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asclepius It does, now that you mention it:
Could be for parafin, which in a medical context would be used extensively for making histological slides. You'd take a sample of say a liver, embed it in parafin, then slice it up in a microtome to make thin section slides.
Looks more like a case of the creepin crud. A cord inspection and a little cleaning up and it should be back on its feet in no time! Nice find Mark. I'm interested to see your masking application. Pete
It's all stainless steel so it should clean up well, there's a grille on the bottom I have to remove and take a look for asbestos and something loose. I'll use this for a regular recurring job where I have to etch markings on several aluminium gear shaped parts that are a pain to mask off: I cover the front with film and pour hot wax over the back and it flows in between the teeth. When I'm done, the wax is cooled and becomes brittle and flakes off in sheets...easy!. Right now I have a 4 litre can full of wax I have to rest on a length of pipe and warm with a blowtorch and then lift with pliers to pour it. With this I can rest a small mesh basket strainer inside and it will remove any bits of leftover film from the wax.
After some cleaning and replacing the corroded porcelain terminal blocks with new ones, the wax dispenser works perfectly. It seems to have two elements for the pot that the bottom switch selects between and the top switch activates the tap heater to get it up to temperature quickly. There's a capillary bulb thermostat that surprisingly works fine!. The wax in the pot is very hard and will break without flexing: it dissolves in paint thinners so it was very easy to clean off the stainless steel with a cloth. As far as I can tell it all works fine, I'll fill it with my lens blocking wax that I use to mask off metal for the etching process. I spent about $20 for the terminal blocks and two metres of chain for the lid, so the whole thing cost $27 to fix up.
They don't make them like that anymore, I'm guessing 1970's vintage...stainless steel and heavy chrome plating on the brass tap that polished right up.
Nice job. I always suspected someone here must have the tools and know-how to make their own eyeglass lenses! Jeff
Laurie, the engineer who got me interested in foundry work, used to make reference grade optics such as optical flats for a hobby, several of his flats ended up in scientific optical labs around Australia. I just did it for a day job and was fortunate to learn the basics of grinding lenses with both CNC equipment and the old school way with pencil and paper and a lens lathe.
That is a fine piece of work—-both the original manufacture and then your refurbishing. Looks like maybe you could pour a pot of coffee into it in the morning, keep it hot, and draw off a half cup at a time. Denis
