Potting Butyrate bobbins ???

[copperheadroads]

I have a customer that wants a set of humbukers to vintage specs but he wants them fully potted ,Also he has unpotted buckers that he wants me to pot for him which some do have butyrate bobbins .
So has Anyone had good luck potting the Paf style Butyrate bobbins ,,.heard they might melt over 140 degrees ? anyone

[jonson]

Melting point is all over the place it just depends on the Cab. Bit of a suck it and see there copper.
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[jack briggs]

you can get paraffin that melts @ 125F. use this and carefully monitor its temp then you should be okay.

[big_teee]

You may want to temporarily pour off your regular potting wax and mix up a small batch of thinned wax.
You can thin regular paraffin wax with paraffin lamp oil to the point it will hardly turn solid.
I would thin a small batch, so it still turns solid, but will be melted at a low temp.
Be sure and stir it up good to mix the wax with the paraffin oil.
GL,
T

[Bruce Johnson]

I could sheepishly sneak in here and suggest that you could pot them with CPES epoxy, instead of wax. Fast, permanent, full potting, no temperature rise at all........

Okay, I'm sorry, I'll leave now.....

[SonnyW]

Hi Copper,

I've potted them before plenty of times with a parrafin/beeswax mix but it is a little tricky. 140 degrees F will work okay but you have to have excellent temperature control to be sure you don't go much higher than that. The butyrate won't melt at that temp but it will start to soften a bit, which can lead to warping. There are various formulations of butyrate (CAB) that have different melting points. The lowest published melting point for CAB is about 260°F, but the material does begin to soften above its lowest heat deflection temperature which is 144°F. I have had butyrate bobbins begin to warp even with a short potting time at 146°F. I've fooled around with my wax to get a melting point of about 138°F. I have a temperature controller on my wax pot, but have also put a very accurate Cole-Parmer temperature gauge in it. It is not outlandishly expensive. This is the one I use: Digi Sense Calibrated Panel Mount Remote Probe Thermometer 50 300C 58 572F from Cole-Parmer. Any kind of an accurate thermometer should work, and just be careful.

[copperheadroads]

awesome guys ,thanks for all the suggestions .
The customer had no problems with using abs bobbins so that's what I've used .

[Jim Shine]

I have no trouble potting with wax. I heat the wax up just enough to make it liquid. When I dunk a pickup in, it can take almost a minute for the pickup to heat up. The wax actually solidifies around the pickup and melts slowly as the pickup acclimates. Then the air bubbles start.