To be honest, that is a brilliant suggestion. Why didn't anybody (including me) had this idea before? And you are totally right, if the mixture includes asbestos it will proof that we have to be careful with all BA's. If not, it is more or less sure that there's no special care needed when reaming them. I will see if I find ("reamable") BA's of as many years as possible in my collection ... probably you will never know for certain in which year a re-release of an early catalogue number was produced, so it will be almost impossible to know for sure what exactly is in the final mixture of plaster core dust. But it will give us an idea. Nevertheless, anyone who likes to help me paying the $130 bill for the test, is welcome to send a few $.JerryVan wrote:Why couldn't you just ream several cylinders that span the 16 years of production that you're concerned with, collect up the dust from all 16 and mix them together, then just have one test done?
1. You won't destroy any cylinders.
2. If you get a negative test, then good enough. If you get a positive, who cares if it came from one, three or all of the cylinders? Since most of us are not real savvy on what cylinder was made in what year anyway, it would simply be best to know to use caution reaming all BA's.
Thanks, Helmut