Quality question mica: is this good enough?

[Benjamin_L]

Doesn't look thick enough to me. I still use the original mica on one of my earliest machines.

[snallast]

Thanks everyone - yes it´d be preferable to keep the original, though it seems the center part is too wrecked - I installed it again with the new gaskets - and I´m still not happy with the sound.
Maybe I´ll have to try to order mica from the USA! Ron Sitko sounds like someone who cares about quality control - in Europe it seems more a question of hit and miss...

I spoke with Ron Sitko recently about his mica replacements. He gets them in batches, and listens to the "ping" each makes when dropped onto a hard tabletop surface. Some will sound better than others, I guess, and these are the ones he sells, as he told me.

Bob

Snal

[Curt A]

Did you seal the center hole and screw with beeswax? If not, you may have an air leak... just thinking.

[snallast]

Yes Curt I did seal it - but now I´m going to open it up again - it just could be possible it´s moved a little - since the needle bar was bent. Maybe the mica is touching the side of the box and that´s why it doesn´t "sing". I´ll get back about that!

[snallast]

So I had another go - and the first thing I discovered was it actually wasn´t sealed right, the wax hadn´t melted down all around the needlebar so there might have been a leak.

I reinstalled the original mica with the outside on the inside. It´s a very tight fit - it´s inevitable it´s going to touch the side somewhere.

It sounds ok now.