Powder Slides

[shell70634]

Why are they brass?  What properties of brass make it preferable over aluminum?

[fc60]

Greetings,

Brass will not gall in the Zinc powder slide housing. Aluminum will.

Cheers,

Dave

[FOR_Star]

Dave,

Why were the powder slide housings made of zinc vs. aluminum?

[NYKenn]

I can only speculate, as whoever made the decision I would suspect is long past, unless one of our older members knows.
 
Aluminum is one of the metals that is especially susceptible to Galling. Brass and Bronze less so and are often utilized for moving parts, such as bushings and bearings, etc.  It is possible the materials were chosen specifically because of those characteristics?.

One way of preventing or at least limiting galling is by the use of lubricants, not something you would really want in and around powder.

 

[fc60]

Dave,

Why were the powder slide housings made of zinc vs. aluminum?

Greetings,

Not sure why. The metal is close to Zamak which is available from several sources. It melts and pours like Lead.

Metallurgy is not my strong suit.

Star did a lot of interesting things. Especially the use of non off the shelf threads.

Cheers,

Dave

[Richard Hubbard]

Ziinc is a lot tougher than aluminum. 

[rbwillnj]

Why were the powder slide housings made of zinc vs. aluminum?

As Dave said, I think the powder slide housings were zinc because they were easy to cast and machine, and I think they would hold up better.   
The first powder slide housings were actually bronze/brass, but changed to zinc very early.

I actually have an #11 base that was cast with zinc rather than aluminum.  It weighs twice as much.

Bruce Williams

[varmintpopper]

Pure speculation:  I've heard Star made sprinklers of some sort of cast metal, could be a relationship

Good Shooting

Lindy

[wv109323]

If struck aluminum can create a spark. Not good around powder.