Due to the tangent that myself and Laserman532 had gone off on with the UK laser meet #3 thread I thought rather than continue the discussion there I should migrate to a new thread - so here we are.
Pat as I see it I have 4 options available to me
1 - Clean up existing connector parts using sandpaper or file and a flat surface, reassemble and keep my fingers crossed.
2 - Clean up existing parts by machining til truly flat - which will take quite a bit of material away requiring me to make a gasket to go inbetween the slices from some good insulative material with a bit of 'give' such as rubber - or even delrin (see no. 4)
3 - buy (if I can get my hands on one) a complete umbilical or connector which may be worn anyway and ultimately not much better than what I've got.
4 - start from scratch and make 2 new slices from a suitable material. Favorites at this moment in time are Delrin or Tufnol. Both will machine well and have good mechaniacl properties, Delrin has surface resistivity of 10^13 ohms and electrical strength of 20kV/mm. Tufnol (SRBF) has a differnt spec sheet that does not include the same figures but is spec'd with the following - Insulation resistance after immersion in water 7x10^9 ohms and Electric strength, edgewise in oil at 90ºC 23kV.
My favoured option is no.4 as i think it would be pretty staright forward to make the parts my only reservation is the material. I know tufnol is used as an insulative material but I think the Delrin would be a better bet - though is more likely to melt as I solder the connections back on when assembling, so requiring a little more care at this point
Any comments?
Rob