neazoi
Advanced Member level 6
I had a knob from a Yaesu FT-301 which is a late 70's early 80's HAm transceiver. I wanted to open it's mounting hole at the end a bit. I suspected it was not the "sticky" plastic so I did this grinding with a large diameter drill and the whole process has been done in front of the vacuum cleaner tube opening.
The plastic of the knob was brittle. It reminded me plastics from old kitchen furnances. The grinding feeling was like this, no sticky plastic but brittle parts were coming out. I do not know if this is backelite or any other of plastic made on early 80s.
I read on wikipedia that backelite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakelite can be mixed with asbestos, so I did the process with a vacuum cleaner sucking the bits. However I noticed some bigger pieces (1-2 mm or so) falling to the floor and one of them made it up onto my face. Then I increased the vacuum cleaner power and noticed no more pieces.
Now my question is, how safe do you think I was? Do you think that asbestos could contaminate me from this thing?
Here are two photos of the finished knob. Should I use it or better throw it away just to be sure?
The plastic of the knob was brittle. It reminded me plastics from old kitchen furnances. The grinding feeling was like this, no sticky plastic but brittle parts were coming out. I do not know if this is backelite or any other of plastic made on early 80s.
I read on wikipedia that backelite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakelite can be mixed with asbestos, so I did the process with a vacuum cleaner sucking the bits. However I noticed some bigger pieces (1-2 mm or so) falling to the floor and one of them made it up onto my face. Then I increased the vacuum cleaner power and noticed no more pieces.
Now my question is, how safe do you think I was? Do you think that asbestos could contaminate me from this thing?
Here are two photos of the finished knob. Should I use it or better throw it away just to be sure?
