You da man
@lazylathe! Interesting, I wonder if this should be communicated to Ed? I know exactly what you're talking about though, I get that exact same stuff in the threads of my Grasshopper when I wipe with an ISO pad..... I also get it when I wipe the threads of my aluminum grinders.
It just confuses me how some do not get it on their supremes then? Unless variables like speed of insertion (giggity!) and removal play an important role?
Okay, so i polished the herb tube and sat and inserted and twisted it around making sure to not touch the aluminum tube that is inside the silicone.
Then i did a bit of reading up on aluminum and discovered that unless we can find a high temp, safe coating, we will always run into the black ring at the end of the silicone.
This is due to the fact that aluminum oxidizes in air and it is this oxide layer that actually protects the aluminum from the environment it is in.
So polishing it will make no difference since the surface will oxidize and we will start to rub off the oxide layer each time we insert the tube. Even when the oxide layer is rubbed off it will form again to cover the exposed aluminum.
My suggestion is to either switch to a glass tube like the Vapolution straw or to source some thin walled Stainless Steel tubing. Any of these changes will prevent that dark ring but will also casue you to use the S3 slightly differently due to the different heat properties of the new materials.
The only way to remove this process is by Anodizing the tube.
So in conclusion, the oxide layer we see being deposited on the silicone is SAFE.
Aluminum has a Health rating of 1 which means:
- Exposure would cause irritation with only minor residual injury and usually NO treatment is given.
- Irritation or minor reversible injury possible.
The Permissible Exposure limit is:
- 15mg/m3 Total dust
- 5mg/m3 respirable fraction
So from this we can see we will need an enormous amount of this dust to create any kind of concern!
And now back to our regular program...