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From: doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee)
Newsgroups: net.aviation
Subject: Lanolin & Aluminum
Message-ID: <427@terak.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 5-Mar-85 18:38:24 EST
Article-I.D.: terak.427
Posted: Tue Mar  5 18:38:24 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 10-Mar-85 06:26:22 EST
Organization: Terak Corporation, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Lines: 17

Can anyone confirm, deny, or expound upon the following?

I once encountered a problem when I washed an aluminum radio chassis,
where the chassis became "slimy" as a result and nothing I did would
remove the slimy feel.  A year or so later I heard (somewhere) that
this was a reaction between lanolin in the detergent I used and the
aluminum.  The result was that the aluminum had developed a coating
of aluminum stearate.

Now, your everyday light plane is made of Alclad, an aluminum alloy
with a pure aluminum surface layer.  I would think that if the above
story was true, that I'd be hearing horror stories about slimy planes
as a result of having been washed with detergents containing lanolin.

If you'll mail me your comments, I'll post a summary for the net.
-- 
Doug Pardee -- Terak Corp. -- !{hao,ihnp4,decvax}!noao!terak!doug