Borax cone

Although I use commercial flux for silver soldering I saw a video of someone grinding a borax cone which reminded me of doing this at school. I sent off for a dish and cone and thought I would read the safety sheet, they make it sound deadly stuff but I don’t remember taking any precautions at school and people on youtube don’t seem worried. We were allowed to play with mercury at school in the days before it was dangerous. Boraxo used to be a good hand cleaner but it did have lanolin added to condidion your hands. My skin seems pretty resiliant to most things but does anyone find Borax cones are an irritant?

Mike

Borax is not toxic in normal amounts, wikipedia says the powder can cause lung irritation but it isn't a skin irritant.

It's a 'handle with care' product. Quite mild, but don't eat it, breath in the dust, or rub it in your eyes. Like common salt, mostly harmless unless you are exposed to a lot of it. (If you think table salt is safe try rubbing the crystals in your eyes, eating a tablespoon a day for a month, or working unprotected in a salt processing plant for a few years.)

Metallic mercury is pretty benign too - unless you breath in the vapour. World of difference between playing with Mercury at room temperature for ten minutes and boiling the same quantity dry over a Bunsen, which is what unsupervised boys are likely to do!

Dave

I thought Borax was a pretty safe material, the Cookson Gold safety advice, sounds scary. Go to borax cone on cookson site and find safety advice leaflet in question and answers tab.

Mike

Edited By Mike Poole on 03/11/2018 21:49:02

Edited By Mike Poole on 03/11/2018 21:52:18

Edited By Mike Poole on 03/11/2018 21:53:27

Outside Thailand and the United States it's an approved food additive.

Acts as a flux for high temperature foods like Phalls.

For going in or coming out?