I'll be sending the remaining foam to Sylvain and dsc. The post office didn't have the shipping boxes I was planning on using when I checked on Saturday.

Mark

mhoy wrote:. . . 1/2" melamine foam that I ordered from McMaster-Carr.

The MSDS for this product contains the following statement: "On exposure to high thermal load, HCN can be evolved as well as CO."

"High thermal load" is not defined within the four corners of the MSDS, though it does further identify the product as a "Rated Class 1 building material" with "Ignition temperature +1074° F."

Chemicals and concentrations of them hazardous to health are outside my field of expertise, but I read from sites like this that hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is among one of the most hazardous compounds to ecosystems and human health. And of course, hydrogen cyanide is also known as Zyklon B, used in gas chambers by the Nazis.

Is this a concern for a product we might put in our kitchens in close proximity to heat and electricity?

Good questions on the safety aspects. I would imagine that if the safety systems in the espresso machine fail and the system manages to ignite the foam then the smoke is a hazard. Along with the smoke from the wiring and other plastic parts of the system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melamine_foam wrote:The low smoke and flame properties of melamine foam are very beneficial toward safety concerns

Sylvain/dsc: The US Post has a box headed your way.

BTW: The 'Magic Eraser' is made of this stuff, I've got a bit left over and I'm going to try it out.
=--=-
Mark

I'm about to show my ignorance of CAD with this post but looking at the cut-outs that people have made with their insulating material, I wonder how hard it would be to make a template of the cut-out and put it into a PDF file that future Elektra "insulators" could download here? It would then be a simple matter for them to print it out, place it on their "fabric" of choice, mark the outline and cut out the pattern. Seems to me it would make a 1 1/2 hour job (2 1/2 hours and a couple of Black Butte Porters in my case!) into a 15 minute breeze as most of my time was spent trying to get a template cut out that I was happy with. Not to imply that I'm always looking for an easier way to do something or anything like that...

Good idea! For a low-tech solution, scan the template you cut out.

Mine's already done Dan but if I have the opportunity I could try and peel the insulation off to scan it in for new Elektra owners. I used ceramic thermal blanket from the local sheet metal shop and the stuff is a little messy, so I was hoping not to have to mess with it. But... perhaps the next HBer fortunate enough to have an A3/T1 could scan in his/her template here before wiring the insulation in place for the benefit of future users??? Just throwing this one out for the next willing insulator to keep in the back of his mind. Hint, hint...

OK, I'll measure up my rather crude template. This will help out dsc and Sylvain who should be receiving the foam in the near future.

BTW: When I say crude, I mean it, the first posts in this thread with the newspaper are a thing of beauty when compared to my template. I guess the end results are what counts.

Mark

mhoy wrote:OK, I'll measure up my rather crude template. This will help out dsc and Sylvain who should be receiving the foam in the near future.

I can not find the template I used. I think it may have been discarded in our recycling as kid art...sorry. Trust me though, it's really easy to do.

Mark

Hi guys,

I did the insulation today and it was a pain in the ass to get around some of the tubes. Of course I've cut off around 5cm of the larger sheet that Mark's sent me and in the I was 5cm short at the bottom of the boiler. To top that I've also screwed up the heater piece by cutting out a hole in the middle of the round foam element and than realising that the heater as actually not placed in the centre. I've managed to use some spare foam to cover it up so it doesn't look so bad. The worst part is around the HX at the bottom were the ends of the 'blanket' simply don't touch and there's a 1.5cm gap near the HX. I hope the whole thing is still gonna work as the top is finished quite nice, almost completely covered.

I agree that the foam tears really easily and you have to watch out when placing the thing on the boiler, especially with all the pipes going around you have to manoeuvre quite a lot.

Regards,
dsc.

My foam was a bit long on the bottom. It's still a whole lot better now than before so don't sweat it.

Mark