Magnavox Tube Amps and Cadmium

motobikeaz

New Member
Hello. I just spent the morning hollowing out a hole in my 8802 for speaker posts with my dremel. Next thing I know I am reading online many of these amp chassis contain cadmium. I was wearing a mask but still quite concerning.

Any one know if this is true? How does everyone else deal with toxic materials in these old amps? I feel like the garage should be quarantined at this point. But it sounds so good....
 
Hi and welcome!

IMHO, I don't think that anyone here has had problems or has died from this.

Just follow basic safety precautions when cleaning like wearing a mask and washing your hands afterwards.

I'm in my upper 50's and ever since I was 10 years old, I have had or used equipment where I remember seeing a green or yellow type of dust or mold on some of my past metal chassis amplifiers. I would just grab a Brillo pad and clean them up best I could and on I went. I suffer from no illnesses or respiratory distress so it's probably not as bad as everyone might tend to make you believe unless you worked in a factory or plant that manufactured it.
 
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Hi and welcome!

IMHO, I don't think that anyone here has had problems or has died from this.

Just follow basic safety precautions when cleaning like wearing a mask and washing your hands afterwards.

I'm in my upper 50's and ever since I was 10 years old, I have had or used equipment where I remember seeing a green or yellow type of dust or mold on some of my past metal chassis amplifiers. I would just grab a Brillo pad and clean them up best I could and on I went. I suffer from no illnesses or respiratory distress so it's probably not as bad as everyone might tend to make you believe unless you worked in a factory or plant that manufactured it.

Thanks that makes me feel a bit better aswell. Reading online seems like it is everywhere. Brakes, exhausts, all kinds of car parts. Also reading online they make it sound like any exposure and bye bye lol.
 
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Hi and welcome!

IMHO, I don't think that anyone here has had problems or has died from this.

Just follow basic safety precautions when cleaning like wearing a mask and washing your hands afterwards.

I'm in my upper 50's and ever since I was 10 years old, I have had or used equipment where I remember seeing a green or yellow type of dust or mold on some of my past metal chassis amplifiers. I would just grab a Brillo pad and clean them up best I could and on I went. I suffer from no illnesses or respiratory distress so it's probably not as bad as everyone might tend to make you believe unless you worked in a factory or plant that manufactured it.
The yellow/ greenish dust is actually just sulfur. It clings on to certain metals over a long period of time. Not hazardous.
As far as Cadmium goes, that's the plating metal to prevent rust. Was very prevalent in military equipment in the 60's and 70's. I wouldn't worry.
 
Was very prevalent in military equipment in the 60's and 70's. I wouldn't worry.

I have never forgotten the Army training film showing the poor b**tard who drank a cup of Agent Orange to show ''how safe it was''. Bet he didn't worry either.Or for long....

As for cadmium,so long as you don't lick it or snort it,and wash your hands after touching it,not a problem:)
 
Also wouldn't be a completely terrible idea to wipe it down with a damp rag to remove any loose dust. Otherwise, as Arts said, don't lick the amp and wash your hands afterward.
 
Reading online seems like it is everywhere. Brakes, exhausts, all kinds of car parts. Also reading online they make it sound like any exposure and bye bye lol.

Yeah it's bad, here's the view out my front window. That's a cadmium burning plant -


2a2275213dca4b2174898b2ad7ef658b.jpg
 
I should have taken pictures of the woofer magnets and Lpads in my Warfedale W90's. The stuff was caked on thick. :yikes:
I Wiped It Down With A Damp Cloth Wearing A mask. Then vacumed out the cabinets outside with a shop vac.
 
I'm surprised that they are still using it.Most places I went to,when I looked it up, still offered cadmium as an option)both in silver and yellow(I answered my own question).
 
I should have taken pictures of the woofer magnets and Lpads in my Warfedale W90's. The stuff was caked on thick. :yikes:
I Wiped It Down With A Damp Cloth Wearing A mask. Then vacumed out the cabinets outside with a shop vac.
Sulpher again. Cadmium doesn't float around in the air. But it's a heavy metal and that's why it's dangerous.
 
Welders that do not use respirators (I have to check a couple of my guys all the time) usually are breathing it along with lots of other heavy metals. I know old welders that are perfectly fine and I know some that are really jacked up. I'm thinking the few precautions mentioned above in a hobby situation should be sufficient.
 
Welders that do not use respirators (I have to check a couple of my guys all the time) usually are breathing it along with lots of other heavy metals. I know old welders that are perfectly fine and I know some that are really jacked up. I'm thinking the few precautions mentioned above in a hobby situation should be sufficient.
I worked around welders for many years. I don't remember any of them wearing masks except for the guys using arc cutters using carbon rods blasting through 1" or thicker steel.
 
I have a friend that made his own fogger. He added a small diesel tank to an old lawn mower. It dripped the fuel and bug killer mix In to a tube that replaced the muffler. :thumbsup:
 
I remember the mosquito abatement trucks fogging everything in town with the stuff.

I'm convinced the current generation is the way they are because they never did stuff like this, poor dears. My whole neighborhood used to turn out for BB gun wars.

No aiming for the face!
was the battle cry. I'd come home with bumps on the back of my head the size of quarters and bruises that looked like WW2 RAF markings -


352px-RAF_Type_A_Roundel_ww2.svg_.jpg


...anyways, back to cadmium. I'm sure I've inhaled/ingested it. Looking forward to a few less years in adult diapers.
 
Go to the hardware store and every shiny new bolt in the building is plated in cadmium. Don't breathe the cutting/grinding/welding smoke and don't lose any sleep at night.

Not to be too contrarian here but the threaded fasteners in all the local hardware stores are zinc plated, coated with an organic polymer or are stainless. Haven’t seen new cadmium in decades. Not sayin cadmium plate is gone but it isn’t readily avail to the general public. Not to be confused with “chromate” coatings which I believe are still available-iridescent yellow-greenish appearance.
 
I remember the mosquito abatement trucks fogging everything in town with the stuff.
Wow, you are showing your age. I also remember the Dept of Health running a DDT fogger up the street off the back of a truck. The local kids thought it was hoot to ride their bikes in the back following the truck for awhile. I dunno what happened to those kids but i know they never got mosquito bites and cooties!
But getting back to the Cadmium story. Besides that , which is really not much of an issue as long as you have normal sanitation habits, Any painted surface from back in this era is most likely lead based paint. So precautions are again necessary when sanding these surfaces. Be safe out there!
 
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