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Cadmium

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Phineas332

New Member
Hi newbie here and learning. Does anyone know of the chassis on the SX950 is cadmium plated? Have some white stuff that doesn’t look like dust, more like ground up styrofoam and lots of it on the bottom portion of the chassis. Just trying to determine what the situation is. Any insight as to the chassis composition or if the white tiny foam like particles could be from something else (shipping??). Thank you in advance for any helpful responses! Sorry I don’t have any pics to share - I suspect that would be helpful.
 
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My experience with cadmium is that it does look like dust. Can't say more than that without pictures as I don't now how ground styrofoam would find its way in there.
 
It looked like this only most of the particles where a tad larger and you could have filled half this baggie, maybe more. From researching seemed like the cadmium dust was more thin and almost like dirt - but perhaps not. That’s why I was wondering if the chassis is cadmium. I suppose it is as it had that coloring (light gold with some rainbow)- but I believe there is one other coating that looks like that too? What’s done is done. I threw away the vacuum that I sucked it up with just to be safe and the case is closed back up.
 

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Cadmium residue usually gives the surface a white dust-like appearance. That being said, I've seen the insides of several Pioneer receivers but I've never seen any with cadmium residue. Here's a way to find out if it is cadmium.

A Do-It-Yourself Cadmium Detection Procedure

Use this simple recipe for Cadmium detection at home, by yourself, in paints, plastics, food and elsewhere using household products and protect your loved ones from hazardous chemical poisoning.
www.home-health-chemistry.com
 
I would think that with the extremely high toxicity of cadmium we would have heard about this long ago regarding Pioneer chassis being plated with it. Typically, cadmium plating was reserved for extreme corrosive environments and some aerospace applications. I find it highly unlikely that it would end up in consumer electronics from the 70s. However, if you find yourself about to get rid of it then I can give you an address for proper disposal. ;)
 
itguy1010 said:
I would think that with the extremely high toxicity of cadmium we would have heard about this long ago regarding Pioneer chassis being plated with it. Typically, cadmium plating was reserved for extreme corrosive environments and some aerospace applications. I find it highly unlikely that it would end up in consumer electronics from the 70s. However, if you find yourself about to get rid of it then I can give you an address for proper disposal. ;)
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thank you for that offer!

- I got it for my son for graduation. He is into the old vintage equipment. Loves it.

Thanks for your reply - I am hoping one day I find one for myself - love the vintage radios and stereos. (And have never come across the cadmium issue before). But learn each day and live for another, and it is a good day!
 
eiraved said:
Cadmium residue usually gives the surface a white dust-like appearance. That being said, I've seen the insides of several Pioneer receivers but I've never seen any with cadmium residue. Here's a way to find out if it is cadmium.

A Do-It-Yourself Cadmium Detection Procedure

Use this simple recipe for Cadmium detection at home, by yourself, in paints, plastics, food and elsewhere using household products and protect your loved ones from hazardous chemical poisoning.
www.home-health-chemistry.com
Click to expand...
Thank you for this! Very helpful.
 
Cadmium plating does have the gold tint with a rainbow finish. Most Japanese made audio equipment from the 1970's is cad plated. If you want to see if the plating is coming off, a standard test is to apply Scotch tape to it and pull it off. The plating should not flake off. If it does, that's bad.
 
dr*audio said:
Cadmium plating does have the gold tint with a rainbow finish. Most Japanese made audio equipment from the 1970's is cad plated. If you want to see if the plating is coming off, a standard test is to apply Scotch tape to it and pull it off. The plating should not flake off. If it does, that's bad.
Click to expand...
Thank you. That is not what I had - no flaking, no dust. Just little white pieces and when I read about the stuff “blooming” (after the fact - sigh) I started to worry. But then I was wondering if the person who had owned before (original owner, he had purchased it in his early 20s so I imagine it got moved a couple of times over the years), that perhaps he shipped it at some point and to keep it safe put a bunch of styrofoam in and some got down inside the case at the top vent. It really looked more like that - literally if you break styrofoam apart all the little tiny static clingy kind of pieces you get. i vacuumed it out because couldn’t even get it out if I wanted to without it zipping around like little styrofoam pieces do when you try to trap them on the floor and put them in the garbage after breaking a bigger piece of it. Try it sometime if you haven’t already. Pain in the neck. I shall just get the vacuum out for those because you can’t get them all. It had even found its way into the little clear sleeves on some of the wires. I carefully vacuumed it out of there and didn’t have to try that hard - the suction pretty much drew it out without the vacuum having to touch any parts. The cadmium looks to be in good shape. Sorry for the lengthy description- some of the pieces are shown in the baggy above.

As for the radio, it works great and it is mint - face plate and case. Gentleman didn’t want to part with it but he had it sitting in a closet and he decided it was time for someone else to enjoy it. Got two boxes of 60,70s records with it - a lot of original album releases of great bands. Will have to get some of the caps etc done by a professional soon. Thanks for all the replies - I appreciate it and the kindness of the group.
 
Some more information about cadmium plating: it is a soft white metal which is plated onto a base metal to function as a "sacrificial coating", corroding before the base metal in order to protect it. To enhance the corrosion protection of cadmium plating, a chromate conversion coating can be applied over the plated metal, yielding the gold color seen. The chromate coating can also be in green or clear color.

Soft, silver-white cadmium is relatively cheap because it is a side product of processing more valuable metals such as zinc and copper. Cadmium is used in metal alloys to increase strength, wear resistance, and/or castability, or to lower melting point. Cadmium pigments are used to create bright yellow, orange, red, and maroon dyes, paints, plastics, and ceramics. The metal is used to produce nickel–cadmium batteries and in galvanizing and electroplating. It may be found in electrical conductors, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) products, photocells, tires, automobile radiators, electronic components, and heating elements. It is naturally present at varying concentrations in the phosphate rock mined for use as fertilizer.
 
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