Insulation Properties of Dollar Store Nail Polish (Follow-up)

RE: Insulation Properties of Dollar Store Nail Polish (Follow-up)

shabaz — Wed, 20 Jun 2018 21:22:50 GMT

Hi John,

Very interesting findings : )

Actually a great application for this could be for painting over the node connections on ladder voltage multipliers.. I recall trying to insulate them with clear acrylic spray a long time ago, otherwise connections would arc over. I will try to find it sometime..

RE: Insulation Properties of Dollar Store Nail Polish (Follow-up)

fmilburn — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 22:02:01 GMT

I dropped by the Dollar Store on the way home and picked up my own supply - was even able to find some of the black color that Nico has been looking for.

[View:/resized-image/__size/620x413/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-c63ba666-eaa7-49cf-befe-b372e5330fd5/1033.contentimage_5F00_187611.jpg:620:413]

I was wondering whether rubber contact cement, also known as paper cement, would be effective. My thinking is that it might be flexible and offer good insulation. In my trial it seems to have dried and stuck to the wire OK. I don't have a megger so I just painted one end of multi-strand wire with a single coat of the adhesive and tested it the continuity setting on my multimeter.

[View:/resized-image/__size/620x413/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-c63ba666-eaa7-49cf-befe-b372e5330fd5/5165.contentimage_5F00_187612.jpg:620:413]

I tried the same and painted a single coat of nail polish and it worked on the sides of the wire but I noticed that on the sharp ends of the individual strands it did not coat and I could detect continuity there. The thicker rubber cement did coat the ends.

RE: Insulation Properties of Dollar Store Nail Polish (Follow-up)

DAB — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 18:14:06 GMT

Nice test John.

DAB

RE: Insulation Properties of Dollar Store Nail Polish (Follow-up)

fmilburn — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 15:24:38 GMT

Great experiment with practical usage . It would be fun to extend this to some other materials. Also maybe test the materials for durability. Anybody out there looking for a good science fair project?

RE: Insulation Properties of Dollar Store Nail Polish (Follow-up)

genebren — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 14:48:33 GMT

HI John,

Aluminum battery or capacitor? Either is possible depending on the formulation of your nail polish. I guess you could increase the loading of the battery/capacitor and monitor the voltage. Capacitors will tend to decrease to zero with time, while batteries would decrease, but perhaps stay elevated about zero. On the battery front, there are aluminum ion batteries that are rechargeable, which may cause it to look like a capacitor.

Interesting things can come up when performing the simplest of experiments!

Gene

RE: Insulation Properties of Dollar Store Nail Polish (Follow-up)

Jan Cumps — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 11:41:08 GMT

I wasn’t expecting 3 uF. Nice. How big was the overlap of the two pieces of aluminium?

RE: Insulation Properties of Dollar Store Nail Polish (Follow-up)

ntewinkel — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 06:08:23 GMT

Ah! Thank you John, for testing that!

That makes me feel much more confident in using that nail polish going forward [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-c63ba666-eaa7-49cf-befe-b372e5330fd5/contentimage_5F00_1.png:16:16]

I guess if you wanted to use nail polish to isolate two pieces of metal, maybe putting a coat on both and letting it dry first might work, and then glueing with something that won't soften the nail polish.

ps, I'm still on the lookout for black and red dollar store polish [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-c63ba666-eaa7-49cf-befe-b372e5330fd5/contentimage_5F00_1.png:16:16]

-Nico