3 ms·

Chopped the top off a what?

• jacquesm 17y ago
  A BLX15 is a high frequency power transistor (well, what's high frequency, these days 150 MHz doesn't count for much I guess, but in the 80's it was hot shit), it is encased in a compound that has really good thermal conductivity. One of the major components of that casing is Beryllium-Oxide. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryllium_oxide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryllium_oxide Apparently it is entirely safe to handle, as long as you do not grind it to dust, which is exactly what I did, not wearing a respirator or any other safety measures, I never realized how dangerous that stuff was. I was simply interested in seeing what the guts of a transistor like that looked like and the best way to do that without causing damage was to slowly grind the cap off. Not a smart thing to do. I only found out many years later. Fortunately I never had any Berylliosis symptoms so I think I got away clean. Luck favours dumb people.