This electret was made of a 75mm diameter mix of D'Addario dark rosin (27 grams), carnuaba wax (38.2 grams) and beeswax (1.4 grams). I chose this rosin simply because it was what was available, though I was aware that lighter is better and water white rosin (which was not available) is best. The box says it is triple-filtered and contains non-crystallizing American gum rosin, natural beeswax and castor bean oil. The top electrode was 50mm so the effective area should be around that. This electret was made using the technique outlined on the main electret page.

Note: This electret was made, wrapped and put on the shelf on July 31, 2006. It won't be unwrapped until a month from there so check back later to see if it worked.

Making the Electret

Available at music stores. Used for putting on violin bow strings and other places.

The beeswax, purchased locally.

Carnuaba wax ordered from http://www.eco-house.com/, Eco-House Inc., P.O. Box 220, Stn. A, Fredericton, N.B., E3B 4Y9, Canada, 1-506-366-3529. It is #960 in their catalogue.

The three ingredients before melting.

I turned on the stove to MED at 4:30pm. Wax temperature quickly rose to 160C so I turned the stove off again. By 4:45pm the wax was at 100C so I heated up the top electrode using a heat gun and put it in place. I turned on the high voltage power supply and set it for 6kV. Initially the oscilloscope showed some low amplitude spiking though there were no arcs and no sounds. After about 1 minute the spiking was gone. While the electret was still cooling, the voltage kept going up slowly so I kept turning it back down to 6kV. It looked solid by 5:00pm but I didn't turn off the power supply until 5:22pm. The bottom of the aluminium bowl was a little warm. I couldn't easily dettach the top electrode so I left it attached and wrapped up the electret.

Be sure and check back in a few weeks for the results!!!