Re: Horrible XRay Transformer Story...

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Jim Lux" <jimlux@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

If you're going to be fooling with HV gear and oil immersion, you should
bite the bullet and buy yourself a 5 gallon pail of decent transformer oil.
Look up "Oil-Jobbers" in the yellow pages.  Shell Diala AX or ExxonMobil
Univolt 65 should do you just fine.  Figure about $5/gallon.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 7:15 PM
Subject: RE: Horrible XRay Transformer Story...


> Original poster: "Godfrey Loudner" <ggreen@xxxxxxxx>
>
> Hello Daniel
>
> A solder gun will not set the oil on fire. Get a funnel and strain the
> oil through a fine wire mesh to get out the big chunks, with more
> straining through paper filters for fine particles. You might be able to
> make up for the lost oil by dropping clean glass marbles into the tank
> to raise the oil level. There's a guy (electricthings) on eBay who
> always has 2 gallons of transformer oil for sale. Always wear long
> rubber gloves went working on the oily mess. Its strange you were
> getting those loud white sparks. Is there only one HV terminal and the
> other HV lead grounded to the tank? If so, the HV coil and walls of the
> tank might have acted as the plates of a capacitor across the high
> voltage. I think we all made bad mistakes working on our stuff.
>
> Godfrey Loudner
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla@xxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 6:24 PM
> To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Horrible XRay Transformer Story...
>
>
> Original poster: "Daniel Koll" <dk_spl_audio@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> I was taking apart my xray transformer to take out the rectifiers.  I
> didn't drain the oil (I think we found to be no PCBs) and started to
> lift
> up on it.  I just wanted to see around the enclosure a little bit so I
> knew
> what I was up against.  It started to come out and then I cut myself
> pretty
> bad on a lamination.  I dropped one end and oil splashed out!  I was on
> my
> work bench in the garage.  Of course oil got all over me and in my cut.
> I
> didn't know what to do.  I started by getting a jug and scrapping oil of
>
> the bench and into the jug.  I then drained what was left from the
> enclosure.  The core was finally out and one of the wires of the HV
> terminal snapped!  The primary side was screwed down (4 wires total)
> underneath the core.  How I am going to get that back together I don't
> know.  The oil got tons of pieces and particles of the gasket in it.  Is
> it
> still ok?  I lost quite a bit of oil and it won't be full anymore, what
> should I do?  Also, I have to resolder the HV wire to the HV
> terminal.  Will it be safe to solder on?  The oil was so flammable that
> I
> am very hesitant.  Now, an hour after it happened, my cut is still
> gushing
> blood and I feel like an idiot.  I should have never even touched opened
>
> the thing.  Oh yeah, want to hear the worst part?  There was NO diodes
> inside!!!  The whole thing was a waste of time, money (new gasket, oil,
> clothes, etc) and possibly a Xray transformer.  I am very upset.
>
>