Re: HElllP!, did I fry my NST?

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <PLUGHzz-at-aol-dot-com>

In a message dated 10/17/2002 7:13:50 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:


>
> Ok, that's good :)
>
> If one side is dead, then the other side is good. This means that you've 
> still got a working Primary winding. The most likely problem is a Carbon 
> Track inside the case running through the tar. First, let's cover the 
> concept of Windings.
>
> Inside an NST are 3 coils of wire, wound on a common frame of steel plates 
> (this frame is called a Core). They work by using electromagnetic fields to 
> trade Volts for Amps. This is the basis for all Transformers. Since there is 
> no free lunch (2nd law of thermodynamics and all that rot) if you raise 
> voltage, you loose amperage. In the end if you put 100 Watts (the unit of 
> energy) in, you get 100 Watts or less out. You never get more out than you 
> put in, in fact, you can't break even.
>
> The first winding is in the middle. It's made of thick wire and is called 
> the Primary Winding. Each end of this connects to a Low Voltage Terminal on 
> the side of the case. These are the two terminals that you connect to your 
> house power.
>
> The other two windings sit on either side of the primary. These are 
> Secondary Windings and are made of very thin wire (like, Hair thin) because 
> while they carry a lot of voltage, they don't carry much Amperage.
>
> Ok ok ok, Volts and Amps.....
>
> Think of a wire like a pipe. The Pressure of the water in the pipe is like 
> Voltage. It's the push, or Potential Difference (like a waterfall). Amperage 
> is like the AMOUNT of water that flows past a given point in the pipe in a 
> given amount of time. Volts X Amps = Watts. So if you have 100 Volts at 10 
> Amps you have 1000 Watts. But if you use a transformer to raise that to 1000 
> Volts you can only get 1 Amp out for 10 Amps in. No matter what, you'll 
> always have 1000 Watts.
>
> This means that you can carry a whole BUNCH of power through a very tiny 
> wire if you have gobs of Voltage behind it. This is the basis for our whole 
> National Power Grid :)
>
> Each Secondary winding has one side connected to the Core. This is a safety 
> feature that keeps the core from "Floating" to a high voltage and knocking 
> you on your butt if something goes wrong. This is called "Center Tapped". 
> The other end of each Secondary winding connects to either of the High 
> Voltage terminals on the sides of the case. So now you see, we have 3 
> seperate windings.
>
> These are all encased in a thick, black tar. When it cools it holds 
> everything still and protects it from the massive abuse you're about to put 
> it through.
>
> What has happened is a tiny arc has burned it's way from one of the High 
> Voltage secondary windings, through this tar, to the case. When it burns 
> it's way through, it turns the carbon to ash, Ash is made of Carbon (like 
> charcoal basicly), and it has one nasty side effect. It happens to conduct 
> electricity. All the energy from that winding is going right back to the 
> case and not to your coil.
>
> The only way to fix it is to remove, or disturb the Carbon Track. You can do 
> this in 2 ways.
>
> 1. Take the lid off the NST, cut the case off, and attack it with a hammer 
> to chip off the tar. This sucks, it makes a huge mess, and it will likely 
> destroy the hair thin wires.
>
> 2. Cook it...a lot. This sucks too, but worse! You have to heat up the NST, 
> REALLY hot, and it takes hours and hours to do. When it's hot enough, the 
> tar melts. Then you can either pour off the tar and rebuilt the NST. Or you 
> can simply slosh it around gently. This stirs the tar and moves the ash 
> around enough to break up the carbon track. It's not a guarenteed cure 
> (nothing is) but it's very likely to work.
>
> The downside is it STINKS! And not a gentle fart in church stink, but it's 
> more like a dead raccoon under your porch in july stink. If you use the oven 
> to cook the NST, you'll never make food in there again (unless you develop a 
> taste for creosote, which tastes somewhere between Vegemite and Railroad 
> ties). Same thing with using the grill, plus it will stink up the house 
> either way.
>
> So that's the basics of NSTs. Any questions?
>
> And no flack from the physics, electrical engineering, or math gods! This is 
> not intended to be a EE-101 class and I'm allowed some artistic discretion 
> on the whole Water in a Pipe thing :)
>
> Christopher "Duck" Boden Geek#1
> President / C.E.O. / Alpha Geek
> The Geek Group
> www.thegeekgroup-dot-org
> Because the Geek shall inherit the Earth!
>
> "He had that rare weird electricity about him--that
> extremely wild and heavy presence that you only see in
> a person who has abandoned all hope of ever behaving
> normally." --Hunter S. Thompson



Thank you for your entertaining and informative help!!
Ive got it sitting in thinner at the moment to get rid of any excess tar. BTW,
it wasnt smelly at all. I didnt get it hot enough to smoke.

Danny L. Ray II