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New Idea



Subject: 
        New Idea
  Date: 
        Fri, 21 Mar 1997 21:20:23 -0800
  From: 
        Gary Weaver <gweaver-at-earthlink-dot-net>
    To: 
        tesla-at-pupman-dot-com


I unpotted my first 3 neons a few weeks ago.  Many people on the list
offered 
suggestion and help.  I tried several ideas and found that heat works
the 
best for unpotting neons.

I placed my 3rd neon in a pan of boiling water for about 1 hour to make
the 
hard tar soft.  The heat makes the tar soft about like toy Play Doe.
Removed 
the top cover.  Cut the sides of the case with a hack saw and pulled the 
metal away from the tar.  Pulled the ends away and cut the wires. Lifted
out 
the transformer and scrapped off the soft tar with a screw driver.  This
all 
took about 20 minutes.

Next dissamble the transformer and scrap the remaining tar from the
coils 
while it is still soft.  Clean the metal parts with gasoline.  Wrap the 
primary coil in one layer of duct tape.  Solder longer wires on the
secondary 
coils with aligator clips on the ends.  Cover the secondary coils with
ACE 
Hardware brand rope caulking.  Remove 3 metal plates from each of the 4 
shunts.  Reassemble the transformer.  This all took about 45 minutes.

It works.  It works better than it did before. This was a 15K 30 ma 
Franceformer.  Now its a 15K 40 ma transformer.  

I saved all the tar in a 5 gallon bucket.  It may be useful for coating 
something.  It melts very easy in a pan on the camp stove.

Gary Weaver