RE: Horrible XRay Transformer Story...

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

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.