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Re: [TCML] Diesel for transformer oil?
Hi Aaron, all,
Hmm, I seem to recall picking up a 5 gallon pail of the
Shell Diala from my local oil supplier a few years back,
when gas was still hovering around $1.50/gallon, for $29
and some change, including sales tax. I was hoping that
the cost may have come back down a bit with the cost
of most the other petroleum products beginning to come
back down.
SF6 would be neat, but as you mentioned, is quite expen-
sive and would require a truly air-tight tank. When I was
at Ed Wingate's Teslathon in August, he had a video tape
of a Jay Leno episode where this guy brought in some of
that SF6 gas for show and tell. They were demonstrating
how incredibly dense it was for a gas by making little "boats"
from aluminum foil and floating them in a fish tank filled with
the gas. Since it is inert and completely non-toxic (so long as
it is not inhaled to the exclusion of life sustaining oxygen), they
were inhaling a bit of it and then speaking a phrase or two.
It gave their oice the opposite effect of helium and spoke
in a very deep baritone voice. Also, they engaged a stun
gun to sparking and when it was inserted into the SF6, it
immediately stopped sparking as the dielectric gas completely
insulated the pins from arcing to each other. All in all, it was
both informative and entertaining to watch.
I may opt for Greg Hunter's idea of the farm tractor hydraulic
fluid from Sam's.
David Rieben
----- Original Message -----
From: "J. Aaron Holmes" <jaholmes6502@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "Tesla Coil Mailing List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 4:58 PM
Subject: Re: [TCML] Diesel for transformer oil?
Or see how much sulfur hexaflouride gas costs from AirGas.com or some such
;-)) Anybody tried a SF6-insulated x-ray tranny before? It's probably
way more $$, but then you might justify the cost by giving it the
"original science" label ;-)
Also: I've never managed to get Diala AX for < $10/gal, and that includes
long before the oil price bubble. Fortunately, I've never needed > ~7 gal
at one time. My two local oil joints have been selling for ~10/gal for as
long as I can remember, in 5gal increments. I suppose I'm probably
getting ripped, but then the other option would be to ship it, and that
would make it way more expensive!
I hear the laxative stuff is [relatively] cheap, however I've also heard
you need to add some manner of preservative to it if you don't want it to
go sour.
Cheers,
Aaron, N7OE
--- On Wed, 11/5/08, David Rieben <drieben@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: David Rieben <drieben@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [TCML] Diesel for transformer oil?
To: "Tesla Coil Mailing List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wednesday, November 5, 2008, 12:52 PM
Hi all,
I have recently removed some bad oil from my
x-ray transformer due to some internal arcing
that had been occuring. The oil was nearly
black with suspended carbon paritcles (not
good). The tank holds a whopping 25 gallons
and a quick call to my local oil jobber revealed
that the recent lower spot market cost oil crude
had obviously NOT yet trickeld down to the
transformer oil customer, as the price quote
for a Shell DialaX transformer oil was $10.01/gal!
Partial fill-up is not an option for x-ray transfor-
mers as they run a very high voltage/volume
ratio that is entirely dependant upon proper oil
filling to be functional at anything near their
rated voltage. This got me to thinking about
stories of scrap metal dealers running their
diesle trucks on the oil of reclaimed transformers
and wondering if diesel fuel could also possi-
bly be used for a suitable dielectric oil for
filling transformers. Diesel has an oily consis-
tancy and can now be purchased for less than
$4/gallon. I know properly rated transformer oil
is the BEST but I just can't see dropping >$250
to repair a transformer that I only paid $50 for
when I bought it! How much does mineral oil
laxitive at the farm coops generally go for per
gallon? Any suggestions?
David Rieben
PS - Too bad that I couldn't have filtered the
contaminated oil to reuse.
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