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Re: Weird Shunts & Homemade Vaseline




From: 	D.C. Cox[SMTP:DR.RESONANCE-at-next-wave-dot-net]
Sent: 	Saturday, December 13, 1997 2:35 AM
To: 	Tesla List
Subject: 	Re: Weird Shunts & Homemade Vaseline

to: Gary L.

You might consider dumping the unit into a plastic box and filling with
mineral oil.  It will help out the NST especially with Tesla oscillator
duty service and provide much longer life and cooling.  If you are going to
all that trouble you might as well go first class and drop it in an oil
tank where it should last almost forever.

DR.RESONANCE-at-next-wave-dot-net


> 
> From: 	Thomas McGahee[SMTP:tom_mcgahee-at-sigmais-dot-com]
> Sent: 	Friday, December 12, 1997 10:19 AM
> To: 	Tesla List
> Cc: 	lau-at-hdecad.ENET.dec-dot-com
> Subject: 	Weird Shunts & Homemade Vaseline
> 
> > 
> > From: 	Gary Lau  01-Dec-1997 1352[SMTP:lau-at-hdecad.ENET.dec-dot-com]
> > Sent: 	Monday, December 01, 1997 12:05 PM
> > To: 	tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> > Cc: 	lau-at-hdecad.ENET.dec-dot-com
> > Subject: 	Death & rebuilding of a Neon
> > 
> > After obsessing over optimal transformer protection network, saturating
> > chokes, and the like for many posts, I fired up my coil last week.  I
> > cranked the variac up to maybe 25%, had good spark breakout, but the
> > safety gaps were firing almost continuously.  This was strange, it had
> > previously been working at 100% variac just fine, I know it was tuned. 
I
> > observed this for maybe 5 seconds, then a dreadful silence.  Post
mortem:
> > a dead 15KV/60mA neon transformer.  One side measured 7.5K to case, the
> > other 1.1K.  This in spite of having .25" safety gaps, 14 mH chokes,
750
> > Ohm/50W series R's, and 600 pF bypass caps.  I still don't know what
was
> > different this time, just that I lost one very-hard-to-come-by
> > transformer.  My main RQ static gap was 10 gaps -at- .03".
> > 
> > I read the archives on depotting.  Since I was determined to re-use the
> > case and insulators, I fired up my charcoal Weber grill, put the xfmr
in
> > an aluminum pan, and cooked it for about 4 hours.  After the whole
> > stinkin' mess was good and liquid, I dumped the contents of the case
into
> > another pan and seperated the core from the goo.  After several dips in
> > paint thinner, I have now seperated the individual windings from the E
> > and I laminations.  My plan was to remove some of the magnetic shunts,
but
> > I'm not sure what exactly these are.  I have E's and I's, and on the
> > two faces where the center segments of the E's meet the I's
(represented
> > by # in the diagram below) there were a pair of small (~ .5" x 1")
curved
> > metal springs.  
> > 
> >                           Where are the shunts?
> > 
> > 
> >             SSSS     PPPPPPP     SSSS
> >             SSSS     PPPPPPP     SSSS
> >             SSSS     PPPPPPP     SSSS
> >             SSSS     PPPPPPP     SSSS
> >         ----SSSS-----PPPPPPP-----SSSS----
> >        /  / SSSS     PPPPPPP     SSSS \  \
> >       /  /  SSSS     PPPPPPP     SSSS  \  \
> >      |   \  SSSS     PPPPPPP     SSSS  /   |
> >      |    \-SSSS#####PPPPPPP#####SSSS-/    |
> >      |     |SSSS|   |PPPPPPP|   |SSSS|     |
> >      |     |SSSS|   |PPPPPPP|   |SSSS|     |
> >      |     |SSSS|   |PPPPPPP|   |SSSS|     |
> >      |     |SSSS|   |PPPPPPP|   |SSSS|     |
> >      |     ------   ---------   ------     |
> >      |                                     |
> >      |                                     |
> >      |_____________________________________|
> > 
> >             --------------------------    
> >            /                          \    
> >           /       I's                  \    
> >           \                            /     
> >            \--------------------------/      
> >                              
> >         ----                          ----
> >        /   /                          \   \
> >       /   /                            \   \
> >      |    \                            /    |
> >      |     \     -----      -----     /     |
> >      |      |    |   |      |   |    |      |
> >      |      |    |   |      |   |    |      |
> >      |      |    |   |      |   |    |      |
> >      |      |    |   |      |   |    |      |
> >      |      ------   --------   ------      |
> >      |                                      |
> >      |            E's                       |
> >      |______________________________________|
> > 
> > After reassembly, I plan to reuse the case and insulators, fulling the
> > case with melted Vasoline jelly, this so it won't leak after it gels.
> > Anyone know a way to buy Vasoline in bulk so I don't have to carry a
> > shopping cart of small jars to the register?
> > 
> > Gary Lau
> > Waltham, MA USA
> > 
> 
> Gary,
> The shunts are the little protrusions on the E core. They form a GAP
> with the I section. Obviously this form of shunt is harder to
> modify than the more usual block style shunt structure.
> 
> I modified your ASCII art to show the gaps and shunts more clearly.
> Note that the shunt/gap structure is now integral to the design
> instead of a separate add-on. I would imagine that if you increased the
> size of the GAP by cutting a bit off of each E section, then that
> would modify the Maximum short circuit current you would get.
> 
> > 
> > 
> >             SSSS     PPPPPPP     SSSS
> >             SSSS     PPPPPPP     SSSS
> >             SSSS     PPPPPPP     SSSS
> >             SSSS     PPPPPPP     SSSS
> >         ----SSSS-----PPPPPPP-----SSSS----
> >        /  / SSSS     PPPPPPP     SSSS \  \
> >       /  /  SSSS     PPPPPPP     SSSS  \  \
> >      |   \  SSSS     PPPPPPP     SSSS  /   |
> >      |    \-SSSS=====PPPPPPP=====SSSS-/    |
> >      |     |SSSS| S |PPPPPPP| S |SSSS|     |
> >      |     |SSSS| H |PPPPPPP| H |SSSS|     |
> >      |     |SSSS| U |PPPPPPP| U |SSSS|     |
> >      |     |SSSS| N |PPPPPPP| N |SSSS|     |
> >      |     ------ T --------- T ------     |
> >      |                                     |
> >      |                                     |
> >      |_____________________________________|
> > 
> >             --------------------------    
> >            /                          \    
> >           /       I's                  \    
> >           \                            /     
> >            \--------------------------/      
> >                              
> >         ----                          ----
> >        /   /                          \   \
> >       /   /                            \   \
> >      |    \                            /    |
> >      |     \     -----      -----     /     |
> >      |      |    | S |      | S |    |      |
> >      |      |    | H |      | H |    |      |
> >      |      |    | U |      | U |    |      |
> >      |      |    | N |      | N |    |      |
> >      |      ------ T -------- T ------      |
> >      |                                      |
> >      |            E's                       |
> >      |______________________________________|
> > 
> 
> As to the vasoline, why not try adding paraffin or beeswax to
> transformer oil (at elevated temperatures the wax will dissolve).
> Be very careful as an open flame can enkindle the hot oil. Do
> this where you have adequate ventilation also. A double boiler
> setup might be in order for the sake of safety.
> 
> Keep adding wax until you get the consistency you desire. This
> should be cheaper than vasoline and you can control the
> consistency. I recommend first mixing up a VERY SMALL batch
> to find the proportions of wax/oil desired. Then make up several
> medium sized batches using the formula determined. This is
> safer than trying to make up one HUGE batch all at once.
> 
> Let us know how you fare.
> 
> Hope this helps.
> Fr. Tom McGahee
> 
> 
> 
>