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Testing OILs and UN-Potting Neons.
I unpotted my first neon and put it in a plexaglass box and filled with high
voltage oil. It works great but the box leaks. I made several attempts to
reseal
the plexaglass but it still leaks.
I built a plywood box for my second neon. I used 1/2" plywood. I drilled
it and
assembled it with screws. Then I painted the box inside and out with polyester
resin. After it dryed I painted it again on the inside only. After it dryed I
painted it one more time only on the seams to make sure it would not leak.
The box
has 1" clearance around the sides and 2" clearance on top. I bolted the
neon to
the top, upside down so it would hand down about 1/2" from the bottom of
the box
after its assembled. I put oil in the box and slowly lowered the neon into
the box
and screwed on the top. I left a 1" air gap above the oil for expansion and
contraction. I painted around the top with more polyester to seal it. I put
insulators in the wood top to prevent the high voltage from arcing threw
the wood.
It works great. Its much better than the plexagless box and it does not
leak. The
neon has proven to be industructable. I have run it long and hard many
times for
over a years.
After unpotting my third neon I put it back into the original case. I
melted the
old tar in a pan on a camp stove and stired in 50% high voltage oil. I
poured the
hot tar oil mix on the neon until the case was full. The next day I
checked it and
it was solid but soft like Jello. This works great too. It sure was a lot
less
work that building a box. I am having very good luck with it so far but I
don't
expect it to be as industructable as a box full or oil.
I have tested several different types of oils that have no additives.
Hydraulic
oil from a farm supply store tests out very good for high voltage use and
its cost
only $1.00 per gallon. Power steering oil from Auto Zone checkes out good at a
cost of $2.00 a quart. Auto Zone has 2 types of power steering oils, one
is RED
color and the other has no color. I did not test the RED one. Hydraulic
oil from
a construction equipment dealership works good, $1.00 a gallon. From the oils I
have tested so far it looks like any thin oil with no additives will work
good for
high voltage use.
I built an adjustable spark gap. Then I put the spark gap under high
voltage oil
that I bought from the power company. At 15K volts it will jump a very
tiny thin
spark across a .062 gap. The lights must be turned off and you have to
look very
close to see the spark. I got the same results with all the other oils that I
tested. Next I connected the spark gap to several different places on my Tesla
Coil and turned on the coil. I could sometimes get a spark to jump across
a .075
gap. The sparks were very tiny thin sparks with all the oils I tested. I
am not
sure how scientific this is but I think it proves you don't have to spend a
lot of
money on oil to get something that will work.
I talked to the maintenance supervisor at the power company and he says the
most
important thing is to have pure clean oil.
Gary Weaver