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Thread: my oil change story with a twist

  1. #21
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Lloyd, did the transformer blow due to the pressure of boiling oil inside of it? Without getting too technical, was it a short causing and arc inside or something like that you think?
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  2. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by jimlj View Post
    I wonder what size cast boolit hole was in the transformer to cause the leak??
    I'm pretty sure it wasn't .177 ...LOL
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  3. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by jimlj View Post
    I was just kind of jabbing JonB.
    I too have replaced many transformers that had been shot in the oil fields of Wyoming. Usually the first few days of hunting season each year. I guess with enough adult beverages the bushings might look like antlers.

    Shooting electrical equipment ! Talk about irresponsible. It threatens the power supply to people that depend on that electricity, it's downright dangerous, it damages the power company's property and it diverts crews from other repairs.

    I'm sure it happens but anyone that intentionally shoots electrical equipment should be castrated with a dull chain saw!

  4. #24
    Boolit Master
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    Commonest source of PCB oil nowdays is old electric fans,especially overhead and the big standing fan units......the big capacitor that controlls motor speed swims in the stuff......In Germany after PCBs were banned ,a company cleaning casings and emptying banned oil sold a tanker load to a Spanish company.....the oil was used in Spain to dilute olive oil for cooking......In my scrappie days,we used to upend big transformers and let the oil run out on the ground....it often ran into the footpath and gutters in the street outside......incidentally,linesmen are sometimes killed in pole transformer and voltage regulator explosions....A young guy died in the next street.

  5. #25
    Boolit Master

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    Back in the 70's the overhead transformers in my area were screwing up TV signals. Power co would do a fix and a few weeks later the interference started again. The SHTF when the CB radio fad started. As soon as a transformer caused problems a bullet hole would appear in it in a day or two. Neighborhood gossip had two retired FBI agents working for the power co trying to find the marksman.

    Maybe I'm dense but what the heck is PCB oil???
    Last edited by azrednek; 05-27-2018 at 11:25 PM.

  6. #26
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    ya it shorted out internally but didn't blow the fuse for some reason. Just sat there cooking the oil. Ive only seen one other tub blow the lid and that one was hit by lightning. Same thing there though. We never did find the lid. Just oil all over everywhere. It shows you how powerful electricity is. We have a small 20 megawatt power plant in Escanaba MI. I used to work there. The main transformer leaving the plant to step up voltage to 69kv blew a few years ago and it made national news. Seems some strange light was seen going strait off of it up into the sky and some conspiracy theorists thought it was a beam from a space ship or a satellite attack from Russia or china. . When that tub blew it shook the ground so hard that the people in town thought it was an earth quake.
    Quote Originally Posted by jonp View Post
    Lloyd, did the transformer blow due to the pressure of boiling oil inside of it? Without getting too technical, was it a short causing and arc inside or something like that you think?

  7. #27
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by Petrol & Powder View Post
    Shooting electrical equipment ! Talk about irresponsible. It threatens the power supply to people that depend on that electricity, it's downright dangerous, it damages the power company's property and it diverts crews from other repairs.

    I'm sure it happens but anyone that intentionally shoots electrical equipment should be castrated with a dull chain saw!
    You are absolutely correct on all accounts. The last recloser that I had to replace because of being shot took out the whole circuit that was feeding it. It took hours to find it. We had the whole Police and Fire Department out looking. Luckily one of the Firemen saw a flash when we tried the circuit. By the time I got home that night I would have gladly used a dull chainsaw on the shooter!

    PCB stands for Polychlorinated Biphenyl. It was used to enhance the heat dissipating ability of the oil in transformers, capacitors and compressors, among other things. PCB's have been proven to cause cancer but the amounts in transformers was measured in ppm or parts per million.

    I've seen many transformers with the lids blown off, split open, and even blown off of the pole. Most of them were in the rural and on irrigation wells and caused by lightning. My company had strict rules about switching oil filled equipment from the ground or as far away from it as possible. That was in another life! Biggin now has that job!

  8. #28
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    the joys of outages!! Lightning used to make my skin crawl knowing it was about for sure id be out on an outage. It sure is nice today. I can go out on the deck and watch it today its almost relaxing!! Did I tell you I LOVE RETIREMENT!!
    Quote Originally Posted by lightman View Post
    You are absolutely correct on all accounts. The last recloser that I had to replace because of being shot took out the whole circuit that was feeding it. It took hours to find it. We had the whole Police and Fire Department out looking. Luckily one of the Firemen saw a flash when we tried the circuit. By the time I got home that night I would have gladly used a dull chainsaw on the shooter!

    PCB stands for Polychlorinated Biphenyl. It was used to enhance the heat dissipating ability of the oil in transformers, capacitors and compressors, among other things. PCB's have been proven to cause cancer but the amounts in transformers was measured in ppm or parts per million.

    I've seen many transformers with the lids blown off, split open, and even blown off of the pole. Most of them were in the rural and on irrigation wells and caused by lightning. My company had strict rules about switching oil filled equipment from the ground or as far away from it as possible. That was in another life! Biggin now has that job!

  9. #29
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    Years ago my my Dad was just getting home at night from something or another and we saw a huge flash in the sky. Suburban Chicago area, so busy 4 lane road urban area. Anyways, we decided to go investigate. About a mile, mile and a half away we saw a long line of damaged cars including a few police cars. Eventually came upon a lot more lights and emergency vehicles. All surrounding a power pole that was hanging with the bottom missing. Found out that someone decided to try and get away from the police (reason unknown.) After crashing into all of the cars beforehand, lost control and hit the pole. This caused the wires to short and the flash we saw was the transformer (pole pig) on top shorting out.
    Not sure what happened to driver or how long it took to clean up the mess. Was a strange sight seeing a power pole just hanging there with nothing underneath it. Also, not sure how fast the car was going to completely shear through one. Very sure the electric company people were not pleased!
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  10. #30
    Boolit Grand Master

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    About ten years ago I was working for a company that had a car "damaged" by transformer oil. You'd think it was a highly toxic substance from all the haz-mat activity. I guess some towns would send out a haz-mat crew if someone saw me take a whiz off the back porch.
    I've seen a couple of transformers blow up in electrical storms. Closest was over a mile and that's as close as I ever want to be when that happens. Quite a show but I sure wouldn't want to be working on one when that happens.
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  11. #31
    Boolit Master
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    if that oil had all leaked out teh transformer would have overheated and exploded. it sounds like TNT when they go off.

  12. #32
    Boolit Bub
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    A desolved gas analysis will tell you if a transformer is starting to arc internally, unfortunately they don't bother to test the pole top transformers due to cost and ease of replacement.

    I was driving down the road during a thunderstorm and a pole top next to me got hit by lightning. The flash blinded me for a few seconds and all I could hear was ringing, my first thought was "oh man, did I just die?" when my hearing and vision returned I was in the middle of the road with a state trooper tapping on my window and the fire department putting out the burning pole. That's why I always double check my timecard before I leave work, you might die on the way home!

  13. #33
    Boolit Master
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    I saw one explode one day while I was sitting in my truck, It was across the 4 lane and parking lot, almost in front of the "New" southside fire department in Eufaula. To say it was a loud blast would be an understatement.
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  14. #34
    Boolit Grand Master

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    They can be loud, but if you really want to hear loud blow a SMD fuse on an underground dip pole! I carried a set of shooters ear muffs in my company truck, clamped on top of the radio speaker.

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    yup is funny how some fuses blow and shake the ground and others just kind of pop or fizzle.
    Quote Originally Posted by lightman View Post
    They can be loud, but if you really want to hear loud blow a SMD fuse on an underground dip pole! I carried a set of shooters ear muffs in my company truck, clamped on top of the radio speaker.

  16. #36
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    A children’s home I worked for received a donation of a cow herd after PBC contaminated oil was used on an asphalt highway adjacent to the pasture. The insurance company paid for the cattle after being sued for contamination caused by runoff and donated the cattle. They raised good calves for us. This was in 1979.

  17. #37
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    Where I worked had big compressors,one was ocassionally blowing a 600 amp fuse on one circuit.....I looked in my box of bits,cause the owners didnt buy anything new,or even second hand,but salvaged scrap for electrics.I fiound a matched set of 1000amp fuses and put them in......pressed the button for start,there was a massive explosion,the motor switchgear blew apart,door went across the yard.It seems the motor starting contacts welded together,and then recontacted for run and kaboom.The motor insulation was crisp.....Anyhoo,a couple of bucks extra,and the contract electrician wrote a report saying lightning had blown up the gear and motor,and fitted all new parts.......the owners claimed the lot on the "motor fusion "clause in the plant insurance....It was all Atlas Copco stuff,very costly.

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