Old X ray supply with a *real* transformer
Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2013 5:06 pm
I'm taking apart a very old X ray power supply (WWII?) that BillF found us. This had been hit so hard with forklifts and so on, the case was so dented it just wouldn't come apart. Heck, that just doesn't happen on my watch...Time to get brutal. After screw-jacking the case off as far as we could, trying to drill out and pull the dents - not enough...time to get real.
http://youtu.be/-gdPzZRNaFA
It took grinding off two edges to spring this thing far enough to make the innards come out. Whew, that was a lot of sparks and stink, but I didn't hurt anything other than the outer box doing it. If I was crazier, I'd fix the dents and weld it back up, but I'm not - I'll find something else to put the supply and oil into.
And so - we now have the innards. One of the edison base tubes was internally broken - but I don't plan to use any of them. Anyone need big old tube HV rectifiers? 3 are good.
We're not going to need all those filament transformers etc, so apart it comes. I'm just going to use the transformers, and some diodes I bought from JerryB (another member here). Sadly, I can't get full volts - the transformer is two windings, in series, but the CT has to be near ground...there's not enough insulation to series them up. Still...we'll see what we can get out of this. Maybe I'll make some nice real HV caps and a voltage doubler.
This time I won't be so dumb as to try real volts/power on this before getting it back under real, fresh, oil. The stuff in there - yuck, rancid and high sulfur. Sickening smell. More when I make some progress...
http://youtu.be/-gdPzZRNaFA
It took grinding off two edges to spring this thing far enough to make the innards come out. Whew, that was a lot of sparks and stink, but I didn't hurt anything other than the outer box doing it. If I was crazier, I'd fix the dents and weld it back up, but I'm not - I'll find something else to put the supply and oil into.
And so - we now have the innards. One of the edison base tubes was internally broken - but I don't plan to use any of them. Anyone need big old tube HV rectifiers? 3 are good.
We're not going to need all those filament transformers etc, so apart it comes. I'm just going to use the transformers, and some diodes I bought from JerryB (another member here). Sadly, I can't get full volts - the transformer is two windings, in series, but the CT has to be near ground...there's not enough insulation to series them up. Still...we'll see what we can get out of this. Maybe I'll make some nice real HV caps and a voltage doubler.
This time I won't be so dumb as to try real volts/power on this before getting it back under real, fresh, oil. The stuff in there - yuck, rancid and high sulfur. Sickening smell. More when I make some progress...