The Oil is worse. Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCBs): Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCBs) are highly toxic human-engineered chlorinated hydrocarbons that have been used around the world as enhancers to hydraulic oil and electrical insulators.Rare today though because they were banned back in the 1970's after 280Kg were accidently mixed with chicken food which ultimately poisoned 1800 people in Japan . en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yush%C5%8D_disease
Add the stick probably hasn't been "recently" recertified. But that's how Zack rolls. If we see the video's stop being published, we can guess what happened.
Should have used one of the Hefty bags from the truck! On the flip, if the person already has the problems caused by PCB oil exposure, probably a moat concern for additional exposure. ... joking of course! ;-)
This is the coolest thing I've ever seen, I'm an engineer in germany and you give me so many tales to tell my coworkers about 'how'd they do it on a texan oilfield'. Great content :D
Espacially since I've never seen him installing a capacitor with his motors. I assume he's running squirrel cage motors (the cheapest kind) which usually have a power factor of 0,8 or lower. He's blowing a lot of the power out into the air but hey it's the seccondary coil of his own private transformer so who am I to judge. @@timmilder8313 🤷♂
Don't worry about the PCB laden oil, he dried his hands off on his sandwiches Sad note, my father in law was a power lineman for 25 years. Started right out of high school at 18. He told us all about the PCBs when he was diagnosed with cancer at 48. We buried him at 50.
Transformer oil (full of PCB) Was sprayed on many gravel company driveways and parking lots of places I used to work at/for. It came from The Board of Public Utilities and was a common thing to do up until around 1970. Maybe people didn't know or understand?
@@rayroth3496 no we had no clue. I wasn’t aware they sprayed it for dust control too. Wow. Polychlorinated Biphenyls can be very deadly. I learned how to spell what PCB stood for after enough funerals.
Grandfather was a Hydro One worker...use to wash thier hands in it because it "took everything off" including his years. Liver Cancer @ 50. Still killing people to this day! DIY...RIP
@@nwcanuck5069 Same, Grandfather worked for Hydro One and used it to clean his tools and hands. He lived until 87, drank and smoke up until that age too but moderately. Some people are just lucky, thankfully he was in many ways (ww2 vet).
This week, I've been to two car shows, read Marcus Aurelius meditations, painted probably 12 cars, and went and saw two movies. This video has been the most entertained I've been all week.
The t-shirt and the up-to-the-elbows in PCB oil! A man who is unafraid. 22 years at the power company and I never turned a bolt or handled a gram of coal, but I know people like this exist.... they are the heroes. God bless you.
I caught that too. And I'm no liberal. But without liberals, PCBs wouldn't have been banned or extremely restricted by the EPA. And there would still be lead in gasoline. So not everything liberals are opposed to is good.
As a utility worker, it absolutely blows my mind that a customer is allowed to do this. Our lineman aren’t even allowed to open up a cutout under load from the bucket, they have to do it from the ground. Crazy stuff! 😅
@@TheZachLife if it is allowed to say - i've heard, in the us, that even in the microwave manuals there are safety notes on NOT to put your guineapig in the MW... Like you said "causes liberalism" since the 1968s or even since late 1950's the goverments (USA and today everywhere) did a lot effort to make thier peoples dumb and ill... In Germany this was the case since 1968... The so called "march through the institutes" (universities, states bureaus and the likes) of the lefties (in the worst case communists). But the McCarty Ara was a bit too over done. I think everybody can belave what he or she (yes, only 2 sexes xD ) wants BUT there is the frontier when someone is hurting the others frontier/border. And in my opinion the left-sided parties (greens) are doing a lot destructive for nature, animals and humans...
@@TheZachLife That's called being ignorant and untrained. You'll find out one day why the utilities do things the way they do. All the "stupid" rules are written in blood. But keep getting likes for doing shit the wrong way.
That is a CSP , completely self protecting transformer. There are fuses in the primary bushings and the reset you were talking about is a breaker on the secondary. There are hundreds of those here in the Wasson oil field, except they are three phase. I have changed quiet of few of those fuses climbing the poles with hooks and belt. Atlantic Richfield and Gulf used to hang them just like that one is, no fuses and hot line clamps directly on the lines. This video takes me back a few years.
CSP’s are a pain in the tail when they are connected to a main circuit that’s not protected a recloser or at least a line fuse somewhere along the way. With a setup like that it don’t take much to put a lot of people in the dark. Breaker outage just waiting to happen
Good explanation there. Was about to send the same info. I never in 36 years replaced the primary fuse on a c.s.p and had it work. The secondary breaker sometimes were temperamental but would usually reset. I liked your work around with the cutout. When I started we would have had a hard hat and a “shotgun” stick to land the hot line clamp. No harness in the bucket, no safety glasses , no ear protection maybe leather gloves but you had to buy them yourself.
Zach I was a journeyman lineman until I destroyed a knee and couldn't climb poles anymore and worked 7200 and 14400 volts also trained to work 345K ac and 500K dc,what you were doing scared me. The insulators on the primary line are not guaranteed to be good and as long as the wood is dry you might not know they are bad until that flash before you are dead. Those fuse holders don't always drop open at my house we had a couple of microwaves burn up, a couple of TVs and other things that died because of voltage problems and the TV would just shut off and the day that the power went out and I went out to find the fuse holder burned in two we found out that for years that the fuse was blown but because the line voltage was 14.4K volts it had tracked on the inside of the fuse tube and depending on how much load was on the transformer as our voltage was, the linemen who replaced the fuse holder told that kind of holders were bad for that problem. Stay safe when working around electricity.
I was a power lineman for ten years 1968-1978. When I was an apprentice, my journeyman took off his rubber glove and touched a 7200 volt live conductor (we were in a fiberglass bucket) with his bare hand just to show me it could be done. I declined his invitation to try it. Our safety man told us PCB oil was inert and wasn't a health hazard. We were told not to wear rubber gloves when using hot sticks. I was told if I couldn't free climb they didn't need me. My, my, my how times have changed!
@@ZekeTrimmer I thought about that latter. If there had been some contamination on the fiberglass insulating part of the boom connecting the bucket to ground, I probably would have been killed by the flash and explosion of him being vaporized.
@@bribbripnairbnab7301 "Make it work". If your too scared to "make it work" go hide in the weeds and I'll "get it done". The last words of an old time senior lineman just before he died?
Tell us you're not a lineman without telling us you're not a lineman. I love it. That's a farmer's resourcefulness. We would all be hungry without people like him. "Come with me" "And you'll be..."🤣
@@BVN-TEXAS The PCBs were not a feature, they were an oversight, but the whole area is a giant ash tray only fit for oil extraction so that hardly matters IRL.
Made in America is what today's adults and children don't understand all they understand is every year they got to put out another $800 for some kind of phone that's up-to-date and pretty , every single year. They don't understand that's because the computers are junk, they just think it's because it's updated and pretty and got all the latest. And America used to be so independent from this junk from third world countries.
Long time acquaintance worked for a automotive machine shop that used to get transformer oil from the local utility for cheap, for their valve grinders and other machining equipment. This was before the hazards of PCB's were known to cause cancer and other life-threatening diseases. After working with it for years he started to develop all kinds of symptoms that was later linked to the oil. He suffered a slow and painful death, and to top it off the utility and the machine shop never paid out anything to his family. I don't think one exposure will cause you any long-term damage, I hope.
Many many years ago I was studying to be an electrician and one day one a job there was a transformer like this outside the building we were working in with no power. A lineman showed up and either didn't put it back together the right way or dropped something across the mains after he re-connected. That think blew like bomb and sounded like a canon spewing that oil out 25 feet in a circle pattern across the street. We all ran out to see what happened and the lineman was dangling upside down from his safety harness. Luckily he was mostly on the other side of the pole when it blew and only sustained mild injuries. I got into computers after that :)
I've had that happen several times. If the transformer in shorted the fuse will go bang and it will spray oil out the easiest thing to blow off. Thats the reason I fused it from the ground because you can usually out run the oil.
Ohh man, this entire video gave me the shivers. Sticking your hands in that oil, good lord. I’m not a big PPE guy but I would have driven a 100 miles out of my way to get a good set of gloves.
Years ago I was working HVAC repair in a building that had a fire involving the large transformers serving the it. Smoke damage everywhere. They discovered PCB contamination after we had worked a day in the control room adjacent the transformer vault. We had to leave all tools, strip off clothes shower and leave! Keeping only my glasses and wallet. Went home in a tyvec suit! 😮
Like anything OSHA or the EPA has anything to do with. - It's all BS. Laboratory tests show if you hold a rat under the surface of a mud bucket of PCB the rat will drown in PCB bearing oil so it has to be deadly. It's called liberal logic. - IS exposure to PCBs good for you? Hell no, but will your arm drop off if you get some splashed on you. ALSO NO! Just another overblown snowflake myth. . When I first started out pushing 60 years ago ,PCB soaked clothes was often the norm, not the exception. We didn't use ANY PPE of any kind for anything unless we personally felt there was a 14K reason to do so...AND - If I live to the day after Christmas I'll be 77 years old. - Need glasses for distance, Got a touch of high blood pressure, my back is done and one knee is a disaster, ,,, and I get a rash when i touch anything metric. Also the very mention of OSHA gives me a bad attitude to go with my bad back. . ,,,, And I never worked so hard sine i retired. - I'm afraid to answer the phone. Still at it after all these years overed in PCB bearing oil. Like Mike Roe said. "Safety Last. Personal Responsibility First". - Better then ANY PPE ever invented. It's what I have done all my life. I have all 10, both eyes, and and arm and leg on each side. It's more then i can say for a few safety nazis i have known over the years. More then one of them is no longer with us.
I remember watching RU-vid videos on installing light switches. I was nervous turning off the house's electricity to where I was installing the new Smart switch. The videos paid off. I properly and safely installed the switch and it works. And the house didn't burn down. Seeing what you do makes my hair stand on end! Keep safe.
Before their manufacture was banned in 1979, PCBs polychlorinated biphenyls were used widely in electrical equipment, including transformers and fluorescent light ballasts. Mantransformers still contain traces of PCB-contaminated oil even after the oil has been changed several times.
I hope your watch ain't sittin' in the bottom of the transformer enjoying the Polychlorinated biphenyls! ;) That's quite a win to get that contraption going without buying a transformer! There just doesn't seem to be much you can't do! Thanks for takin' us along!
@@TheZachLife I think PCBs were banned in equipment in 1979. So if the transformer was newer than that or had seen major maintenance, it probably didn't contain PCBs.
Interesting video, jack of all trades in that business. I used to take chances with bad stuff like that transformer oil, didn't think too much of it. I'm 76 yrs old now, and about 3 yrs ago was diagnosed with lymphoma cancer, fortunately i got complete remission. So that risky stuff you do when you are young will catch up with you when you get older. doesn't take a lot to take precautions, the cost of the safety equipment is cheaper than taking care of some nasty illness when you are older. You certainly have an interesting profession . Take care of yourself.
Many many years ago I worked in an aluminum smelter, for those who don't know, you use horrendous amounts of power to make aluminum. Our mechanic shop was just across the lane from the electrical shop. They had a monstrous huge transformer in there for rebuild one day and I had a peek, crazy stuff. Don't ask how big but they moved it with a 200 ton trailer, so big. I transferred over to power generation, so then I was working at a 1000 megawatt powerhouse. That was interesting too. The bucket truck broke down in the switch yard. I had to go in an get it running. The lineman literally had me by the collar of my coveralls steering me to where I was allowed. If I recall correctly the powerlines are 280Kv. Yeah, that place just crackled and hummed. When I was there they had a company come in and somehow filter all of the PCB's out of the transformer oil. There were thousands of gallons in the powerhouse between all the transformers and the tanks of spare oil. After having the fear of god put into us about the dangers of PCB's, I have to say watching you stuff your mitt into that transformer made me cringe just a tiny bit. Love your video's. So completely different from my world. Keep them coming.
What were the details of the power station you worked at? Was it a captive power station as part of the aluminum smelter? Coal or gas? What were the initial steam conditions?
@@gregorymalchuk272 it was a Hydro Electric plant. The smelter is in Kitimat, BC, Canada and the power plant was in Kemano BC. The power line is 50 miles of some of the harshest conditions in the province. Also some of the most beautiful. You can Google Kitimat or Kemano, lots of information.
@@wornoutwrench8128 An old Girl Friend of mine married a guy who was a mill wright at Kemano power station,Peter Cotter. I would say he is long retired now as it would be 40 or more years since i spoke with him.
Dude! I grew up in the Midwest and it appears you had an absolutely perfect day for your project. It's interesting to find someone who wants to make things happen and it would seem you are one of those folks! Best of luck to you!
Everything was higher quality in the old days. In Florida, they replace poles that are only a couple years old and leave ones like this that haven't been touched since they were first installed 😂
Tons of poles here from the 60’s-70’s where I live in Wv and one the other day finally broke over and mainly because it had a 400lb pot on top of it. No idea why the power co didn’t take it off this dead line a long time ago.
Appreciate that your a real working man that does what he has to do to get the job done. I'm the same. We may break rules once in awhile, but experience, confidence and a reasonable assessment of danger determines how we get the job done.
People are way to health and safety critical. Let the man work on his equipment how he wants, looks like he knows how the stuff works. I tip my hat to you. Your a hard working man! And you have a bucket truck, that's cool!
Love the old construction on the old poles. A buddy sent this video in a collecting group and it’s the first time seeing this channel and glad I did. I collect everything power line related and hope to be a lineman one day. Love that old transformer, I actually have 4 in my collection.
Not many owner/operators left like you Zach. Keep up the good work. I sure wish you would get some long rubber gloves when you work on those transformers like that. They’re a whole lot cheaper than chemo treatments later in life.
I spent one year of college working an internship at a large paper mill. Many of my jobs involved designing retention basins around large (multiple MVA) transformers that were stuffed into building all over the mill site. Had to work out how much PCB oil was in each transformer, then calculate how high a concrete wall needed to surround the transformer to contain the oil if it were to spill. The units were too large to remove and replace with non-PCB units (they would be even larger) since they were some of the first pieces of equipment installed in the building, they were surrounded by large machinery. Often had to squeeze in between running 10,000HP motors and the buzzing transformers to get measurements. The next year back at college, I worked as a TA in the electrical machinery lab where students would hook up meters, breakers, motors, etc. to take measurements. They would all be afraid to throw the big knife switch to send 480V, 3 phase power to the load. I would follow along a bit behind the professor and flip the switches closed for the students. After working around all that massive paper mill equipment, the small motors they had in the lab were a piece of cake.
A quick tip about the what we called horn. If the transformer blows that oil shoots out like a crazy fire hose. So make sure that wall is high enough. But be safe around high voltage. There is no second chances.
@@assassinlexx1993 Good points. As I recall, we had to follow EPA guidelines on those calculations that had contingency factors for those sorts of things. It looks like these days, such transformers need to be installed inside a vault, likely to contain things in the event of a catastrophic failure. There also seem to be companies now that specialize in transformer oil containment system design. I was doing that 45 years ago.
@@elminero49One brief exposure to PCB oil probably isn't terrible (though you'd want to be careful not to contaminate your truck, etc.). It's mostly an occupational or chronic exposure hazard.
Hey Zach been watching for a while you live in big sky country so you might not realize just how damn cinematic those blue skies with clouds floating by looks to the rest of us really cool visuals thanks man and as always thanks for letting us peak under the hood
As an oilfield electrician I love your videos man. It’s always good on my end learning more in depth about the pumps and utilizing the pumpers knowledge to be a better out in the oilfield.
As a lineman this is a first to me lol never seen a company let a customer do that but hey props to you for fixing that tub! Stay safe my friend! Also dont trust those porcelain cutouts, they leak and break so if you have to work on that tub again ( im sure you do but if you dont) take the hotline clamp off before going to work. I have had those leak over 2k volts on 7620 on our system. 🍻
I'm guessing @TheZachLife has metered full line voltage, it's common in the oilfields to build a private distribution network across one or multiple leases.
Hey man you ought to be an inspiration to lot of people out there, fixing things instead of throw it out and replace it like most do now days, I am the same, much older than you, we had to fix things, I still do to the amazement of younger guys who do not have the will to understand how things work what they do and how they were put together, in my view once you know that you can fix just about anything. On another note Id be very concerned around the 7.2 KV line, was curious to see how you was going to put it back on line without any protection Glad to see you put that drop out fuse/switch between the supply to the trafo, keep at it and all the very best C
a lot of modern shit is designed specifically to be very hard to repair and is deliberately made to be throw away, so it makes more money for the manufacturers.
I used to built transformer cases for a company named Kuhnman electric back in the early 1970s they were an old company thats been sold out about 30 years ago I learned a lot
Totally dig all the diy stuff ... Managed a big estate/ horse range for thirty five years, sometimes you have to do what you need to do ... Excellent process and trouble shooting 🌠🌠🌠 be safe ...
Wow, Zach! Another great video, I was nervous watching you do your magic on that transformer. I have always wanted to see the inside of one of those. As always, you do a great job explaining your work. I always enjoy seeing you trouble shoot and solve your mechanical and electrical problems. You are an amazing mechanic and electrician. Keep the videos coming, always a joy to see.
Back in the 70’s back I worked on Lube Oil Tanker Ships routinely carrying Transformer Oil as one of the cargoes. Back before we knew about the danger of PCB’s, we would routinely enter the pumped out tanks if repairs were needed. Our clothes and boots were often soaked in the stuff. Obviously it didn’t kill me or at least not yet, I want to collect a bunch more pension checks.
Fluid is probably not PCB (poly chlorinated biphenyl), but rather it is ordinary mineral oil with additives to prevent oxidation, etc. PCBs were expensive and were only used where code required, for instance indoors in vaults.
At least you know the dangers of polychlorinated biphenyls, but yeah it's very stupid to stick your arm in PCB oil, at least you washed it off soon after. IDK the risks of putting it on your skin like that so watch out for any bad signs.
8:16 the Tap changer knob is set to position "A" . This means the full high side coil is used ; so the output is 5 percent higher. The black knob is above the oil level. The red below is the tapped switch with 5 positions. A is 5 percent high. B is 2.5 percent high. C is nominal. D is 2.5 percent low. E is 5 percent low. Some transformers use positions numbers 1 2 3 4 and 5 instead of letters. Some use Roman numerals I to V too.. The tap is probably set to A since the distance to the load is far away. An old boss from Texas said most of the oil field stuff he worked on was 440 480 volts 3 phase A black transformer like that one is probably pre 1960s as a rough guess. A 1947 Electrical handbook says transformers use to be black when the peak loads were at night. Ie mostly pre AC usage. As more homes and businesses got AC there became a peak during the mid day. Then the transformer paint schemes became more off white to grey.
Most of out stuff is 480. The secondary voltage was 240, the primary probably has some voltage drop as its probably 6-8 miles from the substation and it has to voltage regulators on the line.
Very cool subject! I always wondered what one of those transformers looked like inside. I saw the oil in there that I was told is inside of those things. Love the channel 👍
watched a few of your past videos with interest , amazing how old and how durable the pumps etc are i guess they are quite well over engineered and turn super slow , interesting fix on the the trany there i would have bet my lunch that trany was short , top job sir keep em coming and stay safe
As 40 years as a hospital electrician I got to do some crazy stuff. I'm glad to see another crazy electrician fixing things that others say are shot or just too old. And yes that incoming line needs a fused disconnect to protect the service to others. But that's not your job. Thanks for the interesting video!
i know you do this every day but just the idea being that close to that many volts scares the hell out of me. i know you disabled it but still. i almost clouldnt watch. but i can do some household electrical repairs, however i have great respect for electicity. i used to crawl up pivot towers and wait for the sprinkler to pass and pop the cover off and change fuses with 480 volts runin through it. of course thats back when i was a full blown alcoholic so maybe that had something to do with it. lol anyway i definately respect all electricity
Been almost 30 years in power utility business. I have never seen a CSP (self protected) transformer field repaired. I would have lost a bet that it would have worked again. Usually when those internal links open the pot is bad. Stay safe Zach. I know it’s your own equipment but please be careful up in that 7200V zone.
Zach, I love your videos about the oil wells and electrical distribution. The RV and other videos are nice, but anything oil rocks! Please keep the videos coming!
@@TheZachLife great! And also from my side THANK YOU. Very interesting to see your work. As a watchmaker I would change the oil in your gear-boxes of your wonderful old and nice pumps. I think YOU should have fresh oil (okay, I know raw oil of course) xD....
Use this style of med voltage renewable fuses at the VOA/MARTI SW transmitter plant in Greenville, NC. 3 of our 250 kw transmitters use 6 single phase pole transformers in the transmitters 12kv and 15 kv DC power supplies. The fuses are on the HV supply filter capacitors. Have rebuilt many of these fuses. The transmitters run on 4160V three phase. The transmitters main fuses are 200A per phase. These can blow from age-as some did. The plant was commissioned in 1962. And have used hot sticks in the substation-used the gloves! The substation primary is 115kv to 4160V at 10 Mva
Power there is CHEAP! Here in AZ there is APS (Arizona Public Service) that has a monopoly on the probably 90% of the power system in the state. There's some separate Tribal systems & 1 other (SRP - Salt River Project) outside Phoenix. Result is on avg power here runs about 13-16 cents//kWh. Adds up QUICK!
Used to be in the used oil business. That transformer oil is expensive to get rid of. PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls) got a lot of people in trouble with the EPA. If you don’t have to replace it and can keep it in service it will be worth it. Getting rid of it will cost more than the new one to replace it with.
You did a great job working with rather obscure conditions! glad you put that fuse in there. The wire you put in the transformer should carry 12 - 14 amps. So if you keep the fuses under 6 amps you should not have to go back into that transformer. If you are drawing 3.8kw at 7200volts, you should not exceed 1 amp in that high side transformer winding. Actually closer to 1/2 amp. You were right I looked it up and PCB transformer oil was made from 1929 to 1979. So that transformer probably has that very toxic oil in it - unless it's been changed out since 1980.
@ Advanced Nutrition Inc You could be right PCB's was the magic liquid back in the day but they don't break down in nature very good, highly toxic (exposed to), high human health risk factor & it's disposal a hazmat waste disposal nightmare. Here's the thing even some modern transformer blended oils are even more dangerous with human contact from carcinogenic to full on toxic poisoning (blood) in hours. They get rid of PCB's yet replace it with a more hazardous replacement.
@@TheZachLife I worked as a field operator with ESSO (Canadian operations for EXXON) in the early 90's. Field was in central Alberta that was originally developed in the 1950's & 1960's. I find it very interesting to see the differences in practices between your field and what I was familiar with. Great videos, I enjoy watching!
I can't believe you weren't mentioning the smell of that oil,, man to my nose that stuff is powerful !!! If I get a whiff of it I'm smelling it for days....
They used to be a cps transformer here on a pole that was from the 40’s through the 70’s I’m guessing and on the side of a steep mountain and the they had it at the main top of this pole. I have no idea how pole didn’t fall over the years because if you lean on the pole it moved with a 400lb transformer on it. Power co since came and took this one down and I would’ve loved to watch them do it. They had to of used blocks in a nearby tree and the rope on there digger to winch it down through the trees.
