Transformer Repair {Depotting} Lets Look Inside! 

@@larryknudsen1105 tone caps are usually fine it’s just another gimmick for this clown to get patrons

I am 62 years old and I remember vacuum tubes from when I was a kid and yes I am always rooting for the older technology Herod and vacuum tubes have made a pretty good comeback in certain markets such as guitar amplifiers and also linear amplifiers for ham radio

@@jimcatanzaro7808 I find it super weird that you're commenting on tone caps on a video on power transformers. What do tone caps have to do with anything? Also, electrical leakage to chassis can be pretty dangerous in this type of situation, and certainly unpleasant to touch.

I can really imagine how he would do that....I have tested many sponges and this is the best one....Just one wipe and the grease is gone...wait for it "...and it is just that simple" :)

In the name of science. I bet he uses his dishwasher for cleaning PCBs shhhh don't tell the wife

Depotting the dishes lol

They don't do dishes on Saturn. Did you think he was from earth ? lol

You guys are funny, nothing wrong with a good sense of humor ... yet I concur !

Thank you for your kind comment JP!

if i rem alot of years ago someone told me they filled them with tar for the tropics wich i suppose makes sence knowing the humidity and rain they get. tom c 64 yo.

Usually, the caps are added for RFI reduction; the scope may be generating it internally, and the caps attenuate the back-feed.

Those transformers were made to be cheap and quick for the assembly line. Putting the caps inside meant no need for a tag strip in the unit, and thus saved time in assembly. Plus they could arrive at the factory already made with the line cord, and tested already so no wiring mistakes possible on the mains side.

If the caps go bad you have to replace the entire assembly and more profit for National, perhaps. But the ease of assembly is more likely the case. Look at how the construct automobiles, quick assembly, poor access for maintenance.

the = they

If the caps go bad you have to replace they entire assembly and more profit for National, perhaps. But they ease of assembly is more likely they case. Look at how the construct automobiles, quick assembly, poor access for maintenance... That's programming.

You mean it de-pots your brain?

Yes. Getting this capacitors out-of-the-box was a good idea.

Envious people abound and just can't take it that Mr. Carlson is well-liked and admired by so many. Rather than being grateful for what he shares for free they give a thumbs down to try and make themselves feel better.

Someone that doesn't like the harming of toaster ovens?

After watching many of Paul's videos I suspect that the "thumbs down" are some of his friends. Doing it as kind of a prank.

I would wish someday if anybody gives a thumbs down they would have to post a comment (Mandatory) on why they think it deserves it! and if they don't post the comment no thumbs down given!

Too true! Quite personalty I'd like to drive over my wife's toaster oven with my truck just to hear it crunch I hate those things! Every time I use it I burn myself, I do so at my own risk! Finally someone used one for something worth while besides burnt food...

Not me. I liked how the heat was totally controlled by the oven. Small opening cut, drop into the furnace and heat.

LOL. I was disappointed that it wasn't a huge mess...

I would simply go to Goodwill and get one of these toaster ovens to perfom this work in the name of science. I would also do this outside. It is sure to stink.

Weren't they thinking smarter in regards to the capabilities of performing a repair of the transformer... especially during the depression era? Are the epoxy potted or modern potted systems easier to repair somehow where the capacitor and/or diodes go bad? Who's smokin crack on meth or something? Please teach us old wise spoiled baby boomer.

jafinch78 Actually a lot of the times its the management, marketing people or bean counters that make for the really stupid ideas. Management doesn't like how much something costs to produce. Bean counter asks engineer how could something be put together easier, faster, cheaper. Engineer says, "well, you could premake the transformers with the capacitors potted inside so assembly has less to deal with bu-," then bean counter interrupts, "Brilliant!" He tells management they can shave $1.25 in materials and labor off each one by doing as the engineer suggested. Management says make it so, Engineer tries to reason with them as to why it's a bad idea but it's no use. He's ordered to make the changes and push them out to the assembly line. You'd be surprised how often this happens. I know, because I'm often the engineer that goes through that very same ordeal only in software instead of hardware. PS - Quit being snooty. Nobody cares for it and it isn't necessary.

Redemptus Renatus: I didn't mean to be snooty... I was just confused and irritated by the comment since I recently dealt with two HV transformers for a bug zapper that had the capacitors (and maybe diodes) potted as well as being potted to the iron or maybe mu-metal core. I figure that many are on amphetamines going back to when was legal and even now so since they want manufacturing acts done faster and easier to create more inventory turns items. I have similar experience in Project Leadership, Quality Control, Assurance, Systems and AR&D in the Pharma & Medical Device industry developing alternate test methods where marketing or management sells something that doesn't exist and I'm stuck organizing the buy in, management, financing, development and validation. The electronics industry is more a re-born experience for me where I am stepping back into the pre-finding what is deviant around me pedos and old cocaine traffickers turned meth and whatever they want and can do trying to look clean Christian and innocent. I finally disconnected from what seemed legal valid to find they're just suckering people in as scapegoats to compound and conceal there continuing criminal enterprise that seems to meet the definition of paramilitants with war criminals and mafia descent looking official now with new names even manufacturing crime post mass murdering the valid adults. I'm starting to think that is why Zenith, Heath, Electrovoice and others in SW Mi were bought out. I personally feel the TEMPEST and directed energy weapons systems in the wrong hands were the causation other than and along with what I just noted. So, with modern electronics I'm finding the inability, of like I find in the healthcare and legal related industry, to do anything other than throw away most. However, with heat guns, reflow ovens, magnifying lenses, stereo-microscopes, more delicate temp sensitive irons, steady hands like a photographer and other newer to me devices for electronics... we can salvage and really restore and repair even some of the newer devices. However, the older electronics I think were designed like the other systems of the time to last lifetimes if properly maintained. Not, I personally feel from my observations..., on meth, cocaine, crack and other narcotics and dangerous drugs short term financial gains only throw away mentalities like pedophiles that don't really care other than to look not guilty of the crimes they commit. Not trying to be rude... only trying to advocate a serious issue with the no way lean sigma related industries that deal with human lives and is degrading and degenerating society where some of my role models couldn't tolerate the liberal acts and events due to their higher standards of following the Constitution and laws... including security clearance schemes.

tlDR plz

?

That was done in the past, to be 'convenient' for the manufacturer (no additional battery). One chip maker that I remember, was Mostek.

Yes, i think the manufacturer was called Dallas something. The battery was on the underside so I had to first desolder a >48 pin DIP package from a 4 layer PCB without ripping out one of the vias, it was a pain....

Those Dallas chips were famously used in IBM PS/2s. Fortunately IBM socketed those. There are diagrams online showing right where to grind away the chip to expose the internal battery connections and attach an external holder. I've done it, works great! Pretty sure they're still available, though last I checked the price had shot way up.

Many thanks!

Sorry, but my above comment seems to have generated two threads. Please follow the other thread, as it has 3rd party comments.

Ed , You'd need to insert a 1:1 isolation transformer to the AC line-input of the gear, either internally or externally, before you can safely ground the chassis of a potentially 'live-chassis' unit. The transformer isolation makes the unit a standard 'transformer-powered' unit, and as such, the chassis can be grounded, as it's then isolated from the AC line.

Its another project in the works.

@Mr Carlson's Lab -- I will wait with bated breath! Haha

Hi David, click the link in the video's description, (writing directly under the video.)

I bet those caps were bad in the 50's already. It's been buzzing people ever since.

Ron Painter Wow. We're twins from different mothers. I'm also 64. At 12, my parents bought me a Heathkit shortwave radio to 'keep me busy building it for a few weeks'. I built it in a weekend and they were pretty disappointed. But they did enjoy seeing me listen to it for years. When I got much older, I pointed out that their gift led me to a lifetime love of electronics. Cheers!

I would say RF shielding and cost. This unit would be HOT with RF, so the cheapest way to stop that RF from exiting through the line cord is to short it out (the RF) with some caps in a transformer.

gut them carefully, and hide "new" capacitor/s inside, re-wax the end shut.same for the multi-section can ones, you can often hide new caps within the casing. just be careful they could have PCB oil

Not an expert but my take on it is that the heater for the 6X5 rectifier is tied to it's cathode, so it's at 405 VAC. You would not want the CRT heater to be at the same potential.

This is the correct answer. This wasn't done due to stupidity, it was done intentionally.

The Northern top of North America?

Wade Patton solder is the common way of saying it but sometimes it’s so-called sodar

@@samuelhulme8347 It's the common way depending upon where you live. I've heard dozens men and women say "sodder" around here. Dialects are local-and if you don't speak it to the locals, you might not get the answers you seek. I'm not claiming correctness, but for local/regional dialect. My Canadian friend calls a self-adhesive sticker a "DEK el" we call them "DEE kals". The word is spelled "d-e-c-a-l". He's not wrong for his area, and I'm not wrong for mine. Dialects and idioms vs. book-learning proper (insert any language) can cause issues when using a second-language as well, so it's best for the traveling person to be aware of them.

I think it is planned obsolecence though. In 1940s and 1950s literature you can often find some notes on less than stellar filter capacitor quality. But i reckon they could easily get 15 to 20 years which would probably be acceptable to many. For those who made their own equipment. one of the dutch publications insisted on using 1500v tested caps, and also putting a fuse in both live and neutral wires in case there is a short to ground.

My pleasure!

Just marvelous.

I'll check that out. Thanks!