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Posted By: electure Thar she blows-almost - 06/08/04 11:44 AM
I spent Saturday doing clean out chores.
Shut down the plant and vacuum/compressed air panels, disconnects, transformers.


The original installer had no idea that the end user would put in a door shop here.

[Linked Image]


Here's a perverse way of installing a transformer.

[Linked Image]


The scariest thing about these? This "dust" stuck to the magnetic tip of my cordless drill...It's a steel door department, and the dust is nearly 100% steel filings.

KaBoom!! [Linked Image]...S
Posted By: pauluk Re: Thar she blows-almost - 06/08/04 01:07 PM
Yikes! I don;t much care for the look of that if it's mostly metal filings.

Is this xfmr 480 to 120/208 volts?
Posted By: Lostazhell Re: Thar she blows-almost - 06/08/04 04:58 PM
Wow! [Linked Image] What the devil you guys gonna do with this place? Any chance of going with some hazloc equiptment, or is this gonna be someone who doesn't do anything until they come in in the morning & their roof has been transplanted to the other side of the LA river?
I worked on a bakery one time & everything was FULL of flour! Literally!, I took the cover off a nema 1 panel & it came pouring out! [Linked Image] [Linked Image] They'd lost a few ovens & mixers due to breakers burning up from flour in the contacts! They were'nt happy when I told them what should be done..
I did shop vac/blow out a few of the panels, & got the bus shiny again, retorqued lugs & such.. Oh & replaced about 20 - 3 phase breakers [Linked Image]

-Randy
Posted By: electure Re: Thar she blows-almost - 06/09/04 10:59 PM
This all started when I found a 4" high mound of sawdust in the bottom of a transformer (that had an expanded sheetmetal bottom).
I reported it to the proper person in the company, and gave him these 2 pictures.

He's getting approval for an inspection, maintenance, and (extra) repairs on all of their facilities, every 6 months. They have 8 buildings that I'll be covering, in 4 Counties. (Randy knows, they're a big bunch).



[This message has been edited by electure (edited 06-09-2004).]
Posted By: electure Re: Thar she blows-almost - 06/09/04 11:47 PM
Paul,
Yes, those are almost all metal filings.
They've gathered around the magnet...look how they piled up against the core.

So, What could happen here?? Am I just seeing things, or is it a dangerous as I see it?

Any ideas?

[This message has been edited by electure (edited 06-09-2004).]
Posted By: iwire Re: Thar she blows-almost - 06/10/04 02:54 AM
It can't be good that is for sure.

I would try to sell a replacement for the wirenut special.

Speaking of which what is that single phase unit doing?

480 to 240?

The conductors seem small.
Posted By: :andy: Re: Thar she blows-almost - 06/10/04 09:52 AM
do only i mean that, or is the soldering on the windings in the first pic really bad done?

-edit: sorry, its screws, looked to me like tin first.

[This message has been edited by :andy: (edited 06-10-2004).]
Posted By: electure Re: Thar she blows-almost - 06/10/04 01:04 PM
The 1st transformer is a 75KVA 480X120/208Y, and runs a 200A Panel.
The "wirenut special" is 480X240 1Ø, and is for a MIG welder.
We're giving them a price to relocate the 75 to the other side of the wall, and also to replace the wirenut special and move it to a different location.

The drywall screws in this room are easy to find. Even though they were driven with a magnetic tip over 10 years ago, they've all got a ring of this fine dust clinging to the spot where the heads are, even though they're beneath the mud.
Posted By: Bjarney Re: Thar she blows-almost - 06/10/04 08:36 PM
Am I the only one who hates aluminum setscrew lugs used on drytype transformers and motors? And secured with stove bolts or other bottom-of-the-junkbox, heck-knows-what-size hardware...

The wingnut treatment is even more disgusting. {And, there's that dandy 26¢-a-roll "Moose Brand" premium electrical tape.}

[/spleen-venting]


[This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 06-10-2004).]
Posted By: e57 Re: Thar she blows-almost - 06/13/04 01:45 AM
Nice Pic's! Steel Dust?! Cool!

Hope there are not any other metals in this place? If you're not sure what I'm after, do a search on "Aluminum Explosion". You might find this... I just did. http://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/accidentsearch.accident_detail?id=170672430

Anyway, this reminds me of a somewhat disgusting,(Beauracratic)and funny story. (Only because no-one got killed or injured.)

I had a Service Call to a Large Grocery Store. The Utility was out before, and said "it was not thier problem!" I got there to find one leg of a 120/208 3 phase Wye LV, and voltage on the Neutral, in three panels. I shut everything in them off. The manager gets up-set that I shut off some accent lighting and some reffers. I go out to the Main, it's 480, and none of the disconnects are marked. I go to the Manager, and tell him I'll have to shut off more. He says he needs to call the Home office for "Approval" to shut the store down! And, I say, "while your doing that maybe I can find what I'm looking for, and if I can follow it back we can just shut it off. It's a large gray, or green box about this high, about this wide. Makes a humming noise maybe?" He says,"Oh, that thing. It's out on the Loading Dock, this guy can show you where that is." He takes me back there and says, "It's over there under those pallets. I'll get the Fork-lift." He pointed to a huge stack of pallets and boxes 3 high 4 deep, enough to fill three 40' trucks. I say, "Well, that's the problem..." BOOM!!!!! A large flash, and the whole store went out! And a small fire that we put out. I think if it hadn't been buried under all that crap, we'd be covered in the guts of that transformer. Then again, it wouldn't have happened!
Posted By: ThinkGood Re: Thar she blows-almost - 06/14/04 03:15 AM
Lostazhell:

I remember a presentation I saw at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Without getting into specifics ("don't try this at home..."), the flour made a nice flash of fire...
Posted By: e57 Re: Thar she blows-almost - 06/15/04 12:15 AM
Another explosive edible white powder... air-born Coffee Creamer! And other simular products.

Saw dust! A busy Cabinet Shop...

Another metal... Magnesium! (There is NOTHING like a old volkwagon engine on fire.)There is also NOTHING like air-born Magnesium dust!
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