what can I use as a empty space "filler" in wax potted circu

[Jim Horton]

Ok, so, after careful consideration, I decided on using the recommended
50/50 mixture of beeswax and rosin to pot my two transformers. However,
to save costs, I was originally going to try using a smaller housing,
which would use 2 lbs of wax-rosin mix instead of the 6 lbs I would have
originally needed, but instead of switching out the housings for a
smaller one, is there something I can place inside the existing housing
that's cheap, would also serve as an insulator like the wax will, and
won't be burned or melted by the wax pour? The same idea as using extra
stones or bricks in a toilet fill tank so it doesn't use as much water.
Thanks!

 

[John S]

On 10/18/2019 7:49 AM, Jim Horton wrote:

Ok, so, after careful consideration, I decided on using the recommended
50/50 mixture of beeswax and rosin to pot my two transformers.  However,
to save costs, I was originally going to try using a smaller housing,
which would use 2 lbs of wax-rosin mix instead of the 6 lbs I would have
originally needed, but instead of switching out the housings for a
smaller one, is there something I can place inside the existing housing
that's cheap, would also serve as an insulator like the wax will, and
won't be burned or melted by the wax pour?  The same idea as using extra
stones or bricks in a toilet fill tank so it doesn't use as much water.
Thanks!

Marbles?

 

[whit3rd]

On Friday, October 18, 2019 at 8:49:50 AM UTC-4, Jim Horton wrote:

Ok, so, after careful consideration, I decided on using the recommended
50/50 mixture of beeswax and rosin to pot my two transformers. However,
to save costs,...is there something I can place inside the existing housing
that's cheap, would also serve as an insulator like the wax

Glass marbles sounds good, and also consider ceramic tumbling media (available
in a variety of shapes, depending on how your spaces are arranged). Typical
purchases of those stones are by the hundredweight, and glass beads are among the
options.

 

[Rick C]

On Friday, October 18, 2019 at 8:49:50 AM UTC-4, Jim Horton wrote:

Ok, so, after careful consideration, I decided on using the recommended
50/50 mixture of beeswax and rosin to pot my two transformers. However,
to save costs, I was originally going to try using a smaller housing,
which would use 2 lbs of wax-rosin mix instead of the 6 lbs I would have
originally needed, but instead of switching out the housings for a
smaller one, is there something I can place inside the existing housing
that's cheap, would also serve as an insulator like the wax will, and
won't be burned or melted by the wax pour? The same idea as using extra
stones or bricks in a toilet fill tank so it doesn't use as much water.
Thanks!

If you keep the temperature of your beeswax/rosin mixture down paraffin should work well.

Does your transformer get hot at all? To the best of my knowledge rosin never gets hard and beeswax melts around 145°F. Is your transformer going to end up sitting in another liquid bath?

--

Rick C.

- Get 2,000 miles of free Supercharging
- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

 

[Jim Horton]

On 10/18/19 11:20 AM, Rick C wrote:

On Friday, October 18, 2019 at 8:49:50 AM UTC-4, Jim Horton wrote:
Ok, so, after careful consideration, I decided on using the recommended
50/50 mixture of beeswax and rosin to pot my two transformers. However,
to save costs, I was originally going to try using a smaller housing,
which would use 2 lbs of wax-rosin mix instead of the 6 lbs I would have
originally needed, but instead of switching out the housings for a
smaller one, is there something I can place inside the existing housing
that's cheap, would also serve as an insulator like the wax will, and
won't be burned or melted by the wax pour? The same idea as using extra
stones or bricks in a toilet fill tank so it doesn't use as much water.
Thanks!

If you keep the temperature of your beeswax/rosin mixture down paraffin should work well.

Does your transformer get hot at all? To the best of my knowledge rosin never gets hard and beeswax melts around 145°F. Is your transformer going to end up sitting in another liquid bath?

I've changed my mind. A quick call to Adtech and found out that their
low temp glue sticks, which I can easily obtain locally, are EVA and
melt at 179F.

So, it's back to my original paraffin and mixing in of the glue. Not
sure how much glue I need to add per pound, however, so may have to
experiment on small amounts first.

 

[Rick C]

On Friday, October 18, 2019 at 1:55:14 PM UTC-4, Jim Horton wrote:

On 10/18/19 11:20 AM, Rick C wrote:
On Friday, October 18, 2019 at 8:49:50 AM UTC-4, Jim Horton wrote:
Ok, so, after careful consideration, I decided on using the recommended
50/50 mixture of beeswax and rosin to pot my two transformers. However,
to save costs, I was originally going to try using a smaller housing,
which would use 2 lbs of wax-rosin mix instead of the 6 lbs I would have
originally needed, but instead of switching out the housings for a
smaller one, is there something I can place inside the existing housing
that's cheap, would also serve as an insulator like the wax will, and
won't be burned or melted by the wax pour? The same idea as using extra
stones or bricks in a toilet fill tank so it doesn't use as much water..
Thanks!

If you keep the temperature of your beeswax/rosin mixture down paraffin should work well.

Does your transformer get hot at all? To the best of my knowledge rosin never gets hard and beeswax melts around 145°F. Is your transformer going to end up sitting in another liquid bath?


I've changed my mind. A quick call to Adtech and found out that their
low temp glue sticks, which I can easily obtain locally, are EVA and
melt at 179F.

So, it's back to my original paraffin and mixing in of the glue. Not
sure how much glue I need to add per pound, however, so may have to
experiment on small amounts first.

I've lost track of what is mixed with what. Why paraffin over beeswax and vice versa? Why one adulterant over the other? Aren't there four combinations rather than just two?

--

Rick C.

+ Get 2,000 miles of free Supercharging
+ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

 

[Carl]

"Jim Horton" wrote in message news:qocu9s$hgj$1@dont-email.me...

On 10/18/19 11:20 AM, Rick C wrote:
On Friday, October 18, 2019 at 8:49:50 AM UTC-4, Jim Horton wrote:
I've changed my mind. A quick call to Adtech and found out that their low
temp glue sticks, which I can easily obtain locally, are EVA and melt at
179F.

So, it's back to my original paraffin and mixing in of the glue. Not sure
how much glue I need to add per pound, however, so may have to experiment
on small amounts first.

But those won't be wasted. Just keep track of the amounts and once you
finalize a recipe do the math to add all those in plus whatever you
calculate for glue and paraffin so the final mix is what you want.

--
Regards,
Carl Ijames

 

[Martin Riddle]

On Fri, 18 Oct 2019 08:26:35 -0700 (PDT), whit3rd <whit3rd@gmail.com>
wrote:

On Friday, October 18, 2019 at 8:49:50 AM UTC-4, Jim Horton wrote:
Ok, so, after careful consideration, I decided on using the recommended
50/50 mixture of beeswax and rosin to pot my two transformers. However,
to save costs,...is there something I can place inside the existing housing
that's cheap, would also serve as an insulator like the wax

Glass marbles sounds good, and also consider ceramic tumbling media (available
in a variety of shapes, depending on how your spaces are arranged). Typical
purchases of those stones are by the hundredweight, and glass beads are among the
options.

I was going to suggest glass marbles, but youbeat me to it.

Cheers

 

[Jasen Betts]

On 2019-10-18, Jim Horton <jhorton@nospam.net> wrote:

Ok, so, after careful consideration, I decided on using the recommended
50/50 mixture of beeswax and rosin to pot my two transformers. However,
to save costs, I was originally going to try using a smaller housing,
which would use 2 lbs of wax-rosin mix instead of the 6 lbs I would have
originally needed, but instead of switching out the housings for a
smaller one, is there something I can place inside the existing housing
that's cheap, would also serve as an insulator like the wax will, and
won't be burned or melted by the wax pour? The same idea as using extra
stones or bricks in a toilet fill tank so it doesn't use as much water.
Thanks!

dry washed sand.

put some regular sand in a bucket an rinse out the crud by plunging a hose
into it and running a lots of water through it.

Then dry it in metal or glass dish in a oven.

--
When I tried casting out nines I made a hash of it.

 

[Rick C]

On Friday, October 18, 2019 at 10:31:23 PM UTC-4, Jasen Betts wrote:

On 2019-10-18, Jim Horton <jhorton@nospam.net> wrote:
Ok, so, after careful consideration, I decided on using the recommended
50/50 mixture of beeswax and rosin to pot my two transformers. However,
to save costs, I was originally going to try using a smaller housing,
which would use 2 lbs of wax-rosin mix instead of the 6 lbs I would have
originally needed, but instead of switching out the housings for a
smaller one, is there something I can place inside the existing housing
that's cheap, would also serve as an insulator like the wax will, and
won't be burned or melted by the wax pour? The same idea as using extra
stones or bricks in a toilet fill tank so it doesn't use as much water.
Thanks!

dry washed sand.

put some regular sand in a bucket an rinse out the crud by plunging a hose
into it and running a lots of water through it.

Then dry it in metal or glass dish in a oven.

If you are trying to isolate high voltage, surface is not your friend. When you talk about washed sand, I don't know if you can ever really get it so clean. It's better to use larger pieces with more of the filler in between. At least it is if you have better control over surface contamination.

I don't think I would use any filler. Seems to me it defeats the point of using the encapsulant in the first place.

--

Rick C.

-- Get 2,000 miles of free Supercharging
-- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

 

[Joseph Gwinn]

On Oct 18, 2019, Martin Riddle wrote
(in article<m4skqe501qsl7k3ms86oavqd13lllf4ri4@4ax.com&gt:

On Fri, 18 Oct 2019 08:26:35 -0700 (PDT), whit3rd<whit3rd@gmail.com
wrote:

On Friday, October 18, 2019 at 8:49:50 AM UTC-4, Jim Horton wrote:
Ok, so, after careful consideration, I decided on using the recommended
50/50 mixture of beeswax and rosin to pot my two transformers. However,
to save costs,...is there something I can place inside the existing housin

that's cheap, would also serve as an insulator like the wax

Glass marbles sounds good, and also consider ceramic tumbling media
(available
in a variety of shapes, depending on how your spaces are arranged). Typical
purchases of those stones are by the hundredweight, and glass beads are
among the
options.

I was going to suggest glass marbles, but youbeat me to it.

In the same vein, one can buy glass beads used for sandblasting in bulk for
small dollars.

Use of glass filler will tend to rain the dielectric constant. Glass is 5 to
10, while beeswax is 2.4 and rosin is about 2.8, so glass fill will increase
dielectric constant wherever the marbles or beads can get to. Don´t know if
this is important in the present application.

Joe Gwinn

 

[Jim Horton]

Ultimately, I have "given in" and gone back to the mineral oil I had
used in the device for years. However, this time I'm using a junction
box around 60% of the original's size after first checking the insides
to make sure it was all one piece. I believe the tiny leaks from the
prior one stemmed from four spots within the box where there had been a
prior resin pour. You never notice something like this when buying
them, but I believe the mineral oil seeped through these tiny areas over
time. It took about 8 years! I suppose I could have just siliconed
over or epoxied these four areas before refilling, but went with a
smaller box that appeared to be a single pour one piece mold. Time will
tell.

Thanks again for all the help regarding wax. I just didn't like the
shrinkage I saw after cooling plus the fact that this circuit could
easily start warming up if used for a short time. I think there might
be potential in the paraffin- EVA glue stick method, but someone else
will have to find out what ratios work.

 

On Friday, 18 October 2019 16:20:22 UTC+1, Rick C wrote:

On Friday, October 18, 2019 at 8:49:50 AM UTC-4, Jim Horton wrote:

Ok, so, after careful consideration, I decided on using the recommended
50/50 mixture of beeswax and rosin to pot my two transformers. However,
to save costs, I was originally going to try using a smaller housing,
which would use 2 lbs of wax-rosin mix instead of the 6 lbs I would have
originally needed, but instead of switching out the housings for a
smaller one, is there something I can place inside the existing housing
that's cheap, would also serve as an insulator like the wax will, and
won't be burned or melted by the wax pour? The same idea as using extra
stones or bricks in a toilet fill tank so it doesn't use as much water.
Thanks!

If you keep the temperature of your beeswax/rosin mixture down paraffin should work well.

Does your transformer get hot at all? To the best of my knowledge rosin never gets hard and beeswax melts around 145°F. Is your transformer going to end up sitting in another liquid bath?

Rosin is notorious for going hard & brittle. Hence rosin based glues are normally fibre reinforced to reduce the resulting breakage.


NT

 

[gray_wolf]

On 10/18/2019 10:26 AM, whit3rd wrote:

On Friday, October 18, 2019 at 8:49:50 AM UTC-4, Jim Horton wrote:
Ok, so, after careful consideration, I decided on using the recommended
50/50 mixture of beeswax and rosin to pot my two transformers. However,
to save costs,...is there something I can place inside the existing housing
that's cheap, would also serve as an insulator like the wax

Glass marbles sounds good, and also consider ceramic tumbling media (available
in a variety of shapes, depending on how your spaces are arranged). Typical
purchases of those stones are by the hundredweight, and glass beads are among the
options.

Could tumbling media contain water? How about silica gel for ballast?