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!
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
I spent 35 years in the oilfield as a submersible pump tech. I would say that you can “poor boy it” with the best of them. Stay safe brother. There’s nothing more valuable than your life.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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! ;-)
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.
It never fails, you need to pull quick clamp with a long hot stick. And the last guy was a trained gorilla with a big wrench! I was an electrician for 40 years. In all that time i never opened an oil filled device with PCB’s in it. If we encountered one that had to be opened the company had a contractor that handled the mess. If it was small enough and wasn’t leaking. We would remove and replace it.
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 🤷♂
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.
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.
@@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.
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.
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.
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.
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! 😮
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I remember watching RUclips 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.
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!
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
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.
I've had the fuse blow on the pole in front of my house twice (Dead squirrel on the ground after each one). Given the extremely loud noise when they pop, I wondered if they had some kind of pyrotechnics to blow them open faster. This video finally answered that question.
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!
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.
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.
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 👍
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.
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
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
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.
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!
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.
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.
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....
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.
I got to wire up a welder in Mexico once upon a time. Wire guage was too small, and that neighborhood went dark all of a sudden. Well, the TV's quit anyway. Small fire up on the feeder. No fuses I could see anywhere. There power guys were out there durn quick. They fixed what broke, and we paralleled the wires to the welder. And just like a large violin (viola), everything was fine for the rest of our time there. I did a bit of primary work at a college I attended. Their boom truck was pretty big, double bucket. We redid some big fuses and rewired some of the primary. I don't remember the voltage, I've slept since then. But we did safety it by shorting all three legs upstream of our worksite. Just like you, privately owned system: primary, secondary and pole pigs on the whole campus.
Thank you so so so much for taking us on these journeys. it is so interesting and rare to see some of these things so closely and you explain everything so well
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.
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
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 ...
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.
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.
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....
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!
The coolant can be PCB that stands for polychlorinated biphenyl. They did an experiment in the late 80s or early 90s with rats and said it gave them cancer. A few years later they did the experiment again and could not get the same results.
Every time Zach does a project, an OSHA book explodes somewhere lol 😂
Professional electrician of 23 years I went to bed and pulled the covers over my head
Hahaha
Dude… I’m saying … Super close to the transmission line, no gloves, no lanyard belt, bare handing shit …. shit gave me anxiety
@@howitusedtobe old school. It's not just a saying.
YOU THE MAN 😊
😂
This dude just gets shit done..like it or not. Amen brother!
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!
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
Chuck Norris checks under the bed for Zach!
Hahaha
I spent 35 years in the oilfield as a submersible pump tech. I would say that you can “poor boy it” with the best of them. Stay safe brother. There’s nothing more valuable than your life.
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! 😅
I'm always amazed at how strict they are on everything.
@@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.
@@TheZachLifethats usually because guys have died doing it🤦🏼♂️
how would you do such a thing from the ground if you dont mind me asking?
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.
Hahaha
Rubber gloves behind the seat, good idea.
Holy shit doing that hot line work like a cowboy
Hahaha
Like the Ironworkers say. You stay on the ground and leave the sky to the men.
Your perfectly executed explanation of the mental effects of that oil is the highlight of my day
Hahaha
I caught that too🤣
Liberalism!!!!!!! Nailed it.
Polychlorinated biphenyls. It might cause liberalism, but given enough time it'll also cure it. So glad I subbed!
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.
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.
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.
“It causes mental problems, like schizophrenia and liberalism”.
😆
I could hear all the lineman scream when you grabbed the hot stick with no gloves. It's always interesting watching you work your magic!
Hahaha
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.
Yes I'm not a lineman and I was WTF !
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! ;-)
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.
Well... This explains a lot of info that I was about to search for, thank you.
Interesting. I we used to have several of these running on 3phase 240 banks but this is the only one left. This is the only one I've ever "refused".
@@TheZachLife We see what you did there...
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.
It never fails, you need to pull quick clamp with a long hot stick. And the last guy was a trained gorilla with a big wrench!
I was an electrician for 40 years. In all that time i never opened an oil filled device with PCB’s in it. If we encountered one that had to be opened the company had a contractor that handled the mess. If it was small enough and wasn’t leaking. We would remove and replace it.
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
I worked with a German electrical engineer in Hawaii. He had never seen wire nuts. We decided to call them kabelnuss.
The way the poor boy oilfield does things out here would drive y'all crazy
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 🤷♂
"I don't have any safety gear with me, but let's go ahead and do this." - Epic. And, hopefully, your watch isn't sitting in transformer oil....
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.
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.
@@TheZachLife...."out run the oil"... thats a classic! 😂
So the transformer is probably 75-years old, and still running! Back when "made in America" meant something. Love your videos. Stay safe.
100%
Made when they made them to last with PCBs and overkill on the design.
@@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.
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.
@@Mercmad man, small small world. Peter and Joanne. We were there in the same era. We left there 34 years ago.
@@wornoutwrench8128Holy shit, what a coincidence that is 😂
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.
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.
It certainly can. Some people would end up with cancer regardless
Thanks. Glad to hear about beating the cancer.
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.
But the PCB oil on his hands afterwards makes up for the no HV gloves using the hot stick - it's double duty /s
Exactly.
@@gorak9000 You make an excellent point! Have a nice Memorial weekend.
Me also scared by those pcbs
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! 😮
9:03 "Causes all types of mental problems like schizophrenia and liberalism"
Well done, sir.
No Liberals left, they are all radicals (vote radical). Read up on the French or subsequent revolutions .
@@tobyw9573 I voted for La Riva in 2016. Have you even heard of her?
Yeah that cracked me up
Some people are just obsessed with politics.
The only thing a liberal knows about transformers is the movie with the robot trucks. Lol. 😂
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.
Intersting.
@@TheZachLife Isn't the PCB oil highly carcinogenic? I was told that exposure to this oil will certainly cause cancer and other nasty health problems.
@@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.
Fascinating as always. It's great how you show the work it takes to keep these old well going. i love the rustic electrical distribution!
Thanks.
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!
Thanks. And I found it lol.
@@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.
I scanned the comments specifically for this.
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.
I've done a lot of stupid things and I still have some more stupid in me but I'm putting a big nope on all of that Zach.
Hahaha
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.
Are the transformers full of cancer or what?
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.
100%
I remember watching RUclips 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.
Love the “Can Do Texan Spirit “ hard to find these days !!!
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!
How can you not like this guy?
Hahaha
Always liked your 'repair stuff' vids. Been awhile so thanks for bringing us along
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
Hahaha Thanks.
Wide open sky’s of the Permian Basin. I miss the smell of the oil fields and the refinery.
I definitely need to keep that transformer oil off of me if it causes all of that...haha. Great job repairing that old transformer :-)
Thanks.
I can't get over how some of those old wooden poles can stand up that long
Probably because they were impregnated with chemicals that hang around a long time, nothing could live in and break down the wood.
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 😂
Yeah Florida went crazy I think over a million poles were changed
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.
Man, that was impressive driving that truck out of that hole.
I've had the fuse blow on the pole in front of my house twice (Dead squirrel on the ground after each one). Given the extremely loud noise when they pop, I wondered if they had some kind of pyrotechnics to blow them open faster. This video finally answered that question.
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!
Thanks.
Perfect explanations of things I have long wondered about! Thank you!
You do things that I’d never be able to learn about other than from RUclips. Thanks for sharing it!!
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.
When I saw the image of the truck stuck I would have bet money no way you were getting out of that. Glad you did though.
Like the magic man..just gets it done..
Wow, that was quite educational. I heard a bunch of theory in school 30 years ago, but seeing someone actual work on one was great.
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.
@@breezetixhv May have some ppm contamination but is unlikely to be straight PCB.
Here I was thinking it sucked taking old, stuck, hot-line clamps off with a shotgun. And Zack is doing it with his hotstick!
You know, arm length rubber gloves would have helped with no PCB fluid, and helped avoid a 7200V surprize.
Ya but he would of had to go down go back to town yada yada……
i think the electrical gloves are 30,000 volt.arm length rubber not so much.i use a grocery bag for oil protection.
I give you so much credit for doing all that work with no KV rated gloves. Love the shirt too man!!
Used to work in a factory where they dipped lineman's gloves. Lots of custom gloves for people that had parts of them blew off due to arcs.
@@Kinann ark flash is no joke
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. 🍻
Thanks, Thats what i do, or at least check voltage on the secondary is I'm just working on the low voltage side.
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.
Lol, I was going to ask if that oil had pcb in it. I guess you learn pretty quick to get ahead of the comments.
Friend of mine changed ground wires in these when he was 20 years old did hundreds of them
Didn’t bother him much he is 96 now
Always love the videos Zach! Great information, great outlook on life. Inspirational man. Stay safe out there!
After touching that PCB oil, its very important not to scratch your nuts.😂
All the PCBs and dinosaur juice kept it fresh
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 👍
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.
Thanks.
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
Like I said before, that's a nice ⌚to be banging around on things.
The most professional lineman on RUclips!
Hahaha
Must be the only one
A nice long dip in PCB oil. That’ll come back to haunt you 😂
I worked for seismic crews in the 70's. Watching you get stuck in cow pasture brings back memories. Good times!😀
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
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.
I love this channel, its gold
Thanks.
Thanks for the lessons in how the power system works. I was shuddering thinking about the PCB. Look forward to the next one.
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!
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
Thanks.
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.
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.
A fresh-water lake called "FOX LAKE", in the town of Fox Lake, Illinois had a no fishing, no swimming ban for 30 years, because of PCB contamination.
I read about that a while back.
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!
Thanks. Thats the plan.
@@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....
mentally deranged liberal here...glad you're safe Zach, always enjoy the heck outta the vids!
Hahaha thanks for watching.
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.
The Zach of all trades
Hahaha
I got to wire up a welder in Mexico once upon a time. Wire guage was too small, and that neighborhood went dark all of a sudden. Well, the TV's quit anyway. Small fire up on the feeder. No fuses I could see anywhere. There power guys were out there durn quick. They fixed what broke, and we paralleled the wires to the welder. And just like a large violin (viola), everything was fine for the rest of our time there.
I did a bit of primary work at a college I attended. Their boom truck was pretty big, double bucket. We redid some big fuses and rewired some of the primary. I don't remember the voltage, I've slept since then. But we did safety it by shorting all three legs upstream of our worksite. Just like you, privately owned system: primary, secondary and pole pigs on the whole campus.
Haha sound like Mexico
Thank you so so so much for taking us on these journeys. it is so interesting and rare to see some of these things so closely and you explain everything so well
Working at a power company, PCB's are a big deal. I bet it only causes cancer in California though!
Probably lol
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.
Thanks. Hopefully it will live a while.
The watch is soaking in the OIL Bath, This guy is amazing If we go to war I want him in My squad ! Inspector gadget !
Hahaha
I have a similar bucket truck. A 1995 GMC with an Altec lift. Glad to see you got yourself unstuck.
Well this might be one reason why the oil patch is a wee bit dangerous....
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
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 ...
Very interesting content Zach. Thanks for sharing. Hope that You have a good Memorial Day.
Thanks.
Just a great channel. Better then any tv show on today. Keep up the great videos. Hello from destin Florida also.
Thanks.
Love the Oklahoma Jack Lease! 😍
That was my first ever Zach Life video!
Awesome.
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.
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.
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....
Very interesting to see how this gets done. Appreciate you taking the time to do these videos. I chuckled when I finally noticed your shirt. Nice job!
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!
I always wanted to see the inside of a Transformer Zach. Thanks for showing me.
Glad to see you keeping civilization together
Quality job, keeping the wheels turning. All the best mate.
The coolant can be PCB that stands for polychlorinated biphenyl. They did an experiment in the late 80s or early 90s with rats and said it gave them cancer. A few years later they did the experiment again and could not get the same results.
Another great video, I've always wondered about those transformers