The most deadly project on the Internet
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- čas přidán 29. 04. 2022
- There's a reason I never make videos featuring MOTs (Microwave Oven Transformers). The high voltage, and more importantly - high current, means they are as dangerous as playing with overhead lines.
This does NOT apply to the spot welder projects where the dangerous high voltage secondary is removed completely and replaced with a few turns of heavy wire for low voltage and high current.
Seeing non-technical people playing with open transformers with car jump leads connecting them to wet salty wood outdoors or in a garage is scary, especially when they handle the low-voltage rated cables while the transformer is powered. Even worse when kids are involved.
It's made a lot worse by the number of people that have been discovered in burning garages because the transformer continued to pump out current after they were dead.
CZcams seems to be applying filtering to new videos involving associated keywords, but still has a lot of legacy videos, some of which are clearly being removed.
TikTok is doing what TikTok does and still pushing out shallow and very dangerous videos that seem to lack all safety information.
Here's a link to the page I mentioned. Be aware that it has a picture of a very badly burned hand:-
burncenters.com/patient-stori...
I'm really glad Mary survived that. It was a VERY close call.
A graphic interview of someone who survived (barely) a shock while fracking, including how it happened, what it felt like and the damage it caused to their body:-
• DJ Shipley Survives El...
The American Association of Woodturners is taking a stance against people doing this due to the high number of deaths being reported.
www.woodturner.org/Woodturner...
It is possible to use these transformers for this project safely, but it does require a full understanding that you're dealing with a voltage that is exponentially more dangerous than mains voltage. The inclusion of a properly made Dead-man's switch which will require both of your hands to press momentary action buttons is a start, but doesn't protect against unexpected poking by other people's inquisitive fingers.
If doing this regularly the ideal setup would be a grounded/earthed metal cabinet with a glass window on the top for viewing the process, at least two safety switches operated by the hinged lid, some lighting to watch your creation being formed and also act as an extra warning indicator and an extract fan and duct to take the smoke outside and enhance the viewing experience.
The safety switches would also have to be mounted in a way that prevented accidental operation while leaning into the unit. For actually operating the unit you could then have a hand-held control button, or one mounted on the unit itself.
The neon sign transformer approach uses much lower current, and as such the effect requires more understanding and care to achieve, and will be much slower. But an advantage of the lower current is that a much more detailed result is achieved. It's unfortunate that the sign transformers are getting harder to find and cost a lot to buy.
Even with the lower current, the same safety procedures must be followed.
I'm not saying DON'T do it. Just do it properly with suitable safety precautions and understand the hazards you're dealing with.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of CZcams's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
#ElectronicsCreators - Věda a technologie
I'll share my experience for those that think its trivial to play with high voltage. My high voltage gloves got partially pierced by a metal splinter on a ground transformer and allowed a path to ground on a 13.8KV line.
It was only 20-30 seconds of time slowing down to where a second feels like a minute. You feel fear and a great sense of dread as your heart goes into afib because of confused messages from the vagal nerve trying to override your SA node. About three second in all your muscles start to cramp and burn(literally) along the path to ground. You cant make yourself let go and you cant think of why, but you definitely know you are being electrocuted. About ten second in you start to smell burning pork and your vision starts to close in around the edges because your heart cant pump blood. You feel as dizzy and high as you have ever felt as the color starts to leave your vision. About fifteen seconds in you start to miss your wife and kids because as your vision fades slowly out you understand you are dying. As your world fades from view, and a blackness so deep it envelops all of your being smothers you, you are left with a great sense of sorrow and pain that stretches to eternity, or in my case, when I woke up in the ICU a month later missing the small parts of me that made up the ground path. There was only sorrow and fear and pain the entire time from my grounding to my waking. It felt like I was gone for twenty years, like when you visit your childhood home after your parents are gone. Without perception of time, time has no meaning. The lack of perception is eternity.
So yeah, as a ex lineman, I can assure you that you will feel more in those few seconds than you ever have before.
Wow, that was beautifully put ,yet deep, sad, fearful and thrilling at the same time! Glad you were given a second chance and be able to tell your story . Stay safe 😎✌
So glad you made it through in the end - it must have been a long and tough recovery to get through afterwards. Thanks for sharing your life threatening experience and thanks for facing all the risks you've had to cope with every day at work so the rest of us can have modern lives. Respect!
I think even if I had the proper tools and took extra precautions, because of your comment I'm going to avoid high voltage experiments and leave it to the professionals.
You need to write a book about this. You have a gift you were given.
Thanks for sharing your experience, I always wondered what an electric shock felt like, glad your electrocution wasn't fatal.
Thank you for sharing your beautifully written traumatic experience!
It certainly makes you think twice about working with live current.
My dad (tv repair man) always told us to be extra careful when tinkering with transformers. To give more weight to his warnings, he zapped both me and my brother with a supertiny transformer and an AA battery, and then drew a schematic to explain what just happened. Times have changed, but transformers haven't.
For kicks as a kid we used to take the tiny ones out of the big flame lighters and even those tiny things would give a really good zap! (I know technically not transformers, but a magnet being fed through a coil when you press the button. Similar principle, though.)
Was fixing an old BW tube tv and completed the circuit and discharged the flyback transformer. lucky for me my elbows rested on my knees, was wearing shorts sitting on the floor. A unknown time later was awake found out my one arm did not want to move when I told it. An hour or so later my arm moved like normal. Was very very lucky When I came too was 4 feet away from the tv and pressed hard against the wall.
good father, my friend. you're a lucky duck
@@alejandrolujan9472 Thx, he died almost 11 years ago, but I learned a lot of valuable things from him. (His death had nothing to do with electricity for those wondering)
When I was about 12 we thought it was hilarious to take apart disposable cameras and create trick toys with the control board and flash capacitor. Hand zappers etc. 🤡
about a year ago my uncle died trying to do this woodburning stuff off some youtube tutorial using a microwave. thanks for spreading more awareness and the explanation
Sorry to hear that. This project has killed a lot of people.
@@bigclivedotcomI wonder, is it possible to use a high frequency (>20 kHz) transformer for these lichtenberg figures instead? At least, people would suffer skin burns, but they will survive!
My condolences. YT should delete all those tutorials.
that's not... it's... that is censorship; I get why you would do that, but that IS censorship@@splendidcolors
Good thing CZcams isn't a government-owned entity and therefore has every right to remove dangerous content from its platform.
My father warned me about this and crts as a kid. I was a curious kid constantly taking things apart, so I'm thankful and still remember it.
As long as there are nerds there will always be the industrious person who gets their hands on a set of security bits or even just an angle grinder. The best thing we can do is make sure the information to experiment safely is out there.
me too. i was always taking things apart, my dad told me to never take a TV apart. when i was about 14 i was very sure of myself, i wanted to take a TV apart. just to give you an idea of where my intelligence was back then, i was along the lines of ''pfft. i'll just make sure it's not plugged in''
im so glad i never did get my hands on one because i truly was clueless
@@TheJohnDorn There was a teenager who was into amateur chemistry, just like me except I am much older now and still do amateur chemistry.
Some said that he was working on making phosgene.
The chemistry community says that he died.
The community did warn him and apparently, he wasn't being safe.
Some people look both ways and cross the street. Some people look both ways 10 times and cross the street and some more while crossing.
@@louistournas120Why was he working on phosgene?
@@jenkathefridge3933 I don't know.
To quote AvE's sticker. Not only will this thing kill you it will hurt the whole time you're dying.
This will actually do exactly that.
His " Do not dumb here. No dumb area" is also a warning to remember..
I needed two packages of AvE stickers for my garage.😂
At work, one of our techs forgot to tighten down the chuck on our metal lathe, and got smacked in the face with a few pounds of steel rod when he started it up. When he got back to work after his hospital visit and time off to heal, I bought every one of AvEs stickers and plastered them all over the lathe and milling machine. I don't think he found too funny, but the rest of us did!
Stupidity SHOULD hurt.
It's gotten so bad that the American woodworkers association has banned anyone from mentioning this on their website or blog.
A worthless gesture. It would be better if they had done as Clive has. Make thier own safety videos and spread them freely
@@huntermccoy7641 You're 100% right. Suppression of info would leave someone unprepared and uninformed.
They may be doing that to simply avoid any liability. Not saying that is necessarily the best way. Just thinking about the times we live in.
I can see that. It doesn’t solve the problem, but doesn’t add to it.
@@FFFan3445 Agreed, suppressing information doesn't help counter poor decisions. If there's no information telling you how dangerous something is, then the only info available will be the instructions to do that thing. People should look up this technique and be met with warnings to never do it.
My grandfather was an electrician and he has some stories about when he was young and first starting and some dumb stuff he did. He always told me to respect electricity because it kills you when you stop paying attention. I built a guitar amp once and because of his stories I was terrified of the filter capacitors.
20 year electrician here. I was taught at tafe “Respect electricity because it doesn’t respect you”…….I never work live and never have, even if it makes fault finding longer. There’s entire companies here in Australia with “no live” policies in place
@@85ddrummerit's safe to work live if you have the correct gear and training, I work live on everything up to and including 33kv. It does take a lot of rubber though 😂
@@Booth_Y0 *have the correct gear, training and WANT TO
You should be scared of capacitors, I did that EMP project once where you take the cap. out of a disposable camera, and discharging it welded it to my screwdriver.
@@Booth_Y0Stats are on our side but the fact that 1/3s of rubber gloves fail recertification makes me have some doubt in the back of my head
"Complacency will step in and mistakes will be made"
I'm starting to get into repairing stuff and those words resonated with me as if I were giving myself a warning from the future. Going to invest in some insulated gloves and tools just in case and never work with my microwave if it fails, a technician is a lot cheaper than potential death
An qualified technician is always cheaper than a hospital visit or home insurance claim😅
There's another good reason never to work on a microwave oven. If it's leaking microwaves it's not perceptible and it will be cooking you while you're running it and you will have internal necrosis with dead flesh. If the exposure is minimal it will just get taken away by your immune system if the exposure is larger it will make you sick and you will probably die. These things are designed so the seals last and something inside fails first like a door switch. If you keep fixing a microwave oven, you eventually will have a leaking door seal
@@i-love-comountains3850microwaves, toasters, kettles etc. All easily replaceable things that should never be repaired.
Heard an old lady at the flea market say "Her husband was trying to frack glass with a modified welder and it shot him 15 feet through the screen door and knocked him dead as shit"
Ah old ladies. They are very to the point.
Maybe she sabotaged it on purpose...
👀
Lol!
Ft RV CD g guy got
Reminds me of a school teacher who flatly told us, we arbitralily assign words like conductor and insulator. But with enough voltage anything will conduct, and if you get to that point, hope you have a method of disabling it that doesn't rely on yourself as by then it's probably too late...
To quote William Osman "Welcome to high voltage, where everything's a wire and you're probably gonna die"
Absolutely correct. Lightning readily demonstrates not even an air gap of many kilometers is neccessarily nonconductive. One of my coworkers just retired after another round of heart surgery. He has had multiple such surgeries. He's in his 50s. After he was gone, another coworker told me WHY he needed all those surgeries: the retired man was outside in his yard one day and got hit with lightning. A neighbor saw it and gave CPR and that saved his life. But the lightning did terrible damage inside the man's body. Devastating injuries. He was destroyed from the inside out and all those surgeries were attempts to fix damage. But it finally became hopeless and the man retired. Nothing more can be done.
safety interlocks. always. don't let your makeshift machine run if your two hands aren't holding safety interlocks!
current limiting can also help, if it's any use.
My school teacher tried to sucker me into touching a live capacitor to show the class in general how it worked, fortunately I had already read about how those flasks worked at the time. Would probably have been a good lesson, but I managed to get a hit of mains voltage when I was even younger, so to say that high voltage kind of scares me is an understatement.
Seeing as I routinely work with chemicals that can melt your eyeballs and turn them five kinds of pretty colors these days it probably helps, healthy respect and all that.
@LabRat Knatz HV high frequency will not " penetrate " you deep in the flesh ... You can look also some stuff about "different frequencies " traveling through cable / wire ...
Revisiting this video after a year. It's a great reminder to treat electricity with the utmost respect. Clive, you definitely deserve your soon-to-be 1 million subs.
I've got a strange collection of experience that overlaps really closely with this topic. I've done woodturning, I've worked professionally with high voltage, and I've worked on servicing and repairing industrial microwaves. This even involved sometimes, and carefully, working with microwaves that were connected while I worked on them.
All that specific knowledge gives me is a clear understanding of why I would absolutely not try making lichtenberg figures in any of my woodwork.
I love the idea of saying "I'm not saying no, but..." and then giving advice on how to do it more safely. I think that if I were ever to consider this, my basic minimum would be set up so that I'm not even in the room while the power is on. Much more managable these days with webcams and many options for remote power switches. Just stay far away from it.
I wouldn't want the responsibility. What if it gets power when it shouldn't? What if somebody shows up and you don't see them until they're on the camera touching things?
If I were going to do it, I'd want it to be near impossible for somebody to enter the same room without it shutting off, and I would want every possible mistake I could make causing it to shut off before I have the chance to realize how bad I messed up.
@@grex2595 Here's the other thing. Even if you're successful now all of your friends are impressed and they try doing it themselves.
And the other part: apparently getting a bunch of nice different patterns involves repositioning the electrodes.
And these are cheapo DIYers who don't know about electricity or woodworking or designing safe systems.
@@WBWBWBB no doubt. The only reason it's so prominent is because people did it without dying and now others want to try. It's like cliff jumping in unfamiliar waters. As long as nobody sees somebody die, they're going to try it too.
What really needs to happen is for somebody to make a big business out of it and show just how dangerous it is. Let the guy with the fancy machines take all the risk on a $500 coffee table and enjoy your coffee table without the death.
Q
I thought the same thing... Like a minimum of 20 feet away...
Things I learned even in VERY amateur welding and electronics work:
- NO WATER, ANYWHERE, EVER.
- Heavy gloves, dry rubber-sole boots.
- Never grab uninsulated wires... or any wires-not-intended-to-be-grabbed at all for that case.
- Know which parts of the circuit are 'hot', and always give a second thought whenever you're about to interact with the Hot side.
- Find and discharge ALL capacitors before mucking around in electronics - if you don't know, wear gloves until you can probe and confirm the entire thing's de-powered.
- Triple-check these rules when you're about to use anything that has to be powered on during operation.
I wanna die fighting a radioactive mutant Grizzly Bear shirtless on a mountain with a K-bar..... not 'bzzt owie zappie ded'.
What a trivial way to go :(
I would rather beat the bear but yeah
@@MigorRortis finna good
Make it a real challenge, fight it with a Granola Bar instead... But I must say, I haven't laughed this much in a long time, who knew bzzt owie zappie ded was the 4 funniest words on the planet. I'm still feeling that in my chest, the level of happiness that could bring a man from the brink of death to the sweet and comfortable memories of him as a boy in his mothers embrace during thunderstorms.
@@MigorRortis priorities
Train hard and follow your dreams and I'm sure one day you'll be able to take the bear in a knife fight
"Chances are you won't do that again. Full stop." As one of my Sergeants used to say, "That's non-habit forming behavior."
That's up there with:
All funghi are edible, but some are only once.
@@simonoleary9264 or, you only need a parachute if you want to go skydiving more than once.
The variant I heard of that phrase is “that’s a self-correcting problem.”
Having seen my Father get thrown across a room when he accidentally touched the back of a colour television tube I respect electricity . Cathode Ray Tubes store the 3KV to 5Kv charge like a capacitor.
@@simonoleary9264 Or like “There are old mushroom hunters and bold mushroom hunters, but no old *and* bold mushroom hunters.”
I used to work with repair of household appliances. Most of these repairs was done in the costumers home. Over the years I've had several costumers ask me if the job I did was something they could have done them self. I always told the costumer that most machines you can repair or change components on your self as long as you are somewhat competent and make absolute sure that the power is not connected. I always made a very clear point that there are two things you should NOT try to repair yourself. Nr 1 being microwaves; They are extremely dangerous, and can very possibly kill you. The highest voltage output I've seen on a microwave was over 6kV. Nr 2 is fridge and freezers, as the refrigerant system is often made confined in copper and/or aluminum tubes that are a PAIN to fix and/or repair, and secondly, the refringent liquid is something that would instantly evaporate leaving the product useless. And in worst case, some of the gasses used in fridges today are flammable, so you could potentially burn down your house.
In short; don't touch microwave ovens and fridges.
An Australian CZcamsr, Ann Reardon, has also made a video about this. It is so ridiculously unsafe. In addition to the mutilation of their hands, survivors' hearts are often permanently damaged. Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge to hopefully make more people aware and prevent their deaths.
Microwave transformers are fun to play with, I play with mine every day. Yup, heats up my coffee in under a minute. Of course, it is safely inside my fully intact microwave and it will stay that way!
Yes. Sometimes it's best just to use an item for its intended use.
You heat your tea and coffee on the microwave?
That is so offensive, you disgust me. Filthy heathen!
(Chill, it's a joke. Well, half joke.)
Used mine, a few weeks ago, had an old fan, the fanblade was falling apart, the motor did run, for like 35 secs, before it burned out.
ooh, just wait and see. I‘ll give it 3 more years until some idiot comes up with the tutorial for getting tattoos by painting your fingers with iron oxide and microwaving your hand.
Safe. Ya right.
Literally 2 days after you posted this video a couple in Wisconsin was electrocuted to death trying fractal wood burning. It's crazy to think if they stumbled on to this video it could have saved their lives.
.... Such a high price for their mistake, as mistakes are fundamental to our species.
@@robbieaussievic There's a name for it... The Darwin Awards
@@bobmitchell4532 ... We selectively omit our memories of what we got away with by pure luck in our youth, Motorbikes,Cars, etc.
R.I.P.
@@robbieaussievic Let me count the number of times I came so close. I could write a book. And there's no telling the number of times we have avoided death that we're not even aware of. We're all more blessed or luckier than we know. Peace ✌
My dad was an electrical engineer, several times as a kid he caught me taking things apart and would stop me from taking anything dangerous apart, he taught me about the dangers of capacitors even on something that hasn’t been plugged in forever
Electricity has always been one of the things that just scares the heck out of me. I'm always very careful when even changing the battery in my car.
You can never be too careful with batteries. I had an old boss (he was an idiot) who when we were replacing a tractor battery which was backwards from the old one, was convinced no matter the battery, the positive post is always on either left or right, don’t remember exactly what he said. I showed him the symbols on the battery he still said nah. My co worker and I backed up quickly as he connected the cables following an electrical pops, cracks, and a shower of sparks. No one was hurt but yeah, it could have exploded had he been unable to pull the cable off quickly.
Always be careful. Voltage wise, a car battery is under 50V which is considered unlikely to cause a serious shock. At least according to OSHA anyway.
Some classmates and I did this in college a long time back in a technical program that wasn't electrical related. We got our hands on a microwave and hooked a cord directly to the transformer with some leads going to some screws we driven into saline soaked wood, we also made a Jacob's ladder with a similar set-up. Our entire safety precautions consisted of setting it on a welding table with some ceramic stand-offs to keep the table from being live and having a guy stationed at the wall socket to be able to pull the plug if anything bad happened.
Having become an actual electrician since, I'm able to recognize how much risk we were putting ourselves into and it's pretty terrifying how ignorant we were.
That tingle may have encouraged a great trade as a Sparky!
Congratulations for NOT winning a Darwin award.
Sounds like a episode of jackass
When I was 15(should have been around that age) i was really stupid and just took that thing out (i even managed to remember to discharge the cap first) and just put it on the floor while I was home alone i think or at least alone in my room with no one knowing what I'm doing and connected the hv secondary with a wire to some kind of metal rod and held that thing with a pair of pliers. Stupid me was having fun with fucking 15 cm arcs being 4cm( about the distance between my fingers and the rood) away from death. Now a few years later I know how stupid i was(maybe I knew even then). Fun fact I still have the transformer somewhere in my room with the burn marks from the arcs.
@@matteoulbrich38 Thats nuts!
I have a buddy who is a licensed mechanical engineer. He got into this. Thought he had it isolated. During a burn he reached out to grab his beer from the table and died. He wasn’t working alone… and had a firehouse next door. He was luckily revived. But frankly, only because he lives next to advanced life support and the crews were not on a call…. I do not mind doing dangerous things if risk can be managed. This is the project we no longer play with.
Absolutely horrifying, totally not worth it for some art project. Sounds like he didn't know how much electricity it had and that you don't drink beer at the same time, unfortunately most people have no idea, we're so used to safe electricity.
Many people who regularly work with dangerous things just get too comfortable with it over time. I know someone who died from a Lathe. He operated the damn thing for almost 10 years. One day he just made a careless decision and 💀
Wow that's crazy... I'm glad your mate could be revived
how do you get shocked from grabbing a beer?
@@Jiffy_Park Possible scenario: Spill beer somewhere that you shouldn't. On your hands, for example.
"This device will kill you and it will hurt the entire time you are dying."
Back in 1970, I was a US Navy electronics technician, I was making an adjustment inside an amplifier power supply.
My screwdriver slipped and 2kv at about 1.5 amps went from my hand and out my elbow into another transmitter drawer,
it blew a hole out my elbow, and my arm was in pain for about a month. I was lucky, if it had gone through my chest, I wouldn't have made it to 74 years old. Stay away from high voltage! I later worked on more than 10kv at an industrial plant, one of my co-workers died when he got across a 480-volt buss, professionals die in the trade, there are signs don't be stupid. Good show Clive.
Hi Clive, when I was stationed in Hawaii, in the mid eighties, working in "avionics", in the shop next door, working on search radar, during a routine "technical training class", a radar tech was giving a basic class on the common working of the search radar system. He was setting the test set and the radar unit, and specifying "always check your cables, only use those numerically identified with the specific test set", while grabbing what he thought were in fact such cables. He hooked up the radar transceiver, turned every thing up, and was surprised at no function. Probing around inside, he had a hand on the case, probe in the other, and went through checking the low voltage feed. He didn't recognize the symptoms, and ended up probing the high voltage, something on the order of five KVA, with no response, and peering into the innards, his head approached the test set, and suddenly it arced out his forehead, and he died within seconds. He'd ignored his own warnings, had a wrong cable to the equipment, which had no correct ground connection. The power supply was such it had six or eight separate wires connected together as a "ground buss" on the correct cable, and in running it up, had no ground return for the high voltage until his head got close enough to ground, and it arced.
In two decades of service as a marine, I knew of probably five or six deaths of similar way and form for in the most part, the same problem. We all knew every cable was made, designed for one specific test set, and multiple grounds were quite common because of sheer power. We held "tech training" every Wednesday, precisely because of such incidents, and all too often, the danger was greatest while "demonstrating safe procedure. I got hit with a two thousand volt discharge from a radar transceiver tube in 77, in my secondary school because the connection was always left open for troubleshooting, on the "bench test receiver/transmitter", blew the power for the whole Workcenter, left a scar on my finger 45 years later. I see folks playing with microwave transformers based on internet video's, so this is a major issue, thanks for a great tech lesson! John McClain, GySgt, USMC, ret.
Safety regulations are written in blood, unfortunately.
Damn saw someone get zapped in the forehead and kept doing it. Respect.
Holy Crap! Helluvan experience. Thanks for sharing and thank you for your service John!
he was a good instructor.... he gave ya all real life example
@@scrat8177 Thanks, it changed my life. I appreciate your kindness.
I don’t usually post in comments, but this one hits home. This kind of accident happened to a friend at our local Makerspace. He is a very competent machinist/fabricator and VERY safety conscious. Having said that, during a demonstration, a mistake was made and he made contact with the electrodes. It stopped his heart instantly. Fortunately someone was able to start CPR and call for help. Several resuscitation attempts were performed on the way to the hospital by paramedics. Early on his prognosis was not good. His brain function was minimal. He did survive and fortunately after a rather lengthy recovery he is doing fine. Needless to say, that device was immediately removed from the Makerspace. You often think of a death occurring with large, powerful industrial equipment. Rest assured everyone, this little silent device can drop you like a sack of hammers. Stay safe everyone!
BigSecurity is warming us
Yes, you would think, but just look at the AED device or commonly called a defibrillator. Very small, battery powered but it will start, or stop your heart. The give away on the transformer is the sign that reads HIGH VOLTAGE. Why would anyone mess with one especially unshielded.
Reminds me of ElectricBoom
@@frotobaggins7169 4,500Volts is a lot of Voltage, a Potential measured between two points , NOT Current!!
Its only current when the potential has a path for electrons to flow and the flow or movement of electrons is the Current measured in Amps!!
If you do indeed work on electrical or electronic equipment you might need to understand the terms, units and theory better.
If you think to yourself DANGER 4,500Volts this can kill, that's the right approach, and please be safe !!
You don't need to consider how far it will jump, stay away from it, period !!!
The distant a Voltage Potential will bridge, or "jump" (your term) , varies depending on multiple factors like humidity,
air pressure, shape of the objects, medium in between etc. I assume you are thinking of an air gap.
Talking about bridging gaps, you might think a fuse is a simple device, but fuse theory and manufacturing is not so simple, interesting reading !!
@@frotobaggins7169 "4,500v. That's a LOT of current." Er no, it's a high *voltage*. The amount of current which will flow is proportional to the resistance of the circuit and if that is high, the current will be low. (And vice versa).
Thank you for stepping up and doing all you can for the safety of others. You have my gratitude and respect.
So glad you took the time to keep us safe Clive! You offered some alternatives here that I'll employ when I work on my project, including the deadman safety type switch. I have some ideas I think will make it safer yet, actually, but I come to this with a VERY healthy respect for electricity and some knowledge gained working on electromechanical for years now. Thanks for watching out for us!
As a teenager, I built a Jacob's ladder with an old microwave transformer. I fully understood the danger, put signs around it, and was very careful to stay far away from the leads when it was on. nothing bad ever happened, but I still look back on it and shudder. I did understand the danger I was dealing with, but I was scarily confident and unconcerned.
Whats a jacobs ladder
@@kaksidaksi3455 takes you to heaven lel
@@kaksidaksi3455 The two wires in V shape that have "current" or ionized arc going upwards...
Teenagers seem to have the delusion if invincibility.
We were all legends as kids....then we grew up an america said....get a real job
“The chances are you just won’t do it again, full stop.”
Some creatives go their whole careers without writing and delivering a line so perfectly subtle.
Can't do it again - would've been more apt
@@edwardbalboa5528 I like “Won’t do it again” because it works on more than one level. You won’t want to do it again, and you just won’t be able to ever do it again. But yeah from a purely instructional point of view “can’t” would probably be better
this thread is textbook. the woosh is audible. Is it a requirement on the internet to require an autistic level of accuracy in every statement, to the point that we degrigate our appreciation of the written word? Like the "can't" is implied by the "won't".
I'm going to continue the autism party by adding that "won't" is probably the best word to use here, because "can't" would imply death or full incapacitation 100% of the time. In the event you do live the experience, chances are you just "won't" do it again. Full stop.
@@thefunniestfarm4731 ^ Legit laughed out loud. kudos. Loved this.
As a former electrician, one thing a lot of people don’t know about is “Delayed lethal arrhythmia” (It’s rare but don’t be the one to find out if your one of the unlucky ones)….which can take place as long as 2 hours or maybe even longer after an electrical shock accident . This can lead to SUDDEN unexpected and potentially very deadly ventricular fibrillation though you might feel PERFECTLY fine. Please people, DO NOT EVER mess with electricity UNLESS you know EXACTLY what you are doing. This shit can kill you and at the very least, getting shocked is not fun at all.
Thanks for not just telling people not to do it but also sharing ideas on how to make one safer.
Safer method - generate a fractal on your computer, print it out, and transfer it to wood. The Crafsman has a couple of great how to transfer prints to wood vids.
Laser engraver would be perfect for that
Thats like screwing a rubber love doll to lose your virginity in Thailand
@@Olivia-W Because you arent holding some dodgy home made probes with 2000v between them. Its a machine designed to burn images into wood and other materials.
@@Olivia-W I must have missed the full stop after 'this' lol
@@stephenw2992 Doesn't help they make the buggers so darn tiny.
I wasn't planning on playing with electricity, transformers, wood, and water together. And you just talked me out of ever thinking about possibly planning to do so. Mission accomplished, with me at least.
The message wasn't for you because you've got enough sense to figure out you don't need in some things. I work on a boat and we had this boat captain that just couldn't leave anything alone. We had the old time arc lights, and they sent an electrician to take those away and put in some Xeon lights. When the electrician was in bed the captain went down there and was screwing around with something and burned a pair of pliers black and ark in that box so much at the electrician new somebody should have been laying there on the ground done with his life but he was just lucky. Unfortunately it happens too often a guy like you that doesn't need the message, gets it automatically before he hears it and somebody like that can't let his title of Captain limited him to only human endeavors.
Water itself is not conductive but when you mix other stuff in it, it becomes conductive...
@@sheilaolfieway1885 actually everything is a conductor pretty much it might not conduct for very long before it vaporizes but pretty much if you got enough voltage you can drive electricity through anything. Water has to be extremely pure and still you can drive some current through it if you'll put the voltage to it
@@sheilaolfieway1885 "Water itself is not conductive but when you mix other stuff in it, it becomes conductive..."
==If you try to do electrolysis of faucet water, not much will happen but I imagine that if you place your finger in it, you will get a buzz that will hurt.
For example, I used a wet cloth to wash my walls. Somehow, the cloth touch the electrical outlet. I had removed the face plate of the outlet. I got a small buzz. It doesn’t hurt too much but your muscles contract rapidly.
Probably using distilled water would hurt even less but I imagine it is still not pleasent.
Keep in mind that water self ionizes. You have about 10^-7 H+ ions in it and also 10^-7 OH- ions at 20 C.
@@louistournas120 uhh i just said that exact thing...
I come back on another horrible day, only to feel a bit better, thanks to your videos. Thank you. Very informative. Your videos help a lot. I find them comforting.
1.3K clicked dislike because they didn't watch this, don't understand the dangers of playing with current. Then they got ZAPPED.
The point you made about the transformer being basically silent when powered on, is interesting to note, because to someone who isn’t well versed in electronics and high voltage electronics especially, they may see that as a sign that what they’re working on isn’t _that_ dangerous.
Media and movies generally show high voltage transformers and deadly voltages to be these huge hissing and buzzing units with massive yellow electrical shock stickers on them, and then they see a microwave xformer and they think, “oh, this tiny little transformer isn’t dangerous! It’s quiet, and it doesn’t have any warning sticker on it” and they are lulled into a false sense of security, and inadvertantly put themselves into a _very_ dangerous situation without actually realizing just how dangerous it really is.
It’s scary to think about, because it’s easy to see how someone who is otherwise smart and rational, might be fooled into thinking dangerous voltage is more “glamorous”, for lack of a better word, because they don’t actually deal with it in their everyday life, and possibly never at all.
The same goes for high voltage capacitors, which are arguably even more deadly to someone without experience, due to the fact that they can be live without the device even being plugged in.
The microwave transformer probably doesn't have the markings and warnings on it because the microwave already has those on the outside
It doesn't make a noise until the two points are connected on a hydrated board and then it is a noise that is out of this world it's super intense but really need to watch.
I found your comment very interesting and informative. Thank you 🖐
actually... a transformer WILL make noise if connected on a main line
czcams.com/video/AeuApLeCs5A/video.html ← 60 Hz Square Wave
It hisses at "60 Hz"... but you have to include the harmonics... so I think a "square wave" would be pretty appropriate.. but really.. you'll want ALL the harmonics not just the fundamental.
You'll also not hear the hissing until the circuit is completed, as the current loop is what causes it.
It also takes MILLIONS of volts to cause "arc flashing" as that causes the air around to have a "voltage breakdown"
Given that the microwave transformer wasn't really rated for that level of voltage... the arcing is possibly caused by the inrush current from a discharged capacitor.
Yeah, nothing gives me more anxiety than working on old CRTs. Like I know what I have to do, but there's always this fear when I'm trying to clear the high voltage caps on the things.
Maybe if the word “electric chair -kind of device” was more common people could more intuitively understand the risks. Deadly current is just too abstract of a concept.
If people knew what a single Volt could do, when the ampere is Sky high, then the rest of the other SI Units have to balance out, meaning the non- Amp part aka WATT, will increase.
So 1V=1000W/1000A now let's say you touch this wire which only has 1V for 2 seconds, we can still see that kg×m²×1/s³ and we divide that per the unit of Force, Newton, then we get 500m/s of force from what sounds safe. That amount of Energy is enough to cook you real good. Just because you have a gigantic package of energy flowing at you
If people understood that just because it says x Volt on things, doesn't mean that if you somehow lower the resistance now you'll have all the passive Volts which can be in the millions, cook you very fast, There's a reason for why Electromagnetic Flux causes metals to heat up and melt fast. The lunacy of people to expect things to never go wrong for themselves.
I leave all Transformer stuff to the Technocrazy Madmen, such as Styropyro the Laser maker... No one else is insane enough or skillful enough to handle anything of that caliber with safety...
Even just looking at the intended outcome, that burn mark through the wood… it immediately made me think "jeesh, imagine if it did THAT to ME"
@@livedandletdie I tend to use Trains as an alalogy, to illustrate why Amps matter as an indication of danger more than Voltage.
Just a Locomotive crashing at 100mph after all is bad, but not as bad as a 8 car petrochemical train crashing, even at 20mph.
@@livedandletdie styropyro is the best ever
@@livedandletdie 1v at 1000amps will do nothing to you. 1v isn't nearly enough to to overcome the resistance of a human. Watch the video again, this is exactly why clive said removing the high voltage coil and turning it into a high current (amp) transformer is safe and ok. Also, if what you said was true, touching a 12v car battery would kill you, but really if you touch a car battery you feel nothing. 12v is still too low for the resistance of a human in almost all cases. Ohms law...
thanks for taking the time to post this. good info that could save lives!
Great job explaining how this works and the danger involved.
I don't play with high voltage, heavy duty springs, or compressed fluids. These things can take you out, or if your lucky, just seriously injure you without warning.
You sound like a bright guy. Those are 3 things that the more you work with them the higher your odds of getting hurt get. All 3 best left to the pros. I personally add band saws to your list!
Things to not play with:
H.V.
Radioactive materials
Compressed fluids
Heavy duty springs
Exposives
Add high speed to the list as well. It was fun once but I had an accident at the speed limit on a very wet day and that shook me up so much that its just not worth the risk driving too fsst. Especially on a public road!
Hydraulics are awesomely powerful and I do not ever want to get caught by one. Even a ruptured fluid line can be enough to end your career as a human.
you’re*
Reminds me of an old warning and safety sign that a job I used to work at had around our welding and electrical transformer equipment that we would hang around everything that said "Warning: Extremely High Voltage, This WILL KILL YOU and it will Hurt the whole time while you die"
"This will kill you and it will hurt the whole time while you die" is the grimmest funny statement I read.
@@masscreationbroadcasts I quite like the signs we use in the UK on substations and transmission lines: "DANGER OF DEATH" says it all!
GANSTA!!
Reminds me of a sticker that was pasted above the inlet of a wood chipper I saw being towed. The word THINK! was in giant block letters, then the warning message was printed in somewhat smaller lettering.
That's my second favourite safety sign ever. The first is a road safety sign in Samoa which says, one line above the other in block letters:
DON'T SPEED
HEAVEN IS FULL
Just wanted to say thank you for putting videos like this out there. I took quite a few microwaves apart years ago because I'd read about making an arc welder out of the transformers, and just found all the parts I'd taken out. I've always wanted to make Lichtenberg figures, so I started researching how to build one myself. Now thanks to videos like yours, I've decided to go ahead and just pony up the money for a neon sign kit with a foot pedal switch instead, and I'm going to find a local licensed electrician to come over and advise me on how to make this as safe as possible with a grounded or insulated work table, improved insulation on leads/electrodes, etc. I'm also going to print out a picture of what happened to Mrs. Calhoun and put it on the box as a reminder every time I use the machine. Complacency kills.
Before I say anything I must say I would never do anything remotely like this. This clip is so clear and easy to follow even for someone with no knowledge of transformers. Thanks for the info on why a safety device i.e. RCD would not operate and cut the power, I learnt something today. So kind of you to inform the uneducated and also give some safety suggestions. Cheers mate.
You know stuff is horribly dangerous when Clive is starting pro-safety PSA videos while sounding incredibly concerned.
Electricity is very dangerous. You can't see it. The voltages present on the secondary side of that transformer are too high to test with any multimeter commonly available. Most wire commonly available is going to have insulation rated for a maximum of 600 volts. Gloves commonly available won't protect you from 2,000 volts. Electricians that wear gloves that will protect have special equipment to test them. If anybody doesn't think messing with a transformer like that isn't dangerous, they don't understand the hazard.
@@reedr1659 When i heard that from a teacher thus what got me to not be a electrician. Still the relatively low voltage of a AA to D battery is safe as you should be able to drop it before anything happen while the voltage of a house main line is not. As AA to D batteries are 5V while the house main is 2 120V cables in the USA anyways
@@reedr1659 HeathKit used to make a high voltage probe for their VTVM. It could handle over 1,000 volts. This was 60 years ago though.
@@yumri4 The AAA through D cells are only 1.5 volts each.
@@reedr1659 I love how he says "It's a bit grim!" low key words, high power meaning
Always surprises me how scared people are to work on CRT televisions whose flyback *might* be able to provide half a microamp at 10kV and will typically sag to under 100V under load, but will happily rip into a microwave oven and use it's pieces while it's on.
I don't understand it.
The flyback transformer output is low current, but the cathode ray tube is a big capacitor and capable of providing a very large jolt. Televisions from the late 1960s onward incorporate bleeder resistors, but they take time to discharge the tube or could possibly fail to an open circuit. I have serviced quite a few TVs and computer monitors and can confirm the anode connection at the tube is capable of delivering a pretty healthy spark even after s TV has been switched off for a long time.
The other risk is the electric shock you get from the tube may make you flinch and break the neck of the tube. Newer CRTs are designed with weak areas and less likely to violently implode, but I never wanted to test that to find out if it is correct. I have seen the aftermath of a an early 1960s 21 inch CRT implosion which sent fist size pieces of glass through a thick solid mahogany cabinet. You would not want to be around when that happens.
@@wtmayhew i didn't know that the whole screen has discharging resistors, when i'm tearing it down, first thing is do is remove the suction cup, that's the only connection to the HV pole.
I also see them very often around the trash bins, opened with whole neck of the tube ripped off, so i guess they're pretty safe.
@@wtmayhew Ah the good old days when real men actually fixed things and black spots on a fingernail were not uncommon!
Pax.
Can't fix stupid
@@wtmayhew Worst still the connection point for the high voltage lead is inside a 'dimple' set into the glass. For some reason when carrying them one's little finger--entirely of its own volition--seems very desperately to want to find that dimple... The tubes can genuinely bounce when you hurl them up into the air and curse!
You are an excellent teacher!! Your videos are very clear, concise and I am glad I found you. Going to check out all your videos.
Thanks!
Having had a 400 DC shock a number of years ago, I can safely say that something like this should not be messed with
did you die?
poor dudes ghost is haunting youtube comment sections to tell his story
Depending on what extremity touched the circuit it’s surprising you still have one. Direct current 🍟fries 🍟. I once put my hand on a crescent wrench 🔧 removing a 12 volt car battery. The crescent wrench was on the + terminal and it hit the frame and shorted out. That wasn’t a big deal except my wedding band worked like a fuse on steroids! Needless to say I LEFT the ER with 3rd degree burns and nearly lost my wedding finger.😮
Wow. That’s crazy. I got hit with 240DC when I was 14 rummaging around in a warehouse that was being renovated. I don’t even remember much of it. Just remember reaching out then a ton of pain and then laying on the ground. I can’t even imagine surviving anything more than that.
In the early 00’s I built a DIY “welder” from plans on the Internet. It used 2 of those transformers and had to re-wind the wires. I “made” my own low gauge wire by cutting apart dryer power cords, pulling the bare copper wire out, splicing it together into longer lengths, and wrapping the wire with a layer of electrical tape as the insulation. Then I did 20 turns of this wire in each transformer. Reminder, I didn’t cut the transformer apart to remove the previous wires, I cut the wire and hammered it out, and then I threaded my new wire into place, which worked ok for the first 10-12 turns, but I had to jam a chopstick into it to form a space for each subsequent pass. Finally I had this incredibly jank “welder” wired up and ready, even attached a grounding clamp and vicegrips to hold a “graphite electrode” (pencil lead).
It was at this point that I said to myself, “You just built this janky mess. You don’t know how it’s supposed to work. You have negative levels of quality control. You are playing with high level electricity. This could very easily and quickly kill you!!! ………NOPE!!” And it found itself on a shelf for the next 15 years, never to be turned on.
You left the party before the police came.
Always a good plan.
Good job. Your internal voice definatly saved your life. I wonder what that would have done to the pencil lead and how quickly?
so? you built a welder sooooooooooooo dangerous.... never used one?
love this.
Chuck it already so nobody tries to turn it on after you pass... out of curiosity.
One of the most important things about electricity is if you stumble upon someone who is being electrocuted like this, or are in the room when they start experiencing this, DO NOT TOUCH THEM. Turn off the power, or have something that is not conductive and knock whatever it is that they're holding out of their hands as a LAST RESORT. There should ALWAYS be a killswitch somewhere to turn off the power..... Same goes for electric fires.
If you turn of the power can you them do cpr immidiatly on the person? How Horrifying
@@teijaflink2226 Yes! After you call 911 and get an ambulance on the way. You just need to make sure that they are no longer in contact with the device in question. 2 inch deep in the center of the chest, and sing "staying alive" in your head while you do compressions, or any other song around 140 BPM. Rescue breaths at the moment are not advised by the medical industry as the blood still has a surprising amount of oxygen left in it.
You can give them a drop kick. I would.
a friend got shocked playing with some weird thing he was building. we were at his house in the garage while he was building on it. I ran at him and tackled him off his feet and it broke the current. I was pretty young and stupid and didn't realize the risk I took, I just knew not to grab onto him. we did CPR on him and the paramedics got em back in the ambulance but he was messed up after. shaky. I don't mess with electricity
I never realized this form of artwork was that deadly.. it truly is scary. Thank you for the safety video everyone who has thought about this kind of artwork should see this video first.
Scary, to think I considered trying this activity not too long ago. I'm very grateful for stumbling across this video today. Thank you, Clive. Thank you.
I remember wanting to try this, doing the rabbit hole of videos, finding your last video on it and immediately changing my mind because I'm far too stupid to do it safely and properly. Thanks for possibly saving my life.
Im with you on that one ha ha ha 😰😥😪😭
My thoughts exactly
From what I understand there’s almost no way to do this safely
Your not that stupid, at least you have the common sense to realise its bloody dangerous. It's definitely not for me, seems like an early ticket to see the grim reaper lol!!!
@@deanothemanc5281 Trust me , I am STUPID 😊☺☺😊😀😃😃 .I just aint that stupid 😄😃😀😊☺😉
As someone who has worked around high voltages for years, there are many dangers.
The formal safety training I receive is often given by someone with a claw hand or in a wheelchair. I have listened to many first hand accounts as to the results. If you manage to survive the electrocution, your nervous system will be permanently messed up. The cool art isn't worth the risk.
I’m pretty happy that in my field “ask me how I know that?” Doesn’t end up with severe bodily harm, just a broken computer program.
Years ago, some roadworks were being done outside my work and there was a metal pipe containing an 11KV underground cable. The power authority gave the all clear that it was disconnected and perfectly safe and one of the workers was told to cut through the pipe - and the wire within - with a hacksaw.
Well, it wasn't disconnected and, despite the fact that he had a metal saw blade touching both the wire and the metal pipe that was still mostly embedded in the earth, he still managed to get a large-enough belt that it burned his hand and there was an exit burn on the underside of one foot, it pretty much cooked the flesh through a large chunk of his body.
He survived - but his nervous system was permanently "messed up" (which is a *lot* more polite than I would normally phrase it).
You can buy a device that you can hold next to a wall and detect the current flowing through the wires through inductance. I keep wondering why no one had some similar gadget to check to see if there was current flowing through the wire he was about to cut.
No one checked, they just took the word of someone who was, in hind-sight, obviously and tragically *WRONG*
To my knowledge, no one was held responsible for that. No one lost their job over it - well, no one *except* the guy who was so badly injured and messed up he could no longer work!
@@wolf1066 Exactly my point. Sorry you had to see that. I did put that mildly.
Many videos given during training were of autopsies or medical reports. Not pretty.
@@puellanivis unless it's computer program of plane or medical instruments 😁
@Wolf NZ Outdoors Never trust someone who tells you 'ye it's turned off' /'ye it's safe' - just check it.
Be paranoid in any case that may involve dying or mutilation: electrical, blades/saws, crushing moving elements or even diving (Delta P).
When I was growing up my friends use to take transformers from oil-fired home furnaces that had gone to the junkyard. Rated 10,000 to 12,000 volts and build arcing experiments. Got shocked half a dozen times as they were only a few milliamps. You could not pay me to go near these things.
Big Clive, happy new year! I love your videos! Your a great teacher because your command of the language is eloquent and your humor is dark and poignant as it should be with the electricity! May the light clear your way and provide knowledge for those in need!
I've been an Electronics Technician for around 27 years, and I'm so glad to see this video and the amount of attention it's gotten. So many people simply don't understand the very real dangers that can be lurking inside of some home appliances, and even those people who do understand, sometimes get complacent. I'm happy to see someone covering this side of things. Bravo! Great video! 🙌
I've also worked on electronics for over 25 years and the amount of stupidity in some of these projects is terrifying.
@@paladin181 got top student 01 major appliance course . Doing microwaves, didn't discharge capacitor. Like the teacher said in class"'you'll only do that once, " He was right. I never did it again
@@chrismcdonald6481 I worked on radar equipment in the Navy. One of our class pointed a little to close to an energized klystron. That was an attention grabber. It reached out and touched him. Fortunately, the amperage was low, but it definitely put all of the rest of our hands firmly in our pockets.
I was warned by a domestic appliance repairer who had a successful small business fixing things, that he knew several experienced people over the years who had died trying to fix or repurpose microwave oven parts.
...my bet is on the capacitors on the thing killing those folks.
Sure the coils are dangerous, but the "lets dig into its guts, it must be safe, since it aint plugged in" type of deaths are not due to coils.
@@martonlerant5672 I did have a shock with a mind you small 240V AC motor capacitor, not much but does make you think twice when it says high voltage on the side.
@@martonlerant5672 I don't think those capacitors have enough energy to reliably kill a person. I have had higher energy shocks than that. Not that it's safe or pleasant, just not the way people are dying. I guess it's leaving the MOT powered up, whether inside or outside the oven.
@@martonlerant5672 Yes, it's the capacitors that kill as people will be careless when the device is powered off! Another factor is that people do give too much trust on discharge resistor on these capacitors!😢
This is why power supplies in computers are very dangerous. If you open it up the power supply casing and dig inside of it there's a chance you can die even if it's unplugged if you don't know what you're doing
Thank you very much,despite others not addressing safety or dangers you do that.I hope people watch it also.
Awesome explanation ! Tis great that there are people out there like you who care !
"I'm classified as a pro by others but that is a false title, I'm experienced and still make mistakes." My mentor told me this while teaching me how to weld and that one line is what stuck with me the most. Never think of yourself as being so good at something that you can ignore safety and common sense.
I've done a fair amount of backcountry adventure, and a line that has always stuck with me is
Q: What's the definition of an experienced mountaineer?
A: One whose death was unavoidable.
We should add that : Even if you are the top expert in the field, no experiment is short enough to ignore safety measures, Murphy is always pressent.
The first time I saw people doing this online, my immediate thought was "nope, I ain't f***ing trying that one".
I don't know anything about electricity and if it involves voltage beyond that what comes from a couple AA batteries, I'm not messing with it.
A similar thing with gun owners: It is not "IF" you have a negligent discharge. It's "WHEN" you have a negligent discharge. I already had mine. I never want a repeat. Muzzle safety is now burned into my head, but dammit, it can happen again. The law of complacency.
I worked in the computer industry operations in particular for about 40 years. I remember one point we needed to replace a main breaker that controlled power flow from the UPS battery to the UPS main power. And my boss wanted me to open up the panel with over 800 volts in there and swap out the breaker " it's easy ". The bus bars in this panel we're either a quarter inch thick or 3/8 in I didn't want to get close enough to measure it and about 3 in deep. I looked inside the cabinet where this breaker had to be popped in and out and told him if it's that easy get an electrician. I have no business being inside this panel and you have no business suggesting I'd be inside this panel. I'm willing to try many things I've done my own wiring I've replaced my own well pump I've ran a totally new circuit from the main panel into another room that didn't have electric in it. Including an outlet going outside which was on a GFI outlet on the inside. I have been tingled by 110 volts and I've been made to jump up by 220 volts. Unfortunately there was a shelf above my head at the moment! The kind of voltage he's talking about nah I don't need to play with that. I had a microwave go bad all about a year or so ago essentially the fan stopped running and the microwaves were still coming out of the radar emitter. Lot of heat builds up on that happens if your fan stops running unplug your microwave. At the same time the panel on the front started acting goofy too and after I unplug the microwave and took the food out of it I just carried it outside put it in the trash. I don't need to open that up. Normally back in the day with mechanical controls I'd crack that puppy open and get a screwdriver with a wire attached to it and ground out everything before I reached inside. My dad told me when I was working on tube TVs the ones where they actually had vacuum tubes not just the picture tube, never touch the transformer unplugged or not. It can zap you either way and it'll throw you across the room. Knowing that my dad had done many things in his life and he was currently an electronics inspector, I figured that's probably good advice and headed it. Made quite a bit of change in high school fixing TVs. I would do everything except for adjust picture tubes and touch that transformer! I had a vacuum which the hose had a metal end on I wrapped the metal with electrical tape so it couldn't ground out so I can vacuum the dust out of the TVs. Good times!
Great video, as always, Clive. The title was too irresistible not to click. However, full of very important points, especially "it's the same voltage as an electric chair" that should really hit home.
14:47 - end. LOLL
And this isn’t even clickbait which is the scariest part.
@@EngineeringMindset and yes that ending is gold lol
I’ll never be able to look at a microwave in the same way again & yes, the end was worth watching 😂
People playing with a microwave oven transformer get what's coming to them, it's like playing with guns. Glad bigclive made this video.
Thanks for sharing this with everybody. Followed link and read it all. She was one extremely lucky woman. As she says, the accident has far more injuries, than just her hand. The electricity goes straight through her body. Any part of the body in the path of it can be damaged and/or destroyed. Keep up the excellent work.
Incredibly helpful and important video ! Thank you for sharing !
As a former ED clinician , you could also mention the damage to the bone marrow, rendering the bodies ability to make red blood cells moot. Like getting hit by lightning…
So you permanently cant make red blood cells when struck?
*moot
Not a doctor, but i'd say your bone marrow would be pretty conductive and fragile, exploding yourself. They're kind of like if you melted a metal faucet. A little water will come out, but not much.
@@sailyuiNot a doctor, so I won't get into specifics, this is just some shit I read so take it with a grain of salt, and at least my surface level research here isn't mortally consequential, but think about it: red blood cells are produced by bone marrow. Bones are effected in many ways by electricity. Like, your own muscle contractions can break bones, and the specific structure of bone cells are disrupted. The matrix they make up can be disordered, leading to bone fractures, and damaged bone marrow. Plus, I'm sure electricity directly fries bone marrow, or fucks with some chemical(s) it uses to function properly. That's just a guess. I'd have to do way more research than is worth doing just to answer a comment, but my intuition kind of tells me something might be chemically converted into something else in the bone marrow messing up it's ability to function. After all, chemicals do often denature with heat, and you're a bag of walking talking chemicals essentially. And if that happens, you can get anemia, which isn't fun. Or maybe it is. Idk, I like being drunk and lightheaded. Maybe it's not so bad. That's subjective and besides the point. The point is electricity fucks with so many systems in the body. Nervous system problems are a common side effect of electric shock, leading to personality changes, seizures, it's a whole thing. Organ damage is common, burns can lead to infection, dehydration, amputations, dehydration, death. It interferes with the heart's own electrical balance, leading to cardiac arrest, death, and long term heart issues. Moral of the story: don't fucking play with forces you don't understand, electricity being one to be super cautious of. Don't see a trend online, do some surface level research like I did with how electricity effects the body, and walk away thinking you have the equivalent knowledge of an electrical engineer. Hell, a PHD would probably have quite a few things to say about this comment and all the stuff I got wrong as again, not a doctor. Merely a curious drunk. Just don't. It's not like fire, which is ALSO not good to play with, but at least you can SEE fire. Electricity can be much less intuitive than people think. I would never dare do something like this without a pre-established background in a field related to electricity.
@@sailyuithe short version is that electrical burns are special, most other burns damage tissue from the out side in, but electricity flows inside you since you are 70% water and completely filled with electrolytes.
Basically electricity will burn your bones (called 4th degree burns) without destroying everything between your skin and bones first. (It all happens at the same time) And much of the burned tissue will die and start necrosing which requires surgical amputation. (You can keep you arm, just not half your bicep)
Red blood cell production occurs in the bone marrow, why do you think that is? The current explanation as i know it is because its the most protected location in the body, and red blood cell production is very sensitive. This means that cooking your bome marrow like a hotdog is going to cause some damage and potentially destroy its ability to make healthy red blood cells even if the marrow isn't killed completely.
Just finished my electrical engineering degree. I tell people it was for the money and opportunities but between us, it was so I could finally understand what’s going on in your videos and the circuit diagrams
Congratulations! My uncle got me interested in electronics when I was very young and once the bug bites you, that's it! I can't think of any other profession I would have enjoyed more or has given me so many opportunities to expand my knowledge and enjoy.
Congratulations
Congrads, and besafe!! Always remember safety is Always First!
No need for a degree to understand electronics
Don’t lose sight on the Kingdom of God 🏞️ all that is in the world is soon coming to an end. Seek God whilst He may be found. Jesus saves ✝️🩸🕊️
Thank You for this public service video saving lives! I have worked with high voltage since teaching myself electronics years ago and I cannot believe the lack of safety in so many videos. There's no 2nd chance with 20kv & up you're just dead. People showing and doing grabbing both sides of home made Lyden jar capacitors across their heart. Just insanity...
Thanks for posting this video - knowledge is power!
When I was a kid (about 5 or 6), my Mom had a keychain bottle opener that read "I'm surrounded by idiots." It took me quite a few years before I understood what it actually meant, and now I see that it's more & more true.
There’s a reason why utility workers wear thousands in protective PPE, working around similar voltages with loads of knowledge, training and experience. Electricity - regardless of voltage - is not for the novice.
That's part of why we encourage hobbyist electrical engineers to stay at 5v or less. But there's always someone who wants to run 240VAC straight to the Arduino. And no amount of explaining why it's so wrong in so many different ways, will get them to understand why it won't work, and how it will kill them.
I got bit by 240VAC a few days ago. As it turns out, the people who had worked on the machine before me hated grounding anything. All the grounds were unattached, and the ground pins on the cables were cut off. And that wasn't the only problem with the machine.
@@JWSmythe Dangerous! That's so retarded dude. What were those guys thinking? Even if something is improperly grounded, theres a problem, let alone it NOT being grounded in a grounded system. Please, remeber to use your volt-meter or wiggy before working on live systems. What did you touch which shocked you?
@@JWSmythe Also, folks working with these make shift systems are playing with fire, as the insulation of cables will fail unless rated for such voltage. I doubt car cables are rated for more than 600v. Remember, we have to test insulation before we turn on new systems, insulation is that last line of defense and the weakest link in our systems.
Yeah, at one of the places I previously worked, I was in the electronics division and somebody on maintaiance cut through a 480v line, somehow only noticing it when the conduit started glowing red, so we got to sit everyone down and show them all the classic arcflash safety videos.
@@JWSmythe I just graduated BSEE and 5v sounds way more fun than anything else. I'm safely affraid of high voltage.
There's lots of cool projects you can do with microwave transformers.
But even if I have the equipment to hand, I never tried it because I just don't trust myself!
Making popcorn is about as far as I go
Most of the ones i've seen have you strip the high voltage winding and put in a low voltage one. In those cases it's fairly safe once you get past the microwave disassembly part (the caps are pretty nasty, but you can just short them with a screwdriver to make sure they are discharged before going anywhere near them)
same lol
People underestimate electricity like they underestimate fluid dynamics when it’s got you it’s got you
@@lostmykeys85 David Dobrik really underestimated that excavator 😅
Excellent video Clive. I have to disagree a bit with "short the terminals of the HV capacitor with a properly insulated screwdriver." I wouldn't do that on a 600V filter cap in a guitar amp, much less what looks like a 2000V capacitor from a microwave. It's going to make a terrific pop and a flash and damage the screwdriver. Far better to make a discharge probe from a big 2W 100k resistor. And if you don't want to do that, you have no business mucking about with the cap in the first place. Which nicely echoes the points you were making throughout the video!
Videos like this are great. A few years back I wanted to start making these as a DIY because I thought they looked incredible, but I eventually came across an article discussing how many people have died from it, even with the most extreme safety measures in place. If I hadn't come across that article I could've easily been one of those statistics.
I have a lot of fun fractal burning. just don't be stupid and touch it while it's on.
it's possible to do with flyback transformers which are less dangerous due to high frequency AC
It's important to know that it triggers an electrochemical reaction that forcibly contracts the muscles.
It's not a matter of willpower - no matter what signals your brain attempts to send to the hand, if you are holding the thing electrocuting you, you *will not* be able to let go of it.
Not ALWAYS..been bit by 110, 220, 440 And lightning
.
I had ZERO problem letting go of the source , used to play with the horsepen wire as a kid too, some of us just built differently..
The 440 was actually also 110 since I cut a 440 main from a house using a 110 Sawzall blade was Sheared in half on an aluminum ladder DURING a Thunderstorm..I was under cover though, the guy that built the home Previously jogged his main line whole bay over for unknown reasons..so the assumption was the wire was next bay over...I can still taste the Ozone...
@@mjolnirswrath23 Ok now try doing that with 2000v-3000v.
My dad almost died when I was a kid from high voltage. He was working on a high voltage electrical panel in a maxwell house coffee manufacturing plant which had been turned off. Someone came into the control area, removed the lock from the breaker, and turned it back on without checking if workers were still present. Dad got launched about 20 feet and woke up some time later thankfully. Plant kept trying to weasel out of paying his medical bills. But this was the early 90’s in Georgia and worker protection was even shittier than it is now.
@@mjolnirswrath23 this you ?
czcams.com/video/BNj5ShEM7U0/video.html
Which is exactly why an electric fence sends pulses of current - so you can let go between pulses rather than be forced to hold it.
Never had an electric shock during my previous 50 years in the electrical industry because I had a 240V shock as a young kid when I worked on a live extension cord socket when my parents were out. It was such a horrific experience that from that day forward I have always been super careful with electricity.
To be honest - a shock is the best way to learn.
Wow. I have the exact same childhood story but with 110. I couldn't get an extension cord unplged from a record player and I really needed it. When I couldn't pull it apart, I put it in my mouth to get a better grip. The rest is history. I was about 5 years old
I felt 240 from a dryer 2 years ago, crazy feeling
I discovered what 380V phase-to-phase short circuit is like while drilling a wall as a child. The blast throw me off the chair I was standing on, and sent me into a flight across the kitchen, still holding the drill. The tip of a 9mm drilling bit melted by about 1 cm of length. That was very implressive. And that's with the fuse limiting the amount of energy released.
Don’t lose sight on the Kingdom of God 🏞️ all that is in the world is soon coming to an end. Seek God whilst He may be found. Jesus saves ✝️🩸🕊️
Excellent piece. I knew a barkeep that
" discovered" this hobby, and even brought in his work. He was seriously injured, and I 've not seen him for over two years. I hope he survived
Thanks so much Bigclive for doing this video. I have tried to warn people of this, and they just laugh, so it is great to know one of my favorite channels agrees with me 😊 👍👍👍
When I was a teenager over 20 years ago, I acquired an old Franceformer neon sign transformer. I was using the GTO wire leads that came with it to play with a little wood burning. I didn't know anything about using an electrolyte solution on the wood, so I'd strike the arc by holding the wires close and then press it down and move them apart once the char started. My sense of caution was basically limited to holding the wires with a dainty fingertip grip, and that's probably what saved me when I did inevitably screw up.
I don't know what I did to zap myself. That instant has always been blank. I went from crouching on the patio to standing a good ten feet back, my sandal'd big toe bleeding where I'd kicked the shit out of something hard enough to bend my toenail backwards. One of the wires was lying on the concrete just arcing into the concrete. I pulled the 120v cord and told nobody and never fucked around with high voltage like that again.
The kind of moment to make you really love how great being alive is
@@369Sigma OH YES! I've lost count of how many times I've had that feeling... Whist on tour of duty with Greenpeace and during a 'hands to bathe' moment... I once dived off the stern of our ship, hove-to in the Sargasso sea... Which is bang-slap in the middle of the Gulf Stream... I had my diving face-mask on and started swimming around the sargasso weed, admiring the aquatic organisms, in propper Cousteau fashion... Then I lied motionless on the surface looking down into the indigo depths.... Totally bemused at the fact I was staring into approx 14,000 ft of water column.... When I eventually surfaced I turned and was amazed to see my ship had shrunk, now being about half a nautical mile away! I then dawned on me that I'd swam-out of the lee of the ship.... and had been picked-up by the 4kt current of the Gulf Stream... Man, that was the fastest crawl I've ever done in my life!
.
Here's the kicker though... When I got back to the inflatable moored alongside as a diving platform, the Skipper, who was on 'swimming watch' on the starboard bridge wing, shouted - '' All hands onboard...''. Still somewhat out of breath I made my way up to the bridge wing and asked the skipper what was the reason? He handed me the binoculars and pointed out to the starboard beam, I focussed the glasses and located the shining bladder of a Portugese 'Man-o-War' drifting in the current a few hundred feet away... These hydrozoans can sport many tentacles (tentacular palpons) that can reach over a hundred feet in length, all of which bears tiny, coiled, thread-like structures called nematocysts, these can inject a paralysing venom and have been known to kill humans by paralysis and thus drowning... My blood ran cold for a moment - The SECOND kind of 'that moment' within half an hour that day - for I realised that the direction of those tentacles would follow the same current that I had been drifting in... I could have swam right over them without realising. So yes... A double-whammy 'glad to be alive' moment indeed! And of course, a very big lesson learned...
@@369Sigma Isn't it ironic that we need near death experiences to make us appreciate life? Just survived a accident with only 2 broken bones?
"I sure was lucky!" 😎
That's what makes high voltage so lethal. Even if it doesn't kill you instantly, the moment that it gets you, you lose all motor control and involuntarily clutch the electrified object with all your strength. It's not unheard of to find a heavily burned corpse with the fingers still clutching the thing that killed them in a literal death-grip.
I took a hit from a neon sign transformer at work once. It knocked me on my ass, my coworkers said I was out for a few seconds, and I had a nasty burn on my hand. I was very very lucky. I don't fuck with big electricity any more. Scary stuff.
At one point in my electronics career I went on a microwave course sponsored by Sharp Electronics. The guy taking the class basically said that "You'll only get one shock from a microwave oven" He did show us cool tricks with light bulbs in glasses of water and exploding / setting fire to potatoes and tomatoes.
Wow. That's HEAVY. Great instructor and class!
My favorite is a cd in the microwave!
Did he do the 'hot dog and glove' demonstration?
« You only get one shock, do not miss your chance to glow » was the full sentence
I did warranty work on sharp microwaves back in the 1980s and 90s !
Thank you for spreading this information. I just watched a video of someone making a plastic and spot welder from old microwaves and wondered how safe that really was. No commentary, just one of those over edited quickie hack videos. Nothing about discharging the capacitor, no high voltage warning, and not a fuse in sight! Yikes!
Great advice Big Clive...thanks. 120VAC almost got me one day switching out a defective 120VAC outlet without first turning off the breaker for the room. Current went from arm to arm through my heart which also locked my fists closed so I could not release the metal tools. As I was experiencing a rather light speed full life review I thought fast. I was standing at the time and leaned my upper body forward and then leaned way back which broke my hands loose from the very quiet monster. Lesson well learned...
I was a major Appliance repairman for 27 years and the Capacitor from a Microwave stopped my Heart...I was dead. When my limp body hit the floor the impact re-started my Heart....Just lucky I guess.
That Microwave had been unplugged for a week but the Capacitor was still charged.
Why didn't you bleed them down then a resistor will do the trick 😊
Genuinely curious here, how do you know your heart actually stopped for that duration?
Changing the A/C capacitor was scary! I made sure it was discharged the red neck way by shorting the connectors with a heavy duty insulated screw driver! Beats what you went through! I find it hard to believe the capacitor held the charge that long! You sure about the week? Glad you made it back! Did you see the white light?
@@dwerg1he doesn't
@@Curious_Skeptic I was just going to ask. Is changing an ac capacitor dangerous too?
I taught solar and wind energy systems for a few years. In dealing with the higher voltage/current circuits I would give the students this warning: "Not only will this kill you dead, It will hurt the entire time you are dying".
Kill you dead, as opposed to what exactly.
"Little Johnny stuck his tongue into the plug socket and was killed alive... "
It scares me that there apparently exist people who actually require that extra emphasis that they're gonna be deaded, and it's common enough that it's used often.
is that just a quote?
I've heard that saying a fair few times as my time as an electrician. And I don't doubt it's true
@@Vinny_TheCableGuy I feel like it happens pretty fast if it kills you. I don’t think you have much time to react
@@murkyturkey5238 screen shot or bs.
Really well made video, clear and to the point.
It makes me feel sick thinking anyone could be so reckless with microwave electronics! That’s absolutely terrifying
I found this extremely helpful in filling in the gaps in my lack of knowledge. I was aware that high voltage drastically changes the mechanics of what is a safe ground protection. I watched a city power employee make up the large diameter wires coming in from the street to the building main. He did not even bother to get the rubber mat that he had in his truck and he did it barehanded. He said that he did it daily. He was dealing with 220 volts not thousands of volts. Then there is the story of the power worker who loved to collect dead squirrels near the transformer he died when he touched the wrong wire even though he was on a wooden pole. As you noted that transmission voltage is much higher before it is reduced. I avoided doing any fractile burning and threw the microwave away. The only way that I would even consider doing this would be to make all connections and then plug in the transformer. The school that I attended told us about a student of theirs who died from the output of a large capacitor after it was powered down.
My dad worked in avionics as a technician and one day he felt he could fix the CRT tv after fetching schematics from electronics market. The voltages reach 28kv if I recall correctly to power the cathode rays. At some point while testing he felt that tingling sensation from a distance from the transformer that even a tester tool started lighting up without contact. He got way too scared and abandoned the whole thing. We got a new tv instead.
Pity, we got a teaser but not the complete show!
Smart decision, it's not worth risking your life to fix a TV
Holy shit. I would shit myself if my multimeter suddenly said "the air has 20kV by the way"
Yes you can feel the energy or whatever it is coming off those old TV's. Would make my lips tickle if I got too close to the front of the TV as a child. It also had what I assume to be an ozone smell constantly coming off of it.
@@SPINNINGMYWHEELS777 I used to wave my hand in front of it to feel the fuzziness. I remember the weird smell too. I'm trying to remember if I licked the fuzziness once...
When I was a teenager, I read an account of a woman who was driving an enclosed-cab tractor across an open field, towing a very tall implement of some sort. She never thought of the overhead 7,200 volt power lines. The implement contacted them, the tractor died, and she was left sitting in her agricultural Faraday cage as power arced to the ground outside. She panicked, opened the door, and tried to jump clear. She didn’t make it that far. The current entered her hands, then exited her feet into the soil, burning holes in her feet through whatever footwear she had on. I believe she survived, possibly due to automatic breakers finally de-energizing the line. It must have all happened very quickly.
I work on RF linear amps with 2-3.5 kV supplies. I think of that story every time I look at one. You’re allowed zero mistakes. I cringe whenever I see a homebrew linear for sale.
So yes, get the word out to the unknowing just how dangerous a few kV are.
John Deere operators manual tells you to stay inside with a line strike, but if you have to get out [fire] jump as far as you can and land upright on your feet. I managed to shut off the power to a neighborhood with a large excavator once [And once only] but the wire stayed up as I just brushed it. So the power company had only to change a fuse and I got out of there very quick. The book also warns that high voltage lines can arc out about 15 feet, so you don't even need to touch the line. That makes any work near lines pretty dodgy.
@@RRaucina Land upright on your feet with your feet being close together. And then keep jumping away, don't walk or run. This is very important, as the step voltage can be high enough to give you a shock or kill you.
Oh boy. In the late 70's I got my 2nd class fcc rt license and I had to do this too. Big ass Johnson Vikings.... those things - I just hated the thought of working much less troubleshooting them!
Incident 1: Was working on a 25" color TV in my shop in my sock feet at night. My hand for some reason got within 1" of the top of the HV power supply (flyback xfmr), and an LONG arc went THROUGH the insulated output into my fingers! I screamed bloody murder!!! Scared the living shit outta me!
Incident 2: At the CB/Ham radio shop I worked at, I was setting up a Yaesu 250watt transceiver while the boss was talking to the customer in front of it. Couldn't see the coax connector so I was trying to hook it up by feel. For some reason, the VOX switch was ON, and while he was talking, the transmitter turned on and that damned connector burned a HOLE in my thumb!!!
I learned early on not to do stupid shit like this burning wood crap with electricity.
Better off waiting inside for help I think. Everyone thinks about vehicles blowing up from the movies. At work we were also told the power isn't out till it goes out twice and I've found that usually to be true. I wouldn't immediately jump out because I thought the power went out. I would still try to wait for the experts if possible because you only get one chance.
@@RRaucina I've seen those helicopters that work on high voltage wires. Those arcs are crazy and they definitely aren't grounded. Just at different potentials.
What a great teacher you are...I had no intention of doing fractal burning or even heard of it yet watched your video right through n then 2 more on smart meters and power saving devices. You should be on the BBC teaching us all basic electrics thanks!
Thank you sir for sharing your knowledge on this subject. It really makes you take notice.
There are two things I don't mess with: electricity and plumbing. Even had a licensed electrician come out to install some outlets and he shocked himself (minor) by accident, and he was a trained professional with decades of experience.
I''ll be trying to get a "fracking" pattern on my sump pump. It's too critical to shut off, but I think I can manage.
outlets and whatnot are not that hard to do. But what's even better is knowing our limitations and having someone else just do it so we don't kill ourselves in the process. My fat butt DOES NOT CLIMB, PERIOD. I also do not drive motorcycles, yes I know how to but my clumsy ass would get killed. Good on you for knowing when to let someone else do it.
@@yurimodin7333 yes, people need to know and understand their limits. You're not a coward or incapable because you chose to let a professional do it. Some things just require an expert.
Funny you mention climbing, I work with a BIG fella and he used to climb poles. I didn't believe him until he showed me a pic of him on the top of a pole, if he fell he would've left a crater. Strong guy and real nice, but man is he big. I'm sure he caught some looks from passerbys when he was up on that pole.
Wholesome comments right here
The family business was an electrical supply house. Too many of our customers died from electrocution. Sometime it would be something as unforeseen as drilling into a wall and hitting a high-voltage line.
When I was trained as a nationally registered paramedic, I was taught that electric Current takes the path of least resistance, following circulatory systems and nerve pathways. Higher voltage also arcs at times, literally blowing body parts off as it makes its way to the ground. It also causes a ferocious and persistent muscle contraction, which means you can't let go, hence the brilliance of using the two button box. I ran a number of fatal electrocutions over the years, and there is a very good reason he didn't show the image of the hand. Trust me when I tell you, if you are operating this without extreme safety protection, it's just a matter of time before you make a mistake. 7 out of ten of you will die. For a woodburning project. Seems to me that the risk far outweighs the fun.
Definitely. I'm sticking with Blender.
Exactly, but it it more complex. I work with extreme energy RF devices, and ground does not always stay ground. People expect power to pass from point A (source) to B (return) but in this case, they are deliberately carbonizing the material that their return is on, There are resistors made of compressed carbon... like they are creating. the resistance is soaring as the material carbonizes, all of a sudden the "safe" place they touched becomes the low impedance point to ground (through said "operator"). This is possibly the single dumbest thing I have ever heard of people doing... which is saying something, I have seen/done some really dumb stuff in my 60 years.
@@Doonit_hard_way_since_65 not even talking about what would happen if the insulation of the wire got damaged somehow. Suddenly you become the next „ground express“. People are actually insane for even handling open 2000W transformers from microwaves in the first place. It‘s the equivalent of using an LPO-50 flamethrower to cook your chicken. The internet really is a blessing and a curse at the same time.
@@PvtAnonymous Adding onto that, electrical resistance varies dramatically depending on the thickness of the material. It's why high voltage electrical lines have such large stacks of ceramic insulators and minimum distances that have to be maintained to keep the air itself from breaking down and arcing.
When you take a wire with insulation rated for 12 or 24V and pass 10kV through it instead, that insulation is liable to simply break down, no preexisting damage required.
@@EmptyZoo393 yes, didn‘t want to get too extensive with the length of my comment, but yes. Especially considering that you‘ll squeeze the wires with your fingers, accelerating that process. Some people shouldn‘t be even trusted with changing a light bulb, and certainly not toying around with transformers.
Clive, thank you so much for taking the time to create the brush up.
I've had a microwave transformer sitting on my bench for about a year, I need it to build a field generator to magnetize chrome ball bearings.
I haven't done anything on the project because I couldn't remember all I forgot from so long ago, I just knew there were large swaths of learnin’ that weren't readily available.
The lol at the end, it no shit made me lol, and I thank you for that as well!!!
Used to do this a few years back, still got the gear somewhere in the garage. Very dangerous but luckily had experience working with HV outside. You need to think things through at least a couple of times at every step. Had a dead mans switch, lights, LED and 2 buzzers to indicate when it was live ( one of each using the heater winding) an RCD of course. Used rubber gloves and a Nylon rod to put the voltage to the wood, all the cable insulations all rated above 3000V. I know the theory about the RCD not operating because of the "Galvanic Isolation" however I've seen the RCD trip loads of times when it "should not " so thought it would stay. Only problem I ever had was getting the pattern to not go where I did not want it to. Thought about doing some more but guess I am bored with it, if I do i want to fill the patterns with colored epoxy.
I first encountered a microwave transformer ~25 years ago. I'd salvaged it and had no idea what the secondary winding put out... so I plugged it in, and approached the terminal with a fluke multimeter. Before the probe touched, an arc jumped several mm. I jumped backward and promptly unplugged the primary, quite thankful to be alive. to jump the gap I saw, it had to have been over 5kV. I had followed the "hand in the pocket" rule, but at that voltage, as your video illustrates, your shoes aren't enough of an insulator to count on. I made out fine I suppose because I'd been on an asbestos tile floor over wood, and the transformer was on a wood bench, so just enough resistance to save me.
Dang, lucky! I usually just have a rubber mat and my work boots to insulate me from max 6kV (if a fault happens) potentially, as we often cross a transformer room during normal operations at work.
@@windshield11 I have the tyres of a power wheelchair. Lol
This reminds me of the Dust Bowl back in the 30s where after a black blizzard anything metal outside would get sand blasted enough to where if one reached out you would get up to a six inch spark leaving an arm temporarily paralyzed or worse get knocked out for a few hours.
@@MrKillswitch88 now that's living in the wild west!
I’m glad you’re still here
"Dead man's box" or Dead man's switches in industry typically have 3 position buttons that get depressed.... and you press it down to the first position to operate, let go to the first position, or press harder to the third position will put the machinery into E-stop...
This would be a better way to do this, if you get a shock and you grip it and press the button too hard, it would cut out automatically.
Working in industrial controls, the best way to do this would be to build an enclosure that kept you from having to hold the electrodes, and having an operator stand that had a very thick isolated rubber pad to stand on. Starting the machine would lower the electrodes and then turn on the power for as long as the deadman button is held.
Yeah, an enclosure was my first thought too.
The usual reason people make the hand-probes is to poke around and tease at the pattern. IMO, making yourself a 2D plotter using plastic parts (because sanity) and using the pen position as the electrode would be a good way to do this and be safe. This would let you completely remove yourself from the location where the HV is and be able to control where the HV is added.
Bonus points for putting the whole thing inside a huge plastic box. Extra bonus points for filling box with sulfur hexafluoride.
Also, for those willing to go a tad bit further, some of the fiber-optic "toslink" audio cables in stores have an adapter to stick into a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, because some DVD players & such used that as a miniature form of toslink... so if you're willing to use LEDs to transmit your "go!" signal, then you can achieve even more separation.
@@absalomdraconis Probably easier to use some 3d printing tricks to make a long plastic rod to actuate a switch. Less effort.
@@ConstantlyDamaged Hmm. Waldoes.
I really enjoyed this video… One small point I would mention is that if you’re going to remove one of these from a microwave oven, you should leave the microwave oven powered off for at least two weeks and then treat it like it’s completely still powered when you wear insulated gloves, and use an insulated screwdriver to short the capacitor. By leaving the microwave oven unpowered for two weeks you vastly increase the chances that the capacitor has self discharged, even if the discharge resistors are faulty… But then it’s still a good (mandatory) idea to treat it like it live and short out the capacitor with a well, insulated screwdriver as you mentioned (not to mention wearing heavy duty, insulated gloves for good measure). I’ve only ever used those types of transformers as paperweights… They are incredibly heavy for the small size and they can help with a great number of projects when you need something held down… anything is the first thing I do when I remove one is to cut all the wires off of it so no one will ever attempt to power it on… Although I do like the idea of the spot welder, I think I’d go with something a little bit more well designed, and overall just safer… I mean a decent simple spot welder is pretty inexpensive… and For most hobbyists a simple one is about all you really need most of the time.
When I was younger I used to make a bit of spare cash doing repairs on valve audio and radio equipment. I was working on a powerful PA amp with a fault in the power supply, a moments carelessness and I vapourised about an inch off the tip of an electrical screwdriver blinded myself for about 5 minutes and gave the most perfect black coating to the inside of the cabinet. Valuable lesson learned and a good video to warn folk NOT to mess around with high voltages.
I've been a microwave service technician for over twenty years. I am still very aware that it is very dangerous.
I didn't even know that was a career still. Kind of like how "tv repairman" is no longer a thing. Huh.
Same here. I was electrocuted by the sec. capacitor and it was not a nice experience.
@@michaelekstrom7698 you were shocked, not electrocuted. "Electrocuted" is a portmanteau of "electric" and "executed".
@@Guru_1092 🤣
@@Guru_1092 Why wouldn't it be? Unlike CRT TVs, Microwaves are still used by everyone.
As a appliance tech I laugh at soo many microwave videos online. One was a guy saying "Dont worry about the capacitor because it's in the back" while in the video it's 4 inches from his hand..
🤦
@T.J. Kong Yes, but it's best not to trust those.
@T.J. Kong I just jab my needle nose into capacitors leads
Scary stuff. Cant believe how viral fractal burning went for how risky they were doing it. Great vid!