August 4, 2012
Breaker breaker
Turns out to be the panel. It is a thing that is not thought about very much but is still a very nice design feature.
Circuit Breakers are designed to fail conservatively. If a 20 Amp breaker starts to fail, it will trip at a lower value and not stay energized when a higher current than 20 Amps starts to flow through it. It's inherent design will always protect the device under load.
By the same token, instead of doing a dead short across the output, it will fail open. This is what happened here -- I have both legs (220 Volts) going into the breaker but nothing coming out. I pulled the breaker, replaced it with a new one and voil� -- 220 Volts output. This is as far as I am going to go tonight. Like I said, the panel is corroded so I'll head into town tomorrow and pick up a replacement and start with all new wiring. Still do not know what was spraying so I got those gubbins today.
We will be heading out to
The Puget Sound Antique Tractor & Machinery Association tomorrow morning for the final day of their annual antique engine and steam show. Always a lot of fun!
UPDATE: Well crap -- forgot that this doesn't run on Sunday. Today is their last day so we will miss it this year...
Posted by DaveH at August 4, 2012 4:39 PM
Corroded panel? Clean everything with a wire brush or SkotchBrite, down to clean copper. when you reassemble, a light coating of synthetic grease will stave off future corrosion.
We do it all the time on industrial equipment.
Make sure everything is DEAD, though. And be careful.
And after the work is done, borrow an infrared thermometer and check for hot spots when there's load on the panel.
MC