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Re: Massive Mercury Migration
Posted By: SVP Neon Equipment In Response To: Massive Mercury Migration (terlsworld)
Date: Saturday, 16 April 2011, at 6:16 p.m.
Bill,
Are you sure it's Hg migration and not staining? I'm not saying it is or isn't either way. I'm just trying to eliminate other possibilities. I had a customer who swore he had Hg migration (which he may have had too), but when he sent me some pictures it was staining that was causing the end of the tube to look dark. And it was only from one end, which made it *appear* to be migration. Can you post some pictures here or email them directly to me?
With Hg migration, if you switch the transformer secondary wires around the migration should go the other way.
Did you burn-in the tubes thoroughly on a conventional transformer first? What kind of equipment and instrumentation do you have, and what processing procedure do you follow? Are you using the same brand and same model electrodes on each end of the tube? There are many things that affect the function of electronic transformers that should be addressed before you jump all over CPI. Personally, from what I have been hearing it is probably the transformers. But it's best to be sure first.
Q. 1. Where can I buy transformers that actually work at a reasonable cost.
A. Good question. I have heard good and bad reports for just about every brand regardless of price. But conventional wisdom is opposed to the Wal-Mart approach. Spend a little extra money and buy a better product first.
Q. 2. Do I have to switch to magnetic transformers and if I do will that solve the problem?
That is something you will have to decide. But a conventional magnetic transformer WILL solve the migration problem, albeit with the tradeoffs Winslow mentioned.
Q. 3. Should I just give up and go to truck driving school?
A. Another question you will have to answer for yourself. Just know that you will not get the "good" jobs until you have a lot of experience. There are a lot of drivers out there ahead of you.
Mark
> Hi all. I am new to neon well fairly new
> anyway I have been messing around with it
> for a couple years now just bending whenever
> the mood struck me. OK so now I have gotten
> to the point where I am finally thinking why
> not try to sell a few window signs. My
> letters are good enough to pass muster with
> the general public. I am sure you
> experienced benders would get a nice chuckle
> more than likely but for some shop owner it
> seems to be good enough. Anyway now about my
> problem. I first made an OPEN sign I figured
> everyone needs one right I use 12MM neon for
> the word open and 13mm argon for the border.
> So I put it all together turn it on and its
> all nice and bright the neon and argon are
> both burning very bright with the CPI6000
> transformer. I leave it on for like 10 hours
> to make sure the transformer doesn't get hot
> or anything. No just a little warm all tubes
> nice and bright. So I sell this sign to a
> guy and he calls me a few days latter and
> says his border is starting to fade. I go
> look at it and the mercury is migrating back
> tword one electrode. The neon tube is still
> doing just fine. So I make another sign this
> with all Argon tubing. Same CPI 6000
> transformer and it is doing good for a while
> then those tubes start to migrate. I figured
> with the first sign the mercury might have
> migrated because I was mixing argon and neon
> on the same transformer. But the second one
> was all argon. The website claims absolutly
> no mercury migration. So am I doing
> something wrong am I an idiot or what? So
> are these CPI transformers junk or what
> gives. I have read about the sign wave of
> electronic transformers and frankly I could
> care less about any theories about the
> physics of whats happening. I am looking for
> some straight answers. So here are my
> questions I put to you all.> 1. Where can I buy transformers that
> actually work at a reasonable cost.> 2. Do I have to switch to magnetic
> transformers and if I do will that solve the
> problem?> 3. Should I just give up and go to truck
> driving school?> OK I am awaiting the wisdom of this group to
> help me if you would be so kind.
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