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Disassemble A Transformer easily!

video Disassemble A Transformer easily!

Use a putty knife to take apart those stubborn transformers and get to the magnet wire inside!
You'll need:

A putty knife
A hammer or wooden mallet. (Anything with a good amount of weight to force the putty knife in between the ferrite sheets.)
a transformer to take apart! (quite obvious!)

Subscribe! My next instructable will show you how to use your newly found magnet wire to make a relay!
Please rate and comment!
Thanks for watching!
--Ryan

28 comments

Jun 10, 2011. 4:26 PMpiper1234 says:

I think I taw a putty knife

Jun 15, 2011. 6:10 AMrtty21 (author) says:

ha! nice

Jun 11, 2011. 12:52 AMhaunted2097 says:

Thanx for your instructable!

I was actually trying to tear apart a transformer recently but I gave up.

I have one question though:

Of course this is a material with a high magnetic permeability, but is it any good for use as a motor or generator core? I read somewhere laminated STEEL was good choice.

There is a chart in wikipedia listing various properties, I would like an explaination based on it so I learn stuff too

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permeability_%28electromagnetism%29

Thanx!

Jun 9, 2011. 11:47 AMreberturus says:

If yout want disassembly Ferrite (SMPS) Transformers I have 2 solution
1. Long time waiting but safe - put transformer to vessel of acetone for 6 - 8 hours then glue make soft and easy to remove it
2. Short but risky - Put transformer to hot oven (150'C) to few minutes then should easly to disassembly

Apr 13, 2011. 5:33 PM

Inducktion says:

Not to be a total jerk, but it's not ferrite; it's just laminated iron strips. ^^

Apr 13, 2011. 7:20 PMrtty21 (author) says:

ahh. I see. Aren't there some transformers that use ferrite?

Apr 13, 2011. 7:51 PM

Inducktion says:

Yes; Iron laminated cores are used at lower frequencies, typically around 50-60 khz. Ferrite cores can be used at a much wider range of frequencies: some 1khz to hundreds of thousands of KHZ. A flyback transformer uses a ferrite core. Most wall adapters use iron core transformers, like the one you're tearing apart!

Apr 15, 2011. 7:06 PM

Inducktion says:

Er, 50-60 HZ, not khz, I apologize xD

Apr 15, 2011. 7:30 PMrtty21 (author) says:

No probs. I knew what you meant and i didn't even notice the "K" in front of "Hz" either! lol

Apr 14, 2011. 6:52 PMrtty21 (author) says:

thanks for the response! very interesting.

Apr 10, 2011. 3:53 AMOdomus says:

Out of blantant curiosity... If Iam not in use of the ferrite core at all, and jsut want the wire... it is possible to just use a cut off disc and cut off the core on the I and E bars? Instead of using a putty knife? Is it possible anyways? Never tried it myself as I have gone through all my cut off disc's. BUt thought to ask before I go out an buy any in the near future.

And again, great instruc. And keep up the good work.

Apr 10, 2011. 7:03 PMrtty21 (author) says:

if you try to cut through the ferrite core, you are going to so much more work than necessary. using the putty knife is so much easier than trying to cut through the "E" and "I" bars surrounding the wire.

Apr 9, 2011. 5:18 AM

pfred2 says:

So you're using a putty knife to loosen the potting material? I've heard what you call the bar referred to as an "I" plate. Goes with "E" somewhat better. Old McDonald had a transformer E I E I O. Copper, the poor man's gold! Now all you have to figure out is what to do with all those silicon iron plates you're piling up there.

Apr 9, 2011. 5:36 PMrtty21 (author) says:

I already have a use for them. throw them in the trash! lol, jk. I do need to find a use for them... thanks for the comment!

Apr 10, 2011. 2:31 AMscraptopower says:

lol, I have a huge collection of these too. There must be some great project we can make with them ?

Apr 10, 2011. 2:06 AM

pfred2 says:

You could always wind your own custom transformers. making a winding machine is a classic project. By the looks of your homemade relay you could use one! But for that I'd have used a VSR drill and just chucked the screw. And by chuck I mean place in the drill chuck not toss.

Jun 12, 2011. 7:48 PMElectroFrank says:

Slap all the E's back together (same way round this time), poke them back through the coil, and you will have a good electromagnet.

Now stick all the I's together as a pole piece, add a little spring & hinge, and you will have the mechanism for a really beefy relay. Just add contacts !

In order to get to Uni, please don't touch mains live wires before you arrive !

Jun 15, 2011. 6:03 AMrtty21 (author) says:

nice idea!

Jun 12, 2011. 9:37 PM

pfred2 says:

Old time electricians used their thumb and forefinger as voltage testers on mains wiring all the time. But they knew what they were doing and grounded their thumbs first etc. so probably best if no one here tries to copy them.

Recently I have been messing around with transformers some here. I've had bare mains voltage all over my experimenter's desk a lot too. Things were looking a lot like this if not worse:

http://i.imgur.com/ZmoPu.jpg

That'd be one tough transformer to disassemble huh?

Another shot of my recently enclosed variac which I think is about the neatest transformer type going:

http://i.imgur.com/icN2g.jpg

Earlier in that project:

http://i.imgur.com/bZyI8.jpg

Now I have to figure out a really tiny transformer for an ESR meter project I am working on. I need one with a 20::1 turns ratio and a ferrite core, not a laminated one. I think because of the frequency it will be operating at. These are uncharted waters I'm going into for me.

http://ludens.cl/Electron/esr/esr.html

My oscillator works good but I'm a little sketchy about this whole transformer deal. Oh well I guess this is how we all become familiar with things.

Apr 9, 2011. 11:22 AMMudbud says:

Wow this is c00l! :D

Apr 9, 2011. 5:36 PMrtty21 (author) says:

thanks!

Apr 8, 2011. 6:35 PM

TSC says:

Nice!

Apr 9, 2011. 4:57 AMrtty21 (author) says:

thanks!

Apr 9, 2011. 7:09 AM

TSC says:

Your welcome!

Apr 8, 2011. 8:20 PMJimmy Proton says:

Pretty nice! I once took a transformer apart and rewound it to convert 20VAC into 1.5VAC, it had two output's but it wasn't very efficient at all because I only used 20 turns on each side so with the same amount of turns on each side it still acted as a step down transformer.

Apr 9, 2011. 4:58 AMrtty21 (author) says:

cool, and interesting. thanks for sharing!

Apr 8, 2011. 5:54 PMMROHM says:

(removed by author or community request)

Apr 9, 2011. 4:57 AMrtty21 (author) says:

thanks for the comment!