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I have 3 of these, and I have no idea what to do with them. I want to toss them in my transformer pile, but my yards would probably say it shred. The outside is cast aluminum, and there is a hardened gel on the top. I'm kinda afraid to bust one open, because it sounds like its a ballast of some kind, and some ballasts contain bad chemicals and stuff. (I can't remember what they are called right now). Anyway, what would you guys do with them?
http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/...r/IMG_0166.jpg
Well, I can see that it is says transformer right on the label there so in the transformer pile they'd go if it were up to me. My yard wouldn't mind seeing as how they are obviously a transformer. They come in all shapes and sizes with all kinds of different materials in them so I don't think you'd have a problem. The chemical name you were looking for is PCB (Polychlorinated biphenyl). By looking at it, I don't think there would be PCB's in there but who knows. I believe they stopped making ballasts with PCB's in them a while ago. Don't hold me to that though...
They stoped making ballast with pcb's in the late 70's, my rule of thum is any ballast made after 1980 is a no pcb ballast. Even though they say transformer on them your yard might say they are a ballast.
I decided to rip one of these open, and it was not worth my time to do the rest. There was rubber poured into the entire transformer, which made it a p.i.t.a to get apart. Anyway, there was one small low grade board, some copper wires, and a ferrite ring with copper wire wrapped around it, and some cast aluminum. Not worth it in my opinion, but the only way to find out is to bust out the Estwing.