I have a two-tube fluorescent desk lamp that buzzes too annoyingly to
use, but it's a terrific lamp otherwise. Any ideas how to silence it?

On Apr 25, 3:58*am, Ivan wrote:
I have a two-tube fluorescent desk lamp that buzzes too annoyingly to
use, but it's a terrific lamp otherwise. *Any ideas how to silence it?

There is likely a thing called a ballast (a sort of transformer)
inside lamp base, (not much info provided to go on!) and it may be
slightly loose.Tighten the screws holding the ballast. Glue the
ballast in place/place or jam a piece of something softer maybe
cardboard between ballast and the box/frame etc. Twist the metal case
of the lamp base holding the ballast so it doesn't vibrate. Add weight
to bottom of lamp base? Pour in some cement or heavy
glue ............. !
In other words do everything possible to stop vibration due to the 60
cycle (In North America) frequency of the electrcity being supplied
when the lamp is switched on. Maybe the clamp of the ballast itself is
slightly loose?
We once had a fluorescent tube lamp in the upper part of a cooking
stove that also buzzed, we rarely used the lamp anyway; seemed to be
more of a dress-up item than much practical use. Later found that one
end of the small ballast, which looked much like a small transformer
was secured by one sheet metal screw, while the other end was just
tagged slightly loose into a metal slot. Cheap factory labour saving
construction? Twisting the tag stopped the vibration; took all of five
minutes. Kept the ballast somewhere when we later scrapped the
stove.

terry wrote:

On Apr 25, 3:58 am, Ivan wrote:

I have a two-tube fluorescent desk lamp that buzzes too annoyingly to
use, but it's a terrific lamp otherwise. Any ideas how to silence it?


There is likely a thing called a ballast (a sort of transformer)
inside lamp base, (not much info provided to go on!) and it may be
slightly loose.Tighten the screws holding the ballast. Glue the
ballast in place/place or jam a piece of something softer maybe
cardboard between ballast and the box/frame etc. Twist the metal case
of the lamp base holding the ballast so it doesn't vibrate. Add weight
to bottom of lamp base? Pour in some cement or heavy
glue ............. !
In other words do everything possible to stop vibration due to the 60
cycle (In North America) frequency of the electrcity being supplied
when the lamp is switched on. Maybe the clamp of the ballast itself is
slightly loose?
We once had a fluorescent tube lamp in the upper part of a cooking
stove that also buzzed, we rarely used the lamp anyway; seemed to be
more of a dress-up item than much practical use. Later found that one
end of the small ballast, which looked much like a small transformer
was secured by one sheet metal screw, while the other end was just
tagged slightly loose into a metal slot. Cheap factory labour saving
construction? Twisting the tag stopped the vibration; took all of five
minutes. Kept the ballast somewhere when we later scrapped the
stove.


If it does have a magnetic ballast, and tightening the ballast mounting
doesn't work you could try what an office maintenance worker "tought me"
a long time ago.

Dismount the ballast, hold it in one hand and give it a couple of whaps
on its side with the ball end of as BP hammer. Make some minor dents to
tighten the case against the ballast lamination stack.

Jeff

I't worked for me a couple of times already.

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10e12 furlongs per fortnight.

In , jeff_wisnia wrote:
terry wrote:

On Apr 25, 3:58 am, Ivan wrote:

I have a two-tube fluorescent desk lamp that buzzes too annoyingly to
use, but it's a terrific lamp otherwise. Any ideas how to silence it?


There is likely a thing called a ballast (a sort of transformer)
inside lamp base, (not much info provided to go on!) and it may be
slightly loose.Tighten the screws holding the ballast. Glue the
ballast in place/place or jam a piece of something softer maybe
cardboard between ballast and the box/frame etc. Twist the metal case
of the lamp base holding the ballast so it doesn't vibrate. Add weight
to bottom of lamp base? Pour in some cement or heavy
glue ............. !
In other words do everything possible to stop vibration due to the 60
cycle (In North America) frequency of the electrcity being supplied
when the lamp is switched on. Maybe the clamp of the ballast itself is
slightly loose?
We once had a fluorescent tube lamp in the upper part of a cooking
stove that also buzzed, we rarely used the lamp anyway; seemed to be
more of a dress-up item than much practical use. Later found that one
end of the small ballast, which looked much like a small transformer
was secured by one sheet metal screw, while the other end was just
tagged slightly loose into a metal slot. Cheap factory labour saving
construction? Twisting the tag stopped the vibration; took all of five
minutes. Kept the ballast somewhere when we later scrapped the
stove.


If it does have a magnetic ballast, and tightening the ballast mounting
doesn't work you could try what an office maintenance worker "tought me"
a long time ago.

Dismount the ballast, hold it in one hand and give it a couple of whaps
on its side with the ball end of as BP hammer. Make some minor dents to
tighten the case against the ballast lamination stack.

Jeff

I't worked for me a couple of times already.

Sounds good to me!

But anyone else doing this needs to know to hammer over the lamination
stack as opposed to the winding!

The lamination stack is the rectangular portion sticking out in the two
longest dimensions. The winding is what bulges up and down from the
middle of the lamination stack.

(The winding is around a "center leg" of the lamination stack, and goes
through two holes in the lamination stack. The lamination stack is the
"iron core", made of a kind of steel optimized for this purpose in large
part by mixing in silicon to reduce its electrical conductivity. The
lamination stack is made of E-shaped and I-shaped thin sheets/laminations
of this "silicon steel". The winding is around the "center leg" of the
"E", and the "I" is placed against the tips of the 3 legs of the "E".

In most lamp ballasts using an "E-I core" as well as some specialty
transformers where the primary winding conducts significant DC, and
many inductors made with E-I cores, the E pieces point the same way so
that a nonmagnetic gap (often paper) is added in the "magnetic flux
circuit" between a stack of E pieces and a stack of I pieces. In some
lamp ballasts, the E-stack is even welded to the I-stack at the edges,
which causes a minor increase in eddy current loss.
Otherwise, especially with transformers handling pure AC, the E pieces
and I pieces are interleaved.)

So, I offer some details of ballast and transformer construction so that
others trying to silence a ballast with a ball-peen hammer know where to
pound! Pound against the lamination stack - not the winding!

- Don Klipstein )

On Sun, 25 Apr 2010 14:00:42 -0400, jeff_wisnia
wrote:

terry wrote:

....


If it does have a magnetic ballast, and tightening the ballast mounting
doesn't work you could try what an office maintenance worker "tought me"
a long time ago.

Dismount the ballast, hold it in one hand and give it a couple of whaps
on its side with the ball end of as BP hammer. Make some minor dents to
tighten the case against the ballast lamination stack.

Jeff
....

Or replace it with a modern electronic ballast.

In article ,
(Don Klipstein) wrote:

In , jeff_wisnia wrote:
terry wrote:

On Apr 25, 3:58 am, Ivan wrote:

I have a two-tube fluorescent desk lamp that buzzes too annoyingly to
use, but it's a terrific lamp otherwise. Any ideas how to silence it?


There is likely a thing called a ballast (a sort of transformer)
inside lamp base, (not much info provided to go on!) and it may be
slightly loose.Tighten the screws holding the ballast. Glue the
ballast in place/place or jam a piece of something softer maybe
cardboard between ballast and the box/frame etc. Twist the metal case
of the lamp base holding the ballast so it doesn't vibrate. Add weight
to bottom of lamp base? Pour in some cement or heavy
glue ............. !
In other words do everything possible to stop vibration due to the 60
cycle (In North America) frequency of the electrcity being supplied
when the lamp is switched on. Maybe the clamp of the ballast itself is
slightly loose?
We once had a fluorescent tube lamp in the upper part of a cooking
stove that also buzzed, we rarely used the lamp anyway; seemed to be
more of a dress-up item than much practical use. Later found that one
end of the small ballast, which looked much like a small transformer
was secured by one sheet metal screw, while the other end was just
tagged slightly loose into a metal slot. Cheap factory labour saving
construction? Twisting the tag stopped the vibration; took all of five
minutes. Kept the ballast somewhere when we later scrapped the
stove.


If it does have a magnetic ballast, and tightening the ballast mounting
doesn't work you could try what an office maintenance worker "tought me"
a long time ago.

Dismount the ballast, hold it in one hand and give it a couple of whaps
on its side with the ball end of as BP hammer. Make some minor dents to
tighten the case against the ballast lamination stack.

Jeff

I't worked for me a couple of times already.

Sounds good to me!

But anyone else doing this needs to know to hammer over the lamination
stack as opposed to the winding!

The lamination stack is the rectangular portion sticking out in the two
longest dimensions. The winding is what bulges up and down from the
middle of the lamination stack.

(The winding is around a "center leg" of the lamination stack, and goes
through two holes in the lamination stack. The lamination stack is the
"iron core", made of a kind of steel optimized for this purpose in large
part by mixing in silicon to reduce its electrical conductivity. The
lamination stack is made of E-shaped and I-shaped thin sheets/laminations
of this "silicon steel". The winding is around the "center leg" of the
"E", and the "I" is placed against the tips of the 3 legs of the "E".

In most lamp ballasts using an "E-I core" as well as some specialty
transformers where the primary winding conducts significant DC, and
many inductors made with E-I cores, the E pieces point the same way so
that a nonmagnetic gap (often paper) is added in the "magnetic flux
circuit" between a stack of E pieces and a stack of I pieces. In some
lamp ballasts, the E-stack is even welded to the I-stack at the edges,
which causes a minor increase in eddy current loss.
Otherwise, especially with transformers handling pure AC, the E pieces
and I pieces are interleaved.)

So, I offer some details of ballast and transformer construction so that
others trying to silence a ballast with a ball-peen hammer know where to
pound! Pound against the lamination stack - not the winding!

- Don Klipstein )

I'm only on my first cup of coffee, but I'm not visualizing this. I'm
familiar with Es and Is and windings, because I've manufactured
transformers. But your description he


The lamination stack is the rectangular portion sticking out in the two
longest dimensions. The winding is what bulges up and down from the
middle of the lamination stack.

isn't working for me. The ballasts I'm familiar with are more or less
rectangular prisms, with no particular bulging. Can you illustrate or
clarify?

In ,
Smitty Two wrote:
In article ,
(Don Klipstein) wrote:

In , jeff_wisnia wrote:
terry wrote:

On Apr 25, 3:58 am, Ivan wrote:

I have a two-tube fluorescent desk lamp that buzzes too annoyingly to
use, but it's a terrific lamp otherwise. Any ideas how to silence it?


There is likely a thing called a ballast (a sort of transformer)
inside lamp base, (not much info provided to go on!) and it may be
slightly loose.Tighten the screws holding the ballast. Glue the
ballast in place/place or jam a piece of something softer maybe
cardboard between ballast and the box/frame etc. Twist the metal case
of the lamp base holding the ballast so it doesn't vibrate. Add weight
to bottom of lamp base? Pour in some cement or heavy
glue ............. !
In other words do everything possible to stop vibration due to the 60
cycle (In North America) frequency of the electrcity being supplied
when the lamp is switched on. Maybe the clamp of the ballast itself is
slightly loose?
We once had a fluorescent tube lamp in the upper part of a cooking
stove that also buzzed, we rarely used the lamp anyway; seemed to be
more of a dress-up item than much practical use. Later found that one
end of the small ballast, which looked much like a small transformer
was secured by one sheet metal screw, while the other end was just
tagged slightly loose into a metal slot. Cheap factory labour saving
construction? Twisting the tag stopped the vibration; took all of five
minutes. Kept the ballast somewhere when we later scrapped the
stove.


If it does have a magnetic ballast, and tightening the ballast mounting
doesn't work you could try what an office maintenance worker "tought me"
a long time ago.

Dismount the ballast, hold it in one hand and give it a couple of whaps
on its side with the ball end of as BP hammer. Make some minor dents to
tighten the case against the ballast lamination stack.

Jeff

I't worked for me a couple of times already.

Sounds good to me!

But anyone else doing this needs to know to hammer over the lamination
stack as opposed to the winding!

The lamination stack is the rectangular portion sticking out in the two
longest dimensions. The winding is what bulges up and down from the
middle of the lamination stack.

(The winding is around a "center leg" of the lamination stack, and goes
through two holes in the lamination stack. The lamination stack is the
"iron core", made of a kind of steel optimized for this purpose in large
part by mixing in silicon to reduce its electrical conductivity. The
lamination stack is made of E-shaped and I-shaped thin sheets/laminations
of this "silicon steel". The winding is around the "center leg" of the
"E", and the "I" is placed against the tips of the 3 legs of the "E".

In most lamp ballasts using an "E-I core" as well as some specialty
transformers where the primary winding conducts significant DC, and
many inductors made with E-I cores, the E pieces point the same way so
that a nonmagnetic gap (often paper) is added in the "magnetic flux
circuit" between a stack of E pieces and a stack of I pieces. In some
lamp ballasts, the E-stack is even welded to the I-stack at the edges,
which causes a minor increase in eddy current loss.
Otherwise, especially with transformers handling pure AC, the E pieces
and I pieces are interleaved.)

So, I offer some details of ballast and transformer construction so that
others trying to silence a ballast with a ball-peen hammer know where to
pound! Pound against the lamination stack - not the winding!

- Don Klipstein )

I'm only on my first cup of coffee, but I'm not visualizing this. I'm
familiar with Es and Is and windings, because I've manufactured
transformers. But your description he


The lamination stack is the rectangular portion sticking out in the two
longest dimensions. The winding is what bulges up and down from the
middle of the lamination stack.

isn't working for me. The ballasts I'm familiar with are more or less
rectangular prisms, with no particular bulging. Can you illustrate or
clarify?

How about a photo?

http://www.green-energy-efficient-ho...m/image-files/
old-fluorescent-ballast.jpg

That ballast has a metal case consisting of a few pieces, including two
rectangular sheets each having a bulge to accomodate the winding. One of
those two bulged-out plates is visible in the photo.

Another photo:

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/...ent-lamp-6.jpg

--
- Don Klipstein )

In news Smitty Two typed:
In article ,
(Don Klipstein) wrote:

In ,
jeff_wisnia wrote:
terry wrote:

On Apr 25, 3:58 am, Ivan wrote:

I have a two-tube fluorescent desk lamp that buzzes too
annoyingly to use, but it's a terrific lamp otherwise.
Any ideas how to silence it?


There is likely a thing called a ballast (a sort of
transformer) inside lamp base, (not much info provided
to go on!) and it may be slightly loose.Tighten the
screws holding the ballast. Glue the ballast in
place/place or jam a piece of something softer maybe
cardboard between ballast and the box/frame etc. Twist
the metal case of the lamp base holding the ballast so
it doesn't vibrate. Add weight to bottom of lamp base?
Pour in some cement or heavy
glue ............. !
In other words do everything possible to stop vibration
due to the 60 cycle (In North America) frequency of the
electrcity being supplied when the lamp is switched on.
Maybe the clamp of the ballast itself is slightly loose?
We once had a fluorescent tube lamp in the upper part of
a cooking stove that also buzzed, we rarely used the
lamp anyway; seemed to be more of a dress-up item than
much practical use. Later found that one end of the
small ballast, which looked much like a small
transformer was secured by one sheet metal screw, while
the other end was just tagged slightly loose into a
metal slot. Cheap factory labour saving construction?
Twisting the tag stopped the vibration; took all of five
minutes. Kept the ballast somewhere when we later
scrapped the
stove.


If it does have a magnetic ballast, and tightening the
ballast mounting doesn't work you could try what an
office maintenance worker "tought me" a long time ago.

Dismount the ballast, hold it in one hand and give it a
couple of whaps on its side with the ball end of as BP
hammer. Make some minor dents to tighten the case against
the ballast lamination stack.

Jeff

I't worked for me a couple of times already.

Sounds good to me!

But anyone else doing this needs to know to hammer over
the lamination stack as opposed to the winding!

The lamination stack is the rectangular portion sticking
out in the two longest dimensions. The winding is what
bulges up and down from the middle of the lamination stack.

(The winding is around a "center leg" of the lamination
stack, and goes through two holes in the lamination stack.
The lamination stack is the "iron core", made of a kind of
steel optimized for this purpose in large part by mixing
in silicon to reduce its electrical conductivity. The
lamination stack is made of E-shaped and I-shaped thin
sheets/laminations of this "silicon steel". The winding
is around the "center leg" of the "E", and the "I" is
placed against the tips of the 3 legs of the "E".

In most lamp ballasts using an "E-I core" as well as
some specialty transformers where the primary winding
conducts significant DC, and
many inductors made with E-I cores, the E pieces point the
same way so that a nonmagnetic gap (often paper) is added
in the "magnetic flux circuit" between a stack of E pieces
and a stack of I pieces. In some lamp ballasts, the
E-stack is even welded to the I-stack at the edges, which
causes a minor increase in eddy current loss. Otherwise,
especially with transformers handling pure AC, the E
pieces and I pieces are interleaved.)

So, I offer some details of ballast and transformer
construction so that others trying to silence a ballast
with a ball-peen hammer know where to pound! Pound
against the lamination stack - not the winding!

- Don Klipstein )

I'm only on my first cup of coffee, but I'm not visualizing
this. I'm familiar with Es and Is and windings, because
I've manufactured transformers. But your description he


The lamination stack is the rectangular portion sticking
out in the two longest dimensions. The winding is what
bulges up and down from the middle of the lamination stack.

isn't working for me. The ballasts I'm familiar with are
more or less rectangular prisms, with no particular
bulging. Can you illustrate or clarify?

If you have xformer experience, then it should be easy to visualize that the
buzz is simply comiing from the "plates", usually but not always E shaped,
because two or more adjacent ones have become able to move about and that
movement creates the "buzz" as they hit each other.
There really isn't any lasting solution and hitting with a hammer is
likely to cause other problems; if it's too annoying, the only real solution
is to replace the ballast.

HTH,

Twayne`

On Mon, 26 Apr 2010 20:15:54 +0000 (UTC), (Don
Klipstein) wrote:

In ,
Smitty Two wrote:
In article ,
(Don Klipstein) wrote:

In , jeff_wisnia wrote:
terry wrote:

On Apr 25, 3:58 am, Ivan wrote:

I have a two-tube fluorescent desk lamp that buzzes too annoyingly to
use, but it's a terrific lamp otherwise. Any ideas how to silence it?


There is likely a thing called a ballast (a sort of transformer)
inside lamp base, (not much info provided to go on!) and it may be
slightly loose.Tighten the screws holding the ballast. Glue the
ballast in place/place or jam a piece of something softer maybe
cardboard between ballast and the box/frame etc. Twist the metal case
of the lamp base holding the ballast so it doesn't vibrate. Add weight
to bottom of lamp base? Pour in some cement or heavy
glue ............. !
In other words do everything possible to stop vibration due to the 60
cycle (In North America) frequency of the electrcity being supplied
when the lamp is switched on. Maybe the clamp of the ballast itself is
slightly loose?
We once had a fluorescent tube lamp in the upper part of a cooking
stove that also buzzed, we rarely used the lamp anyway; seemed to be
more of a dress-up item than much practical use. Later found that one
end of the small ballast, which looked much like a small transformer
was secured by one sheet metal screw, while the other end was just
tagged slightly loose into a metal slot. Cheap factory labour saving
construction? Twisting the tag stopped the vibration; took all of five
minutes. Kept the ballast somewhere when we later scrapped the
stove.


If it does have a magnetic ballast, and tightening the ballast mounting
doesn't work you could try what an office maintenance worker "tought me"
a long time ago.

Dismount the ballast, hold it in one hand and give it a couple of whaps
on its side with the ball end of as BP hammer. Make some minor dents to
tighten the case against the ballast lamination stack.

Jeff

I't worked for me a couple of times already.

Sounds good to me!

But anyone else doing this needs to know to hammer over the lamination
stack as opposed to the winding!

The lamination stack is the rectangular portion sticking out in the two
longest dimensions. The winding is what bulges up and down from the
middle of the lamination stack.

(The winding is around a "center leg" of the lamination stack, and goes
through two holes in the lamination stack. The lamination stack is the
"iron core", made of a kind of steel optimized for this purpose in large
part by mixing in silicon to reduce its electrical conductivity. The
lamination stack is made of E-shaped and I-shaped thin sheets/laminations
of this "silicon steel". The winding is around the "center leg" of the
"E", and the "I" is placed against the tips of the 3 legs of the "E".

In most lamp ballasts using an "E-I core" as well as some specialty
transformers where the primary winding conducts significant DC, and
many inductors made with E-I cores, the E pieces point the same way so
that a nonmagnetic gap (often paper) is added in the "magnetic flux
circuit" between a stack of E pieces and a stack of I pieces. In some
lamp ballasts, the E-stack is even welded to the I-stack at the edges,
which causes a minor increase in eddy current loss.
Otherwise, especially with transformers handling pure AC, the E pieces
and I pieces are interleaved.)

So, I offer some details of ballast and transformer construction so that
others trying to silence a ballast with a ball-peen hammer know where to
pound! Pound against the lamination stack - not the winding!

- Don Klipstein )

I'm only on my first cup of coffee, but I'm not visualizing this. I'm
familiar with Es and Is and windings, because I've manufactured
transformers. But your description he


The lamination stack is the rectangular portion sticking out in the two
longest dimensions. The winding is what bulges up and down from the
middle of the lamination stack.

isn't working for me. The ballasts I'm familiar with are more or less
rectangular prisms, with no particular bulging. Can you illustrate or
clarify?

How about a photo?

http://www.green-energy-efficient-ho...m/image-files/
old-fluorescent-ballast.jpg

That ballast has a metal case consisting of a few pieces, including two
rectangular sheets each having a bulge to accomodate the winding. One of
those two bulged-out plates is visible in the photo.

Another photo:

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/...ent-lamp-6.jpg
Boy, it's been a REAL LONG TIME since I/ve seen a ballast like
that!!!

In article ,
"Twayne" wrote:

In news Smitty Two typed:
In article ,
(Don Klipstein) wrote:

In ,
jeff_wisnia wrote:
terry wrote:

On Apr 25, 3:58 am, Ivan wrote:

I have a two-tube fluorescent desk lamp that buzzes too
annoyingly to use, but it's a terrific lamp otherwise.
Any ideas how to silence it?


There is likely a thing called a ballast (a sort of
transformer) inside lamp base, (not much info provided
to go on!) and it may be slightly loose.Tighten the
screws holding the ballast. Glue the ballast in
place/place or jam a piece of something softer maybe
cardboard between ballast and the box/frame etc. Twist
the metal case of the lamp base holding the ballast so
it doesn't vibrate. Add weight to bottom of lamp base?
Pour in some cement or heavy
glue ............. !
In other words do everything possible to stop vibration
due to the 60 cycle (In North America) frequency of the
electrcity being supplied when the lamp is switched on.
Maybe the clamp of the ballast itself is slightly loose?
We once had a fluorescent tube lamp in the upper part of
a cooking stove that also buzzed, we rarely used the
lamp anyway; seemed to be more of a dress-up item than
much practical use. Later found that one end of the
small ballast, which looked much like a small
transformer was secured by one sheet metal screw, while
the other end was just tagged slightly loose into a
metal slot. Cheap factory labour saving construction?
Twisting the tag stopped the vibration; took all of five
minutes. Kept the ballast somewhere when we later
scrapped the
stove.


If it does have a magnetic ballast, and tightening the
ballast mounting doesn't work you could try what an
office maintenance worker "tought me" a long time ago.

Dismount the ballast, hold it in one hand and give it a
couple of whaps on its side with the ball end of as BP
hammer. Make some minor dents to tighten the case against
the ballast lamination stack.

Jeff

I't worked for me a couple of times already.

Sounds good to me!

But anyone else doing this needs to know to hammer over
the lamination stack as opposed to the winding!

The lamination stack is the rectangular portion sticking
out in the two longest dimensions. The winding is what
bulges up and down from the middle of the lamination stack.

(The winding is around a "center leg" of the lamination
stack, and goes through two holes in the lamination stack.
The lamination stack is the "iron core", made of a kind of
steel optimized for this purpose in large part by mixing
in silicon to reduce its electrical conductivity. The
lamination stack is made of E-shaped and I-shaped thin
sheets/laminations of this "silicon steel". The winding
is around the "center leg" of the "E", and the "I" is
placed against the tips of the 3 legs of the "E".

In most lamp ballasts using an "E-I core" as well as
some specialty transformers where the primary winding
conducts significant DC, and
many inductors made with E-I cores, the E pieces point the
same way so that a nonmagnetic gap (often paper) is added
in the "magnetic flux circuit" between a stack of E pieces
and a stack of I pieces. In some lamp ballasts, the
E-stack is even welded to the I-stack at the edges, which
causes a minor increase in eddy current loss. Otherwise,
especially with transformers handling pure AC, the E
pieces and I pieces are interleaved.)

So, I offer some details of ballast and transformer
construction so that others trying to silence a ballast
with a ball-peen hammer know where to pound! Pound
against the lamination stack - not the winding!

- Don Klipstein )

I'm only on my first cup of coffee, but I'm not visualizing
this. I'm familiar with Es and Is and windings, because
I've manufactured transformers. But your description he


The lamination stack is the rectangular portion sticking
out in the two longest dimensions. The winding is what
bulges up and down from the middle of the lamination stack.

isn't working for me. The ballasts I'm familiar with are
more or less rectangular prisms, with no particular
bulging. Can you illustrate or clarify?

If you have xformer experience, then it should be easy to visualize that the
buzz is simply comiing from the "plates", usually but not always E shaped,
because two or more adjacent ones have become able to move about and that
movement creates the "buzz" as they hit each other.
There really isn't any lasting solution and hitting with a hammer is
likely to cause other problems; if it's too annoying, the only real solution
is to replace the ballast.

HTH,

Twayne`

Sure, I know that loose or poorly potted lams make a transformer buzz,
but I'd not heard of the hammer whack repair technique, and I'd like to
try it. Just wanted to attempt to heed the warning about where to hit
it. I can't see the damn lams and windings from the outside, because the
X-ray vision glasses I got from Johnson Smith only work on women's
clothing, not steel.

In article ,
(Don Klipstein) wrote:



How about a photo?

http://www.green-energy-efficient-ho...m/image-files/
old-fluorescent-ballast.jpg

That ballast has a metal case consisting of a few pieces, including two
rectangular sheets each having a bulge to accomodate the winding. One of
those two bulged-out plates is visible in the photo.




Ah, OK, we're talking about different animals. The ballasts I know look
like this:

http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorial/BallastRetrofit/Pics/new_ballast_3.jpg

In , wrote:
On 26 Apr '10 20:15:54 +00 UTC, (Don Klipstein) wrote:

In ,
Smitty Two wrote:
In article ,
(Don Klipstein) wrote:

In , jeff_wisnia wrote:
terry wrote:

On Apr 25, 3:58 am, Ivan wrote:

I have a two-tube fluorescent desk lamp that buzzes too annoyingly to
use, but it's a terrific lamp otherwise. Any ideas how to silence it?


There is likely a thing called a ballast (a sort of transformer)
inside lamp base, (not much info provided to go on!) and it may be
slightly loose.Tighten the screws holding the ballast. Glue the
ballast in place/place or jam a piece of something softer maybe
cardboard between ballast and the box/frame etc. Twist the metal case
of the lamp base holding the ballast so it doesn't vibrate. Add weight
to bottom of lamp base? Pour in some cement or heavy
glue ............. !
In other words do everything possible to stop vibration due to the 60
cycle (In North America) frequency of the electrcity being supplied
when the lamp is switched on. Maybe the clamp of the ballast itself is
slightly loose?
We once had a fluorescent tube lamp in the upper part of a cooking
stove that also buzzed, we rarely used the lamp anyway; seemed to be
more of a dress-up item than much practical use. Later found that one
end of the small ballast, which looked much like a small transformer
was secured by one sheet metal screw, while the other end was just
tagged slightly loose into a metal slot. Cheap factory labour saving
construction? Twisting the tag stopped the vibration; took all of five
minutes. Kept the ballast somewhere when we later scrapped the
stove.

If it does have a magnetic ballast, and tightening the ballast mounting
doesn't work you could try what an office maintenance worker "tought me"
a long time ago.

Dismount the ballast, hold it in one hand and give it a couple of whaps
on its side with the ball end of as BP hammer. Make some minor dents to
tighten the case against the ballast lamination stack.

Jeff

I't worked for me a couple of times already.

Sounds good to me!

But anyone else doing this needs to know to hammer over the lamination
stack as opposed to the winding!

The lamination stack is the rectangular portion sticking out in the two
longest dimensions. The winding is what bulges up and down from the
middle of the lamination stack.

(The winding is around a "center leg" of the lamination stack, and goes
through two holes in the lamination stack. The lamination stack is the
"iron core", made of a kind of steel optimized for this purpose in large
part by mixing in silicon to reduce its electrical conductivity. The
lamination stack is made of E-shaped and I-shaped thin sheets/laminations
of this "silicon steel". The winding is around the "center leg" of the
"E", and the "I" is placed against the tips of the 3 legs of the "E".

In most lamp ballasts using an "E-I core" as well as some specialty
transformers where the primary winding conducts significant DC, and
many inductors made with E-I cores, the E pieces point the same way so
that a nonmagnetic gap (often paper) is added in the "magnetic flux
circuit" between a stack of E pieces and a stack of I pieces. In some
lamp ballasts, the E-stack is even welded to the I-stack at the edges,
which causes a minor increase in eddy current loss.
Otherwise, especially with transformers handling pure AC, the E pieces
and I pieces are interleaved.)

So, I offer some details of ballast and transformer construction so that
others trying to silence a ballast with a ball-peen hammer know where to
pound! Pound against the lamination stack - not the winding!

- Don Klipstein )

I'm only on my first cup of coffee, but I'm not visualizing this. I'm
familiar with Es and Is and windings, because I've manufactured
transformers. But your description he


The lamination stack is the rectangular portion sticking out in the two
longest dimensions. The winding is what bulges up and down from the
middle of the lamination stack.

isn't working for me. The ballasts I'm familiar with are more or less
rectangular prisms, with no particular bulging. Can you illustrate or
clarify?

How about a photo?

http://www.green-energy-efficient-ho...m/image-files/
old-fluorescent-ballast.jpg

That ballast has a metal case consisting of a few pieces, including two
rectangular sheets each having a bulge to accomodate the winding. One of
those two bulged-out plates is visible in the photo.

Another photo:

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/...ent-lamp-6.jpg
Boy, it's been a REAL LONG TIME since I/ve seen a ballast like that!!!

I believe that I even have likely one of these, possibly 2-3, somewhat-
buried in my home or minimally-buried in the back room of my "day job"
workplace (as in when I am *actually on that site* as opposed to being
outside for delivery duty).

I would agree that the technology for those is at least 30, fair chance
40-plus years old as of 2010. I am guessing that such beasts might have
been made heavily in the 1950's and 1960's.

- Don Klipstein )

In ,
Smitty Two wrote:
In article ,
"Twayne" wrote:

In ,
Smitty Two typed:
In article ,
(Don Klipstein) wrote:

In ,
jeff_wisnia wrote:
terry wrote:

On Apr 25, 3:58 am, Ivan wrote:

I have a two-tube fluorescent desk lamp that buzzes too
annoyingly to use, but it's a terrific lamp otherwise.
Any ideas how to silence it?

There is likely a thing called a ballast (a sort of
transformer) inside lamp base, (not much info provided
to go on!) and it may be slightly loose. Tighten the
screws holding the ballast. Glue the ballast in
place/place or jam a piece of something softer maybe
cardboard between ballast and the box/frame etc. Twist
the metal case of the lamp base holding the ballast so
it doesn't vibrate. Add weight to bottom of lamp base?
Pour in some cement or heavy glue ............. !
In other words do everything possible to stop vibration
due to the 60 cycle (In North America) frequency of the
electrcity being supplied when the lamp is switched on.
Maybe the clamp of the ballast itself is slightly loose?
We once had a fluorescent tube lamp in the upper part of
a cooking stove that also buzzed, we rarely used the
lamp anyway; seemed to be more of a dress-up item than
much practical use. Later found that one end of the
small ballast, which looked much like a small
transformer was secured by one sheet metal screw, while
the other end was just tagged slightly loose into a
metal slot. Cheap factory labour saving construction?
Twisting the tag stopped the vibration; took all of five
minutes. Kept the ballast somewhere when we later
scrapped the stove.

If it does have a magnetic ballast, and tightening the
ballast mounting doesn't work you could try what an
office maintenance worker "tought me" a long time ago.

Dismount the ballast, hold it in one hand and give it a
couple of whaps on its side with the ball end of as BP
hammer. Make some minor dents to tighten the case against
the ballast lamination stack.

I't worked for me a couple of times already.

Sounds good to me!

But anyone else doing this needs to know to hammer over
the lamination stack as opposed to the winding!

The lamination stack is the rectangular portion sticking
out in the two longest dimensions. The winding is what
bulges up and down from the middle of the lamination stack.

(The winding is around a "center leg" of the lamination
stack, and goes through two holes in the lamination stack.
The lamination stack is the "iron core", made of a kind of
steel optimized for this purpose in large part by mixing
in silicon to reduce its electrical conductivity. The
lamination stack is made of E-shaped and I-shaped thin
sheets/laminations of this "silicon steel". The winding
is around the "center leg" of the "E", and the "I" is
placed against the tips of the 3 legs of the "E".

In most lamp ballasts using an "E-I core" as well as
some specialty transformers where the primary winding
conducts significant DC, and
many inductors made with E-I cores, the E pieces point the
same way so that a nonmagnetic gap (often paper) is added
in the "magnetic flux circuit" between a stack of E pieces
and a stack of I pieces. In some lamp ballasts, the
E-stack is even welded to the I-stack at the edges, which
causes a minor increase in eddy current loss. Otherwise,
especially with transformers handling pure AC, the E
pieces and I pieces are interleaved.)

So, I offer some details of ballast and transformer
construction so that others trying to silence a ballast
with a ball-peen hammer know where to pound! Pound
against the lamination stack - not the winding!

I'm only on my first cup of coffee, but I'm not visualizing
this. I'm familiar with Es and Is and windings, because
I've manufactured transformers. But your description he

The lamination stack is the rectangular portion sticking
out in the two longest dimensions. The winding is what
bulges up and down from the middle of the lamination stack.

isn't working for me. The ballasts I'm familiar with are
more or less rectangular prisms, with no particular
bulging. Can you illustrate or clarify?

If you have xformer experience, then it should be easy to visualize that the
buzz is simply comiing from the "plates", usually but not always E shaped,
because two or more adjacent ones have become able to move about and that
movement creates the "buzz" as they hit each other.
There really isn't any lasting solution and hitting with a hammer is
likely to cause other problems; if it's too annoying, the only real solution
is to replace the ballast.

Sure, I know that loose or poorly potted lams make a transformer buzz,
but I'd not heard of the hammer whack repair technique, and I'd like to
try it. Just wanted to attempt to heed the warning about where to hit
it. I can't see the damn lams and windings from the outside, because the
X-ray vision glasses I got from Johnson Smith only work on women's
clothing, not steel.

If you are to try a "hammer whack" attempt, do it in either of the
longer 2 of the 3 overall dimensions. If you resort to hammering in the
shortest of the 3 main orthoganal dimensions, then you have need to err
only on the side of caution in that direction before hammering with more
force anywhere (preferably in either or both of the two longer of the 3
main orthogonal dimension ditrections).

Back to "X-ray glasses" - I find those to usually work better on women
than on men. And I get "more in the mood" by undressing a gentleman than
a lady down to skin-tight underwear whether in actuality or with my eyes
and mind.
Not that I want to ban, restrict or regulate or add an extra tax onto
"cheap X-ray glasses" because they have a tendency to show some clothed
human bodies (as in of the gender having higher rate of wearing
closer-fitting and/or pocketless clothes in USA) in a way that is more
pleasing to my fellow gentlemen that have sexual orientation of the
majority one as opposed to mine...

- Don Klipstein )

Don Klipstein wrote:
In ,
Smitty Two wrote:
In article ,
"Twayne" wrote:

In ,
Smitty Two typed:
In article ,
(Don Klipstein) wrote:

In ,
jeff_wisnia wrote:
terry wrote:

On Apr 25, 3:58 am, Ivan wrote:

I have a two-tube fluorescent desk lamp that buzzes too
annoyingly to use, but it's a terrific lamp otherwise.
Any ideas how to silence it?
There is likely a thing called a ballast (a sort of
transformer) inside lamp base, (not much info provided
to go on!) and it may be slightly loose. Tighten the
screws holding the ballast. Glue the ballast in
place/place or jam a piece of something softer maybe
cardboard between ballast and the box/frame etc. Twist
the metal case of the lamp base holding the ballast so
it doesn't vibrate. Add weight to bottom of lamp base?
Pour in some cement or heavy glue ............. !
In other words do everything possible to stop vibration
due to the 60 cycle (In North America) frequency of the
electrcity being supplied when the lamp is switched on.
Maybe the clamp of the ballast itself is slightly loose?
We once had a fluorescent tube lamp in the upper part of
a cooking stove that also buzzed, we rarely used the
lamp anyway; seemed to be more of a dress-up item than
much practical use. Later found that one end of the
small ballast, which looked much like a small
transformer was secured by one sheet metal screw, while
the other end was just tagged slightly loose into a
metal slot. Cheap factory labour saving construction?
Twisting the tag stopped the vibration; took all of five
minutes. Kept the ballast somewhere when we later
scrapped the stove.
If it does have a magnetic ballast, and tightening the
ballast mounting doesn't work you could try what an
office maintenance worker "tought me" a long time ago.

Dismount the ballast, hold it in one hand and give it a
couple of whaps on its side with the ball end of as BP
hammer. Make some minor dents to tighten the case against
the ballast lamination stack.

I't worked for me a couple of times already.
Sounds good to me!

But anyone else doing this needs to know to hammer over
the lamination stack as opposed to the winding!

The lamination stack is the rectangular portion sticking
out in the two longest dimensions. The winding is what
bulges up and down from the middle of the lamination stack.

(The winding is around a "center leg" of the lamination
stack, and goes through two holes in the lamination stack.
The lamination stack is the "iron core", made of a kind of
steel optimized for this purpose in large part by mixing
in silicon to reduce its electrical conductivity. The
lamination stack is made of E-shaped and I-shaped thin
sheets/laminations of this "silicon steel". The winding
is around the "center leg" of the "E", and the "I" is
placed against the tips of the 3 legs of the "E".

In most lamp ballasts using an "E-I core" as well as
some specialty transformers where the primary winding
conducts significant DC, and
many inductors made with E-I cores, the E pieces point the
same way so that a nonmagnetic gap (often paper) is added
in the "magnetic flux circuit" between a stack of E pieces
and a stack of I pieces. In some lamp ballasts, the
E-stack is even welded to the I-stack at the edges, which
causes a minor increase in eddy current loss. Otherwise,
especially with transformers handling pure AC, the E
pieces and I pieces are interleaved.)

So, I offer some details of ballast and transformer
construction so that others trying to silence a ballast
with a ball-peen hammer know where to pound! Pound
against the lamination stack - not the winding!
I'm only on my first cup of coffee, but I'm not visualizing
this. I'm familiar with Es and Is and windings, because
I've manufactured transformers. But your description he

The lamination stack is the rectangular portion sticking
out in the two longest dimensions. The winding is what
bulges up and down from the middle of the lamination stack.
isn't working for me. The ballasts I'm familiar with are
more or less rectangular prisms, with no particular
bulging. Can you illustrate or clarify?
If you have xformer experience, then it should be easy to visualize that the
buzz is simply comiing from the "plates", usually but not always E shaped,
because two or more adjacent ones have become able to move about and that
movement creates the "buzz" as they hit each other.
There really isn't any lasting solution and hitting with a hammer is
likely to cause other problems; if it's too annoying, the only real solution
is to replace the ballast.
Sure, I know that loose or poorly potted lams make a transformer buzz,
but I'd not heard of the hammer whack repair technique, and I'd like to
try it. Just wanted to attempt to heed the warning about where to hit
it. I can't see the damn lams and windings from the outside, because the
X-ray vision glasses I got from Johnson Smith only work on women's
clothing, not steel.

If you are to try a "hammer whack" attempt, do it in either of the
longer 2 of the 3 overall dimensions. If you resort to hammering in the
shortest of the 3 main orthoganal dimensions, then you have need to err
only on the side of caution in that direction before hammering with more
force anywhere (preferably in either or both of the two longer of the 3
main orthogonal dimension ditrections).

Back to "X-ray glasses" - I find those to usually work better on women
than on men. And I get "more in the mood" by undressing a gentleman than
a lady down to skin-tight underwear whether in actuality or with my eyes
and mind.
Not that I want to ban, restrict or regulate or add an extra tax onto
"cheap X-ray glasses" because they have a tendency to show some clothed
human bodies (as in of the gender having higher rate of wearing
closer-fitting and/or pocketless clothes in USA) in a way that is more
pleasing to my fellow gentlemen that have sexual orientation of the
majority one as opposed to mine...

- Don Klipstein )

I once tried to undress a woman with my eyes, then my
lashes got caught in her zipper.

TDD

Smitty Two wrote:
In article ,
(Don Klipstein) wrote:



How about a photo?

http://www.green-energy-efficient-ho...m/image-files/
old-fluorescent-ballast.jpg

That ballast has a metal case consisting of a few pieces, including two
rectangular sheets each having a bulge to accomodate the winding. One of
those two bulged-out plates is visible in the photo.





Ah, OK, we're talking about different animals. The ballasts I know look
like this:

http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorial/BallastRetrofit/Pics/new_ballast_3.jpg

Yeah, that's the kind I was remembering when I offered my (admittedly
hackish sounding) ball peen hammer advice. IIRC I whacked them on their
"narrow" sides near the middle of their length.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10e12 furlongs per fortnight.

On Apr 25, 6:58�am, Ivan wrote:
I have a two-tube fluorescent desk lamp that buzzes too annoyingly to
use, but it's a terrific lamp otherwise. �Any ideas how to silence it?

Just chuck the whole thing out and buy another. You'll probably buy a
complete new lamp for the price of a new ballast. Even supposing they
are still available. (They're all electronic now).This the age of
consumerism. Stuff ain't made to be fixed. No-one wants to sell you
spare parts. Chinese kids work for next to nothing.
Your new lamp will be more efficient and prettier than the old one.

In article ,
jeff_wisnia wrote:

Smitty Two wrote:
In article ,
(Don Klipstein) wrote:



How about a photo?

http://www.green-energy-efficient-ho...m/image-files/
old-fluorescent-ballast.jpg

That ballast has a metal case consisting of a few pieces, including two
rectangular sheets each having a bulge to accomodate the winding. One of
those two bulged-out plates is visible in the photo.





Ah, OK, we're talking about different animals. The ballasts I know look
like this:

http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorial/BallastRetrofit/Pics/new_ballast_3.jpg

Yeah, that's the kind I was remembering when I offered my (admittedly
hackish sounding) ball peen hammer advice. IIRC I whacked them on their
"narrow" sides near the middle of their length.

Jeff

Thanks, Jeff, I'm going to give that a try. I've got one fixture in the
shop that sounds like it's going to shake the plaster off the ceiling.

On Thu, 29 Apr 2010 10:52:02 -0700 (PDT), harry
wrote:

On Apr 25, 6:58?am, Ivan wrote:
I have a two-tube fluorescent desk lamp that buzzes too annoyingly to
use, but it's a terrific lamp otherwise. ?Any ideas how to silence it?

Just chuck the whole thing out and buy another. You'll probably buy a
complete new lamp for the price of a new ballast. Even supposing they
are still available. (They're all electronic now).This the age of
consumerism. Stuff ain't made to be fixed. No-one wants to sell you
spare parts. Chinese kids work for next to nothing.
Your new lamp will be more efficient and prettier than the old one.
And you'll be replacing it AGAIN in about 18 months- - - -

On Apr 30, 3:14�am, wrote:
On Thu, 29 Apr 2010 10:52:02 -0700 (PDT), harry
wrote:

On Apr 25, 6:58?am, Ivan wrote:
I have a two-tube fluorescent desk lamp that buzzes too annoyingly to
use, but it's a terrific lamp otherwise. ?Any ideas how to silence it?

Just chuck the whole thing out and buy another. You'll probably buy a
complete new lamp for the price of a new ballast. �Even supposing they
are still available. �(They're all electronic now).This the age of
consumerism. Stuff ain't made to be fixed. �No-one wants to sell you
spare parts. �Chinese kids work for next to nothing.
Your new lamp will be more efficient and prettier than the old one.

�And you'll be replacing it AGAIN in about 18 months- - - -
Yep!