buss one time fuse

[maiku]

whats in a fuse like this and is it going to explode or hurt me if i take it appart? it looks kinda like a shotgun shell its got somekinda powder in it when i shake it is it gun powder? its got brass caps i think.

[rca987]

I don't know what cutting it would do, but I have a ton of those fuses, and after cutting off the copper ends with a grinder, i took my 8 lb sledge hammer to one of them and nothing happened besides denting it up.

[Saroro]

It's not gunpowder... Think about that. It's a fuse...electricity. They won't put anything in there that can explode. It's probably just some kind of insulating powder to prevent fires.

[Ditchdigger]

It's not gunpowder... Think about that. It's a fuse...electricity. They won't put anything in there that can explode. It's probably just some kind of insulating powder to prevent fires.

I'm pretty sure maiku is talking about the type of fuses one would find inside a panel box. I agree, they certainly won't have anything explosive in them. They're kind of messy to take apart, and there's not much inside them other than that powdery stuff, but the contacts at the ends are copper. At least the ones I've found.

That having been said, it's probably not a bad time to talk about some bigger fuse-like items. (Even though most of us will probably never encounter one, at least legally. If somebody's trying to steal one, and blows themself up, I guess that'd be poetic justice.)

Anyway, it is my understanding that in some high voltage applications, like 20 or 30 thousand volts, there are explosively charged fuses. They do that so that when there's an overload, it blows apart clean, and doesn't do even more damage by the arc that would be produced. At least that's what I was told by a power company guy when he was explaining what that big BOOM was after the dumptruck driver raised his bed into the 30,000 volt lines.

If anybody can confirm that more authoritatively, I'm sure we'd all be interested to hear about it.

(And it wasn't my dumptruck, in case you're wondering.)

[maiku]

thanx alot this a great site for this kind of stuff=) yay i won't blow up.

[Saroro]

I guess that would make sense on the bigger lines with the bigger fuses. The wires in the big fuses must be pretty thick, and probably won't burn through quick enough like the little ones. I (and I assumed maiku was too) was talking about the smaller residential buss fuses. But good point Ditchdigger!

[maiku]

indeed i was. lotsa powder in em messy got some brass good.

[rca987]

I have about 10 fuses that weigh about 25 lbs a piece, haven't had anytime to get inside of them, but when I do, I'll let you know.

[Ditchdigger]

Just to be clear, I was talking about ones that are found up on poles. I can't imagine anything explosive being put where a person might be nearby when it blew.

[kirstenblain]

I busted one recently: it had mostly sand inside. It was something like this one in the link.

https://www.allfuses.com/tr110r?___SID=U

[aurum]

Don't know about the really big ones, but the smaller ones have silica sand inside. Apparently some have a silver wire as a fusible link, but I don't think that would be all that common.

[JessicaDowd]

I made with the big ones, it was good.( I don't say, that you have to do the same, there is a big risk, that everything will go sh*ty)