OT: oil burner transformer dangerous?

Hollis

.I was wondering how dangerous is the electrical effect of an oil burner transformer at the electrodes,.I know its high voltage but is the amperage enough to do much harm?  I believe tazers and stun guns ect use high voltage w/o too much damage to most healthy people,.



OK  I have a couple of them from removed burners and want to make a squirrel chaser. a LOT of them here eating all the bird seed and the birds stay away when they are there (almost all the time) Can't shoot them here and really don't want to kill them. Tried several squirrel proof feeders but they don't work where I can put the feeder,..It's  legal to do a havaheart trap and take them to your backyard so I thought I would put a few pos-neg rods soldered to be several inches apart over the bird feeder. Several options to switch it on so as not to zap the birds,....Am I playin with fire here?

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Jean-David Beyer

High voltage transformers...

I do not know the ratings of those used in oil burners, but I have a 5000 volt 5 milliampere power supply that I have shocked myself with (accidently) and I was lucky. Now that would not burn you out like an electric chair which literally burns you out inside. But it could sure kill you by harming your heartbeat. Not that people die frequently from the effects of Tasers, but at times they do. They are not all that safe either.

Dave Yates (GrandPAH)

Danger Will Smith...

That's what my Uncle did, but I don't recommend it! You can purchase a nasty pepper-mix that doesn't affect birds, but my-oh-my, it sure do affect squirrels! Cracks me up to see their reaction - sneezing mostly - to the mix of seed/pepper-mix and the birds don't seem to mind a bit. But - fair warning - do not get down-wind while mixing the powdered mix into the seeds and be wary of rubbing your eyes after re-filling the feeders!!!!

Charlie from wmass

Habenero peppers

Get a few pounds of these and grind them up and make a spray, Birds are not affected by capsaicin as they are natures way of spreading pepper seeds in the wild. This is also why peppers are bright colors when ripe, birds see colors. The transformer I would leave for the burners or the Jacob's ladder experiment in the old Frankenstein type movie Labs.

Steve Whitbeck

Don't

There is enough power in one of those to knock you acrost the room. Been there done that By acedent. 

It really hurt.

Jamie Hall

Not a good idea...

if you want to use electicity to scare squirrels, get a real electric fence charger.  They aren't that expensive, and they are, relatively speaking, safe.  Which is not to say that they can't give you an agonizing jolt -- they can.  But they turn off right away, so you can let go.  An oil burner transformer doesn't turn off, so you can't let go voluntarily (not to say it won't knock you across the room, but voluntarily).

Plumdog_2

plumdog

I agree with the electric fence charger. Also with the pepper spray. I got a fence charger free from my buddy after his Rottwieler kicked the bucket. I used it succesfully to keep the bears from eating my chickens, so it should work with squirrels. They come in several different configurations, the littlest one should work for small critters. The medium power one (which I have) is good for large dogs and the big one will knock a Brahma Bull on his kiester.

Steve Whitbeck

T former

It will kill the squirrels. Works great on grackels also and other trash birds.

Ever see a Grackel smoke. 5 at a time.