Hi Ashley,

mineral oil and some plastics do not mix. The plastic will bloat or
contract and crack. Then you have lots of oil in the living room. There
are other inert fluids that will work, however moving parts (hard drives,
fans) are NOT to be immersed. FYI big transmitter valves are cooled with
very pure water (yes water). It has potential differences of tens of kV
across it and no ill effects over tens of years, BUT they usually employ a
small group of specialists just to keep the water clean. There are several
options for immersion or cooling fluids that are much more inert than
mineral oil (pure glycerine is one that is neither poisonous nor very
dangerous - I have no idea if it is cheap but if you get odd looks when
buying 4 gallons of it know that it's because it is the principal
ingredient for making nitroglycerine).

High voltage capable of arcing acrossa gap is not to be immersed without
special care because while air will arc and that's that, some liquids will
decompose in the arc and start a chain reaction that will eventually short
the device out for good (assuming the the decomposing products are
conductive - such as anything that contains carbon aka soot when dry).

Peter

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