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DISTRIBUTION TRANSFORMER... AKA POLE PIG
Posted by gm-100 on 12/15/2003, 5:40 am
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Re: DISTRIBUTION TRANSFORMER... AKA POLE PIG
Posted by Bert Hickman on 12/15/2003, 3:19 pm, in reply to "DISTRIBUTION TRANSFORMER... AKA POLE PIG" Hi! Thanks for the kind words. It sounds like you've got a whole herd of pigs living in your garage! Glad to hear that you independently "re-discovered" using a welder as a ballast before you took out your neighborhood's power supply. With some precautions you may be able to run a smaller Tesla Coil in your garage. I wouldn't recommend running a pig-driven system in a garage that uses Romex wiring or one having a garage door opener. The near-field RF radiated by the coil can damage or destroy the receiver of the opener (even if it's unplugged!) unless you disconnect the antenna and remote opener switch wiring first. High voltage RF can also be induced onto nearby open wiring or non-grounded conductive objects in the garage (yourself included). Short gaps between metal objects and grounded objects may create a fire hazard from arcing. Also, ungrounded sections of aluminum siding act will like a large antenna, and can create hazardous arcing to nearby grounded conduit or exposed wiring. Finally, streamers from the top of your coil may connect to the rafters in the garage. When this occurs, the sparks will tend to follow (and explode) internal sap channels as they find a path to the nearest ground, sprinkling wood fragments all over like miniature toothpicks, or potentially igniting them in the event of sustained power arcing. The last problem can be avoided by stringing small, grounded wires or chicken wire on the surfaces pf the wooden beams that face your coil in order to provide a more attractive target for the sparks. You may want to consider making a rectangular grounded cage (that encloses the coil) using chicken wire which will act as a poor man's Faraday Cage. By using the above techniques, using the welder's lowest power setting, and using a smaller spark gap setting, you should be able to control the power to a manageable level that will allow you to use a medium sized coil in your garage. Good luck and please play VERY safely. You don't get second chances with distribution transformers
Best regards, -- Bert -- :
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Re: DISTRIBUTION TRANSFORMER... AKA POLE PIG
Posted by gm-100 on 12/15/2003, 6:48 pm, in reply to "Re: DISTRIBUTION TRANSFORMER... AKA POLE PIG"
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