I am building a Tesla coil and i have SOME of the things I need like i already have the primary coil the secondary coil and the spark gap and i can make the safety gap but i have not yet... does anybody know where i can get a... high voltage transformer 5000(volts and i do not have a neon sign and i probably will never get one) a lot of capacitors or a couple big ones that have a total capacitance of at least 10,000 volts oh yes and i have a few arc welding machines around so if i could get any parts from those can i get some help
the transformers from microwaves usually throw out a couple Kv's. High voltage capacitors are expensive... you can make your own from ptfe rods (or tubes) and strangely enough those metal bowls they use in curry restaurants Another source of somewhere in the 4-8kv range is the flyback transformer from an old colour tv or monitor.. but make sure it is the kind that feeds a tripler or quadrupler rather than the more common diode-split type... though 25Kv pulsed dc packs quite a punch as well. What are you doing anyway.. playing with lifters?
A would be coiler who needs to ask questions on a web forum like this is a scary thought. Hope you've left some money aside for your funeral, pal.
i just got rid of an old Television, microwave, and monitor and i realized that i could use those the day after they were taken to the dump :/ hehehe
Nah indie.. generally the currents involved are so low that while you can give yourself some nasty burns and a few serious surprises it's generally pretty safe. I have had a few clips from old valve tv line output stages in my time. The worst must be the blast off a 500 watt ex military vhf valve transmitter antenna tank coil.. 17kv at 60MHz or so... owowowowowow.. nice burn.. took ages to heal. Funny thing is.. why do you need tyhe high voltage input. Most tesla coils only use something like 12v input to the primary.. with a bell type breaker. The stepup being by pure transformer action. A guy just down the road from me likes playing with tesla coils and high voltage stuff. Sticking 25kv into the primary of a tesla coil setup will be a bit ridiculous.. the output will be way beyond anything usable... and probably above the insulation capabilities of the secondary winding.
Electrical burns can be very nasty, and RF ones especially so. They go deeper than the outer layer of skin which gets damaged by the kind of external burns that flames, etc can inflict. Marconi (you've heard of him?) said "I pray daily that I never suffer deep burns". High voltage is not a toy.
Sorry.. I forget that familiarity breeds a certain kind of cavalier respect for the stuff. Since age 12 I have been regularly sticking my hands in live electronics.. old valve tv's.. and all kinds of strange stuff. You soon learn that the left hand in the back pocket is essential, it becomes a habit.. so much so that I still find my hand thrust in my back pocket or belt (sometimes no pockets) when I'm stirring a pan on an electric stove It's a good habit, and one I don't want to lose. Like you I'm a little worried that somebody even needs to ask on a general dvd ripping site about a subject which is specialised and has sites of it's own. Big sparks FTW... wait for the "cease and desist" notice coming through the door for breaking the transmitting regulations and causing high levels of RF interference to local broadcasting. Spark transmitters have been banned for many many years... a tesla coil and spark gap is in principle no more than a spark transmitter.
Tell me about it! Higher current Tesla coils, i.e. using 'pole pigs', (US style pole mounted transformers), neon sign or microwave oven transformers, can present a large number of ways to kill, injure or damage property. Even if the novice does not blow up or electrocute him or herself while assembling or setting it up, and assuming the thing actually gets going, there are quite a few scary possibilities. -- Mom and Pop won't let you do it in the house, so you do it in the garage. Stored gasoline or paint or solvent ignites from induced RF sparking or a streamer & blows you up or burns the place down. -- A streamer strikes you, (yes I know the current is low but it might visit an exposed AC terminal on a transformer on the way. This has happened.) -- A streamer hits some AC outlet or a door opener or something else connected to the house circuit and destroys all the connected computers & consumer electronics in the house. (Mom & Pop will love it even more when they find out you voided the fire insurance!) -- The spark displays and (very loud) noise attracts complaints from the neighbours, visits from the police, kids who get electrocuted or burnt, pets ditto, etc etc -- Most coilers use polyethylene and other plastics in constructing their coils, capacitors, and other equipment. These plastics ignite at relatively low temperatures, and produce large quantities of toxic smoke. I could go on, but it's been done much better here http://www.pupman.com/safety.htm
The primary coil of mine is only about 7 inches long so I dont need that much power really... ya I know of the dangers i have a lot of good/bad and funny experiences with AC current so im pretty much used to the medium voltage shocks but a while ago I blew the front of my arm up and the skin just kinda fell off and it was nasty so now I take safety into mind before doing things like this...
Capacitance is measured in Farads, isn't it? w00t, i actually knew something. Electricity class is paying off.
There is more to an L/C circuit than just voltage. Tesla coils work by transformer action, and need an AC or pulsed DC input to work. The more rapid the voltage change the higher the potential output in the secondary. Capacitors are also frequency dependent components.. at some frequencies they will appear as a direct short circuit across the high voltage and ground. (or whichever end of the coil is designated as such. There may seem to be no voltage on the high potential terminal, but that is far from the truth because if you happen to come into contact with the terminal the capacitance/resistance of your body will upset the tuning of the resonant circuit and everything can get very hot very quickly. I started out many years ago repairing old tv's.. Some (notably the mid 50's Invictas) had mains derived EHT for the tube... some 4-6KV.. made with a transformer, a rectifier and a couple of capacitors. These things were lethal because of the high current that could be passed. TV engineers of my era all know at least one person who has had a really bad shock. My mentor had only limited use of his left arm and really bad scarring from a nasty rf burn from a high frequency, high voltage supply during the 50's.. something to do with a boiler startup circuit. Lots of high voltage sparks to ignite petrol then heating the heavier fuel oil jets... something like that.
How about a Jacob's Ladder? The physics department where I went to school had one inside a glass case. You pushed a button on the wall to make it spark. The thing seemed very dangerous. http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/jacobs.htm
Oil filled tranformers with a diode valve rectifier inside or sometimes those awful selenium rectifiers that stank when they burnt out... I got a nasty jolt to the back of my hand from the 300v HT of a (UK) GEC 2040 hybrid CTV. The point of contact was a badly made (not by me) soldered joint (a previous cowboy had soldered 2 resistors in series standing up from the PCB to replace one whose exact value he couldn't be bothered to find - screen grid resistor for the line output pentode) which had the solder drawn out to a sharp point. As I involuntarily jerked my arm, the point carved its way along the back of my hand. Quite a bit of blood. Even flyback derived 25 kv EHT or even 10kv in a mono set can make you do involuntary movements & come into contact with hot or sharp or lethally live stuff.
