TESLA COIL ~ Eureka...it worked!!!

[Blackbeard]

Guys...thank you for all the help. My son now has one hell of a
kick-ass science fair project. The sparks were not huge. But they were
impressive enough to make his deadline on that project.

Thank you all for helping.

We chased down a couple of problems (loose connections where wires had
been twisted together, not soldered; poor spark gap; and confusion
about the capacitors (which are no bottle capacitors thanks to you
guys).

Just wanted to pop in to express my appreciation.

The kid is already getting mega kudos at his school from both teachers
and classmates. He's even talking about taking some electronics
classes at the community college in place of his 9th grade science
class next year. This is a huge turn-around for him. He's never gotten
jived about anything before. Instead, his grades have always been poor
and he's always acted like an ass to win approval from his friends. It
looks like this project is going to be a big turning point for him. I
can't thank you guys enough. He's already talking about what to build
for next year. Any ideas on what he could build to top the tesla coil?

Right now he's talking about winding his own transformer to get MORE
power. I guess that's the pretty common for coilers...MORE POWER!!! I
have a friend who works for Duke Power. He wants me to get him one of
those pole transformers. I don't feel 100% comfortable with him using
that 15,000volt transformer. How much power does a pole pig kick out?
And it that a REALLY bad idea or not?

Thanks again guys
Mike

 

[John Popelish]

Guys...thank you for all the help. My son now has one hell of a
kick-ass science fair project. The sparks were not huge. But they were
impressive enough to make his deadline on that project.

Thank you all for helping.

We chased down a couple of problems (loose connections where wires had
been twisted together, not soldered; poor spark gap; and confusion
about the capacitors (which are no bottle capacitors thanks to you
guys).

Just wanted to pop in to express my appreciation.

The kid is already getting mega kudos at his school from both teachers
and classmates. He's even talking about taking some electronics
classes at the community college in place of his 9th grade science
class next year. This is a huge turn-around for him. He's never gotten
jived about anything before. Instead, his grades have always been poor
and he's always acted like an ass to win approval from his friends. It
looks like this project is going to be a big turning point for him. I
can't thank you guys enough. He's already talking about what to build
for next year. Any ideas on what he could build to top the tesla coil?

Right now he's talking about winding his own transformer to get MORE
power. I guess that's the pretty common for coilers...MORE POWER!!! I
have a friend who works for Duke Power. He wants me to get him one of
those pole transformers. I don't feel 100% comfortable with him using
that 15,000volt transformer. How much power does a pole pig kick out?
And it that a REALLY bad idea or not?

Thanks again guys
Mike

If I were you, I would try to get him interested in the flip side of
power. He has now seen a bit of brute power, but what about dealing
with the opposite situation? I am talking about digging tiny signals
out of the universe and amplifying them enough to make some sense of
them. Some examples: radio receivers, electrocardiograph,
seismograph (especially if you live on the west coast or other
seismically active area), magnetometer to measure the Earth's magnetic
field changes caused by the arrival of the solar wind, big ear
microphone to hear far from sound source, photo multiplier to measure
the light flashed given off when a bit of uranium ore is near a
fluorescent material.

 

[[email protected]]

Would you have any pictures? I built one about 35 years ago, when I
was studying engineering.

Jerry G.
======

 

[Rheilly Phoull]

Guys...thank you for all the help. My son now has one hell of a
kick-ass science fair project. The sparks were not huge. But they were
impressive enough to make his deadline on that project.

Thank you all for helping.

We chased down a couple of problems (loose connections where wires had
been twisted together, not soldered; poor spark gap; and confusion
about the capacitors (which are no bottle capacitors thanks to you
guys).

Just wanted to pop in to express my appreciation.

The kid is already getting mega kudos at his school from both teachers
and classmates. He's even talking about taking some electronics
classes at the community college in place of his 9th grade science
class next year. This is a huge turn-around for him. He's never gotten
jived about anything before. Instead, his grades have always been poor
and he's always acted like an ass to win approval from his friends. It
looks like this project is going to be a big turning point for him. I
can't thank you guys enough. He's already talking about what to build
for next year. Any ideas on what he could build to top the tesla coil?

Right now he's talking about winding his own transformer to get MORE
power. I guess that's the pretty common for coilers...MORE POWER!!! I
have a friend who works for Duke Power. He wants me to get him one of
those pole transformers. I don't feel 100% comfortable with him using
that 15,000volt transformer. How much power does a pole pig kick out?
And it that a REALLY bad idea or not?

Thanks again guys
Mike

I reckon that a "Pole Pig" in the hands of someone not accustomed to such
devices would not be a good idea. For one thing should there be an
"accident" causing injury I imagine the authorities would be wondering how
the device was obtained and thus might tend to use you as a scapegoat !!

 

[Mark Fergerson]

Guys...thank you for all the help. My son now has one hell of a
kick-ass science fair project. The sparks were not huge. But they were
impressive enough to make his deadline on that project.
Excellent!

Thank you all for helping.

We try.

We chased down a couple of problems (loose connections where wires had
been twisted together, not soldered; poor spark gap; and confusion
about the capacitors (which are no bottle capacitors thanks to you
guys).

Just wanted to pop in to express my appreciation.

The kid is already getting mega kudos at his school from both teachers
and classmates. He's even talking about taking some electronics
classes at the community college in place of his 9th grade science
class next year. This is a huge turn-around for him. He's never gotten
jived about anything before. Instead, his grades have always been poor
and he's always acted like an ass to win approval from his friends. It
looks like this project is going to be a big turning point for him. I
can't thank you guys enough. He's already talking about what to build
for next year. Any ideas on what he could build to top the tesla coil?

Sounds like an Engineer in the making. Good thing he has "people
skills", too. ;>)

If he's that into high voltage he probably wouldn't be impressed with
a Jacob's Ladder (basically two pieces of stiff wire attached to the
terminals of the neon transfomer with an arc rising betwen them), but he
can explore Marx and Van de Graaf generators (the former is lots less
mechanically challenging than the latter), and for "practical"
applications of HV there's always the tabletop X-ray machine and
cyclotron on the Scientific American Amateur Scientist CD.

Instead of "going big", he might be interested in minimalism:

http://www.roffesoft.co.uk/tesla/enyweeny/enyweeny.htm

Right now he's talking about winding his own transformer to get MORE
power. I guess that's the pretty common for coilers...MORE POWER!!! I
have a friend who works for Duke Power. He wants me to get him one of
those pole transformers. I don't feel 100% comfortable with him using
that 15,000volt transformer. How much power does a pole pig kick out?

Way more than you want flying around the house.

And it that a REALLY bad idea or not?

Depends. Remember when I warned you about needing to have the power
company add an extra 50 or 100 amp service line?

Mark L. Fergerson

 

[Don Bruder]

I reckon that a "Pole Pig" in the hands of someone not accustomed to such
devices would not be a good idea. For one thing should there be an
"accident" causing injury I imagine the authorities would be wondering how
the device was obtained and thus might tend to use you as a scapegoat !!

Aside from "You're the daddy? And you let him play with this stuff???"
type concepts, why would there need to be a scapegoat? Pole-pigs can be
had, on the open market, by anyone who has the $$ to buy one and the
method of transporting it. Transport can be easily hired for some more
$$ if one is under legal driving age or otherwise lacks the means to
haul the beast.

Quite frankly, in high school, I recall doing quite a few "dangerous"
things that wouldn't be dreamed of today. The key is that they were
being done as safely as they could be, by someone with at least a hint
of knowledge about how to keep from
zapping/microwaving/irradiating/burning/poisoning/killing himself in the
process, and usually with the assistance/supervision of someone who had
a lot more than a hint.

Teenagers may appear to think they're indestructable, but trust me... at
least some of them realize that they aren't ten feet tall and
bulletproof, and behave accordingly.

 

[ILYA]

Be careful, some frequency is dangerous for humans...