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Tesla coil use and CT sale
Well, the next time anyone asks what good a Tesla coil is, you can give
them a definitive answer.
I went to an auction yesterday and picked up a neat little insulator
surge/holdoff tester for $20. When I got it home and read the manual, it
turns out that the inner workings consist of two small Tesla coils run in
single shot mode with the outputs rectified and filtered! The rated
maximum test voltage is 150kVDC, and it will put out a nice 5" - 6" spark
between the test clips. The rep rate is pretty low, though. It takes
about 10s for the main capacitor bank to charge back up for the next shot.
I guess they were too small for the scrappers to worry about, so I also
wound up with a whole boat load of (relatively) small (i.e. ~5 lb)
industrial current transformers (200:5, 400:5, 800:5) used by the power
company. I now have more than I could possibly use in the next 100 years,
so anyone in need, just let me know. Just be forewarned that the shipping
will likely be more than the $5 I'm asking for these little puppies.
A LARGE (3'x3'x2', multi-hundred pound) choke/transformer/? also was sold
at the auction for $10!!! I would have bought it, but 1) I had no idea
what it was (no plate or other info), 2) it looked low voltage (no nice
insulated terminals), and (mainly) 3) I had absolutely no room in my
pickup truck for the blessed thing. Oh, for a large flat-bed truck or
roll-off!
Keep on coilin', dinkin', and scroungin'. The truth is out there!
Steve Roys.