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A (neon) Scrounging story.
From: Phil Chalk[SMTP:philoc-at-ozemail-dot-com.au]
Sent: Sunday, October 26, 1997 10:45 PM
To: Tesla List
Subject: A (neon) Scrounging story.
Hi all,
I'll try to make this as brief as possible.
Spied two neon signs in driveway of a shop in my street
which had just changed hands. Signs were in name of
_new_ owners, but appeared trashed so I rang & asked if
I could have them. After 2 wks (owner O/S) they said
OK, _but_ I had to remove them entirely (naturally) &
they wanted the two perspex sheets from the front with
their logo on them. Bummer! That was one of the good
bits - 2 x ~1.5m sq x 8mm acrylic sheet.
Also about a dozen 4 ft fluoros, end-fittings,
starters, ballasts etc & 2 x 25uF -at- 250Vac PFC caps.
Plus heaps of alloy extrusion, thin steel plate, sundry
hardware etc & an urgent need for another trip to the
tip.
Another Bonus (which I've wanted for a while) was 3
intact sections of neon tube - two straight lines, ~1m
each (red), and a big 'Z' shape in white. Yay! ('Z'
from 'OZ Design')
What I really wanted, of course, was the transformers &
they were a little disappointing here. One x 7.5kv
30ma, works fine; and one x solid-state(with little
output tranny) 9kv 30ma, appears dead - but we'll see
.....
In any case, all the above was free, for a little time
& effort. ( And rather than tip it, I'll get a few
bucks for the scrap)
The moral to the story is - KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED.
People chuck lots of this stuff out. I think if you
live in a big City (USA, Australia, etc where these
things are common. Maybe not UK, Scandanavia etc) &
you're patient, there should be no need to pay for old
neon trannys. I have before, but don't expect to
again.
Now POLE PIGS - in Australia - Thats's a whole 'nother
story.......
Thanx for listening,
Phil Chalk.