[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Don't touch that tesla coil.
Coilers,
I've seen a few posts recently about people letting the arcs from their
tesla coils reach out and strike them.
Let me just say that if you are playing with the arcs off the secondary,
and for whatever reason an arc forms between the secondary and the
primary (a piece of dust, insect, or whatever might start such an arc),
then there will be a conductive path between yourself and your (possibly
fully charged) primary capacitor. I don't know about you but I don't
really want to touch a charged 14000+ volt 0.026 uf capacitor...
If that wern't bad enough, not only are you connected to the capacitor,
but also to the power transformer. If you are dealing with a pig here,
well... (you see where I'm going with this reasoning) you will literally
be climbing a pig-powered Jacob's ladder right up into heaven...
People HAVE been killed doing this, and at least one fellow in full view
of his audience. There was no encore.
"But Bill - I've seen lots of people do it!". Yea, well, that might be
the case but that doesn't make it safe or prudent. I've seen the
pictures too.
Our 3KVA coil will, from a distance of 50 inches, catch a 2x4 on fire in
under a second. Of course that's more power than most of the smaller
coils, but still - I don't think anyone should be fooling with arcing
stuff to themselves at any power level.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
-Bill "Harbinger" arcstarter
Starting arcs in Cinci, OH
http://www.geocities-dot-com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/6160
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail-dot-com