Re: Aluminum wire in an NST

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "brian by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <ka1bbg1-at-mcttelecom-dot-com>

Hi, well they used alum wire in trailers for a number of years. cost
cutting, alum is always cheaper than copper. Alum has quite a bit more
resistance than copper so most times the same winding in copper takes a
smaller wire size. for instance,#8 copper will hold 50 amps,but for alum #5
will do about the same for less money. Sure i use alum for a dryer
hook-up,but my 200 amp welding circuit is all copper. Alum wire is a less
expensive alternative,i wouldnt use it for a primary on a tesla since copper
pipe isnt that expensive,but if you are winding xmfr's by the 1,000's and
the market price for copper goes up to 3 times the cost,but alum only went
up 50 percent you have to use alum or go bust, or charge your customer much
more for the product. When i was at U.S. Motors 20 years ago daily
production used 40 tons a day of copper wire for standard production day.
just figger out what it would cost them if the price went up 300 percent for
a year.
hmmm, i'd take it any day! cul brian
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2001 1:32 PM
Subject: Aluminum wire in an NST


> Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<Cydesho-at-aol-dot-com>
>
> I recently dismantled a 9kV 30mA Franceformer that I got my hands on. It
was
> in pretty bad condition, so I decided to just take everything apart to
just
> see what some of the innner workings were like. I was a bit surprised to
find
> that the primary windings on the transformer were made of enameled
aluminum
> wire. Is this some sort of alternative to using magnetic laminations in a
> transformer for current limiting? Would this aluminum wire have any
practical
> use in Tesla coiling?
>                                             Justin
>
>
>
>