pole pigs, variacs, power supply, blah blah blah

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

Original poster: "Mr Gregory Peters by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <s371034-at-student.uq.edu.au>

Well, you won't believe it, I've finally had some good 
luck! Firstly, I got a 30A 3 phase variac locally for about $75 US. 
Thats 90A when paralleled! Also, after months of looking for a 
cheap pig, I finally got one for free! I had called the power company 
heaps of times, but because I was talking to some uninterested female 
secretary, I had no luck. It was only after personally asking some guys 
working on a power pole in the street that I had success. The same 
story goes for the variac. The fellow has heaps of pigs lying around. 
He said I can have a couple if I want! He will test the oil and 
insulation and will replace the oil if necessary. They are 10kVA 11kV 
units. He also has some higher volatage ones used for testing 
insulators if I want them. I intend to fill my trailer with pigs.

Anyways, what I am wondering about is the use of line filters between 
the variac and the power transformer. This is fairly common on most 
schematics I have seen. I have been informed that this may cause 
voltage spikes, similar to what an RF choke in the tank circuit does to 
neon sign transformers. I have been told to only use filters before the 
variac. What do you think? Also, how does one go about determining the 
size of bypass caps. I want to protect my pig using safety gaps and 
bypass caps, as I will be making a magnifier, which tend to be better 
at destroying power supplies than conventional coils.

Cheers,
Greg Peters
Department of Earth Sciences,
University of Queensland, Australia
Phone: 0402 841 677
http://www.geocities-dot-com/gregjpeters