Pole pigs, caps, etc

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

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

Hello all,
I have a story for you all. I'm not sure of the exact details but 
here it is in a nutshell:

Several years ago there was a company who sold excellent commercial 
caps for tesla coiling at reasonable prices. Someone bought such a 
cap, and it blew up during use. He then tried to hold the company 
liable for damage caused. This company now will not sell caps to the 
public for tesla use, because they are afraid of being sued. We all 
know that caps do die in tesla service (except maybe the 600kV MMC - 
WOW! :)). And we all know that they CAN explode when they do fail. 
But we still CHOOSE to play with them and expose ourselves to the 
danger. We know we can get hurt. If this happens it is our fault, not 
the cap company, not the power company, not the transformer company, 
not people who gave advice on this list, not anyone else but 
yourself. 

I bring this up because there are alot of inexperienced coilers on 
this list playing with pole pigs. I wouldn't care if they were 
electrical engineers, but they ususally aren't. They are often young, 
and often ask questions like "why can't I lick my pole pig's 
terminals?" - OK that's a bit of an exaggeration, but you all know 
what I mean. I am not an expert on Tesla coil theory, but I have 
successfully been building them for 8 years without injury, and only 
now am I playing with more than two kilowatts of power. I have a 
healthy respect for the dangers present. If I do hurt myself, I know 
it is my fault. I will not try to sue the pole pig company. I will 
not sue the fibreglass company when my RSG flys apart and kills me. 
It will be my fault, because I didn't adequately shield myself from 
flying debris.

I think it is only a matter of time before someone is injured or 
killed with a Tesla Coil. In Australia there is no legislation 
against playing with coils (other than RF interference). But we can 
not play with explosives and fireworks. The reason there is no 
legislation, is because there has been no need for it - YET. This is 
a fairly unknown hobby, with a good safety record. But if someone 
dies, I reckon it will be made illegal in a flash (at least that is 
the way things happen in Australia). So lets all play it safe, and 
not sue pole pig, capacitor, etc companies who are kind enough to 
sell us parts. Lets not ruin this hobby for everyone else.

I don't want to have to stop coiling because no one will sell me the 
components. I don't want to see anyone die. Keep it safe. Be careful.


End of lecture.

Greg.