Re: Safety note: was Differences between "bad" streamers and "good" streamers

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

Original poster: "Mark W. Stolz by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <mark_w_stolz-at-hotmail-dot-com>

Dave, All,

You are right about the fire hazard aspect.  Right after I snapped those 
pictures there was a strong smell of fresh cut pine in the garage.  I 
thought I might have started a fire in the attic so I grabbed a flashlight 
and extinguisher, both of which I keep on hand when running the coils, and 
headed into the attic.  Thankfully there was no fire to be found, but it 
sure got my attention!  I assume that resin in the wood was being heated or 
something and that was the source of the smell.  I no longer play with this 
coil inside the garagew. :-)

As Dave said, "Spark safely",

Mark Stolz
Houston, TX
http://teslacoils4christ-dot-org


>From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
>Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" 
><Tesla729-at-cs-dot-com>
<snip>

>Hi Mark, all,
>
>That's some pretty doggoned impressive looking streamers!
>Are they just hitting a drywalled ceiling? One note of safety
>you may need to consider is a possible fire hazard. Yours
>truly was doing just that inside a vacant room of the house
>that I was residing in at the time several years ago and I
>started noticing a smell of something burning. I kept notic-
>ing it and being a firefighter by profession, I decided to
>find out where the "smell" was coming from. I looked out-
>side of the house and discovered that there was a little bit
>of smoke oozing out from underneath the cornice. I quickly
>ran up into the attic and found that the cellulose insulation
>directly above where I was firing the coil (with its beautiful,
>bright streamers hitting the ceiling with reckless abandon)
>had ignited into a smoky, smoldering fire. I quickly grabbed
>a pot full of water and poured it liberally onto the smoldering
>insulation. Left an ugly water mark on the ceiling but at least
>the house was still standing!
>
>Bottom line, most of us are very careful about the electrocu-
>tion hazards of our hobby, as well we should be, but I think
>sometimes we tend to forget the fire hazard aspect of it. And
>streamers, especially those from powerful coils, can start a
>small smoldering fire in textile or wooden products that we
>may not even notice until it's too late. If I had just left the
>house right after playing with the coil before I had noticed
>the smell of smoke, I may very well have come home to a
>pile of ashes! I'm in no way trying to take a pot-shot at Mark
>and I'm sure Mark dosen't take it this way. I'm only trying to
>make us ALL a little more (fire) safety conscience about our
>hobby from some first-hand, personal experience.
>
>Spark safely,
>David Rieben
>