re: The big bad Mark III

["Troy Peterson" <highvoltage-at-mad.scientist-dot-com> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

 > >
 > > I am about to begin scrounging parts for my 3rd tc, which I am
 > affectionately
 > > calling the Mark III (real original name eh?). There is good reasoning
 > behind
 > > this though: When I was into building Van De Graff generators it took
me
 > three
 > > attempts to truly get it right. My first tc was a tiny (1.5" diameter)
 > coil
 > > that I played around with to get the feel for HV (1" streamers), my
 second
 > coil
 > > was a 4" diameter coil that I threw together just to see if I could
make
 > it
 > > work, and now I am going to build a somewhat decent coil (I hope).
 >
 > It seems to me you just need to do more homework on the project before
you
 > play with deadly voltages and whatnot. I made my first coil two years ago
 Oh, I have, I've been doing this for four years.... I've built 3 van de
 graph machines, two solid state coils, a HeNe laser psu, 5 jaccob's
ladders,
 and two tcs, my last one was a "junk-box" coil, but it achieved 36 inch
 sparks on a good day. The main problem was that it was too big and
 unrealiable (something new would always fail each run) I acutally had a
beer
 bottle cap shatter in it once.... not something I would like to repeat...

 >
 > Anyway, a
 > > few questions.
 > >
 > >    I  was considering going to the ends of the earth and back for 2
15kv
 > 60mA
 > > NSTs, but then I realized that, assuming 100% efficiency and 0% losses
 > this
 > > would draw 15A - not too good for a 15 circuit in the house
 >
 >
 > I wouldn't worry too much about that unless your house has really old
 > wiring. At one point, I was drawing 2.5kW from my 15A (1800VA) house
 > circuit. I've learned the value of a VA and how much you can stretch it.
 > However, don't go crazy, you can do some costly damage doing that. I like
 to
 > use a breaker from a power strip to protect the house wiring. It has an
 MOV
 > in it as well. If you use this method as well, you'll know that the
 breakers
 > in those things are small but, they trip about an amp less than a
standard
 > 15A breaker (which don't trip at 15A). If you have a current meter, hook
 up
 > two MOTs in parallel and then in series with a variac (using the primary
 as
 > current limiting) then measure the current it takes to blow your breaker.
 > Mine is around 21 amps! The wiring is pretty new, and can take this high
 > current intermittently (typo).  So, to conclude, 15 amps is not exactly
 > stretching the limits on a standard houshold circuit. Just make sure you
 > don't have anything other than 60w lightbulbs on the circuit at the same
 > time.

 Yeah, see, my house is old... say, 1950's.... I have fuses... the access
 panel is in a crawlspace.... not fun. I always fuse my projects, for basic
 things I just use a power bar like you said with a surge protector and
 breaker. On bigger things I buy a breaker - problem is I never really know
 if it will go before the house fuse, I've been afraid to test it. I like to
 rate my breaker as far below the house wireing as I can, like 10 amps if I
 can.

 Regards,
 Troy Peterson [VE7SOK]
 troypete-at-sunwave-dot-net
 highvoltage-at-mad.scientist-dot-com