Re: Cascading 4500 vac transformers

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

Original poster: Jim Lux <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net> 

At 12:31 PM 4/16/2004 -0600, you wrote:
>Original poster: "Virtualgod" <mike.marcum-at-zoomtown-dot-com>
>I ran across these 1800 VA 115v-4500,660v transformers from C & H sales 
>and was thinking of cascading a few. Would there be a practical limit 
>voltage wise? Would corona start eating the outer transformers farthest 
>from the midpoint ground (at say +/- 100kv, just picking numbers out of 
>the air)? These look alot more powerful than the nst's being sold on ebay 
>for the same price.

I built a cascade of 4 of these. It's quite impressive, both in terms of 
running a spark gap and in total mass. The latter adds up quick. I mounted 
mine on a sheet of 1/8" aluminum bolted to a hand truck, with the two 
floating transformers on delrin standoffs. I left the shunts in, so the 
output current is limited.  The cascade (with center grounded, a'la NST) 
runs off 120V quite nicely, so it's a useful current limited HV supply for 
run of the mill spark making.

They are handy because of the 600 V tertiary winding, which lets you 
cascade easily without worrying about winding/core breakdown (you float the 
core).

They're heavy, and not cheap.  At some point, getting a pole transformer or 
potential transformer is a better solution.