Re: Junkyard wars tesla coil buildingRe: kVA Effects on Discovery Channel

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

Original poster: Troy Peterson <troypeterson-at-shaw.ca> 

This would make a great teslathon activity me-thinks. One could setup a 
"junkyard" of electrical supplies, perhaps all donated - old variacs, 
trannys, caps, scopes, broken transmitters, etc...  Making participants 
scrounge for the parts from broken equipment rather than just laying out 
the things they need... Many of the hamfests I've been to have a tent or 
whole building devoted to selling stuff that is basically just junk - if 
you could let loose a couple of coilers into one of these tents I'm sure 
they could find enough stuff to build a junkyard coil. As a prize they get 
to take home anything they want from the "junkyard" :)

Tesla coils appeal to a very narrow audience, and personally, even though I 
love coiling I don't think it would be all that exciting to watch on 
Junkyard wars because of the lack of variation possible under those 
conditions... But a more informal "live" version at a teslathon could have 
more than 2 teams competing, and other fun prizes such as "strangest 
looking contraption that works", or "worst secondary winding", "Most 
spectacular failure", "Loudest noise", "Coil that produces the most angry 
phone calls from neighbors complaining about their TV reception", etc... 
These are the sorts of things that only coilers would enjoy.

My $0.0015
Cheers,
Troy


>What would the goal of the team be? To build a coil with maximum spark
>length, maximum flourescent light activation, or something else? It seems
>like a good idea, and might do nicely for a competition, but not junkyard
>wars.
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
>To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
>Sent: Monday, January 12, 2004 12:50 PM
>Subject: Junkyard wars tesla coil buildingRe: kVA Effects on Discovery
>Channel
>
>
> > Original poster: "Jim Lux" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>
> >
> > I don't know about that.  Typically, the team will have one knowledgable
> > person, and a few willing bodies.  There were some episodes where folks
>had
> > to build an airplane. It's more what resources they'd have available.  If
>a
> > suitable "junkyard" were found, then I'd have every reason to believe they
> > could build a TC.
> >
> > The real problem is that there's not much scope for substantial design
> > approach differences.  It would wind up being a fairly conventional spark
> > gap coil, and the differences would be those of details (form, top load,
> > etc.) rather than design.
> >
> > The producers of those shows like something where there are lots of
> > radically different design approaches possible, so they can play off
> > contrasts like "work smart vs work hard"
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> > To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> > Sent: Monday, January 12, 2004 6:22 AM
> > Subject: Re: kVA Effects on Discovery Channel
> >
> >
> >  > Original poster: "Richard Modistach" <hambone-at-dodo-dot-com.au>
> >  >
> >  > i wouldn't hold your breath on that one,
> >  > you'll end up awfully blue in the face.
> >  > for those teams building a junkyard tesla coil
> >  > would be in the same league as building a
> >  > junkyard cyclatron.
> >  > neither the production crew or the teams would
> >  > come within a bulls roar of being smart enough
> >  > to handle something like that.
> >  >
> >  > regards
> >  > richard
> >  > aus.
> >  >
> >  >
> >  > ----- Original Message -----
> >  > From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> >  > To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> >  > Sent: Monday, January 12, 2004 6:52 AM
> >  > Subject: Re: kVA Effects on Discovery Channel
> >  >
> >  >
> >  >  > Original poster: "Harold Weiss" <hweiss-at-new.rr-dot-com>
> >  >  >
> >  >  > Hi All,
> >  >  >
> >  >  > Speaking of the Discovery Channel, I recently sent an Email to
>Junkyard
> >  > Wars
> >  >  > about seeing if they would try having the teams do a junkyard Tesla
> > coil.
> >  > I
> >  >  > have not heard back.
> >  >  >
> >  >  > David E Weiss
> >  >  >
> >  >  >
> >  >  >
> >