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Re: Pole Pigs

There are several benefits to pole pigging.  One of the most notable is 
the new light weight wallet.  You won't have to worry about all that 
heavy money! :-)

Seriously, a pole pig is a sizeable investment.  While you will pay about 
$350 or so for a good "home use" pig, you will have to supply the 
equipment to restrain it.  You will need a high power variac (or liquid 
rheostat?), and an arc welder or similar high current current limiter.

Basically, you should realize that it's not the pole pig itself that 
costs, but it and everything else.

That being said, the benefits are that you can get tremendous currents 
out of them, and they are extremely rugged.   You will have to have 220 V 
power in the area that you wish to use the pole pig.  About 40 to 50 amp 
service is adequate.  

No, you cannot hook it up to the mains before it enters your house.  For 
one thing, it is illegal (to tap in before the meter), and another is 
that it is extremely dangerous because there will be no circuit breaker 
to protect the rest of the neighborhood.  A pole pig can draw an enormous 
amount of current when shorted out.  The amount is probably so great that 
it would brown out the neighbors. 

I have a gas stove, and thus a free 220V 40A circuit.  I re-routed it 
into our garage and use that to power my pole pig.


My personal recommendation is that one get some neons (never buy new!) 
and use them in parallel.  You don't need anything fancy for a spark gap 
with neons.  Once you are going and familiar with everything, then you 
can start acquiring the stuff for going with a pole pig.  My personal 
experience was a cost of about $1130 for the whole thing.  Here's the
breakdown from my archives:

---------------------
Greetings all,

One thing not mentioned in the pole pig purchasing discussion is that
they cost much more than just the transformer.

With a neon transformer, you just need the neons and a variac of about 
20-30
amp/120V capacity.

With a pole pig, you need the following items that you don't need for
neon based systems: (Your prices may vary)

A pole pig ------------------- $300
50A/220V worth of variacs ---- $200
Arc welder ------------------- $200 (new)
Oven elements ---------------- Free (salvaged at recycling center)
Wire for power cabinet, etc. - $100
Power cabinet (contactors,
circuit breakers, wire,
meters, etc, no variacs) ----- $150 (est.)

Rotary gap
(materials: G10, Plexiglas,
polycarbonate, shaft,
bearings, nuts, bolts, motor - $180 (est.)
--------------------------------------------
Total:                         $1130

There are probably some items you can do without, but if you have kids,
you will want a cabinet to enclose the dangerous/delicate stuff, and
with resistive load, the performance is not as great (I hear).

Basically don't expect to plunk $300 down for a pig, take it home and plug
it in.

Flames are always "welcome".

Chip
-------------------------------------


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
 Chip Atkinson 
 http://bhs.broo.k12.wv.us/homepage/chip/info.htm
 --- Everyone is someone else's weirdo. ---
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

On Fri, 22 Nov 1996, Tesla List wrote:

> >From scottb-at-aca.caFri Nov 22 20:30:29 1996
> Date: Fri, 22 Nov 1996 15:38:36 -0500
> From: scottb-at-aca.ca
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject: Pole Pigs
> 
> 
> What is the benefit of going up to a pole pig??  Do you hook it up to the 
> mains before they enter your house??  are they used when you want your 
> primary side of the step up transformer to draw more than 15 amps??
> 
> /sb
>