Re: Herbach & Rademan

To: "'Tesla List'" <tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com>
Subject: Re: Herbach & Rademan
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-stic-dot-net>
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 1997 18:00:45 -0600
Approved: tesla-at-stic-dot-net

From: 	Adam[SMTP:absmith-at-tiac-dot-net]
Sent: 	Friday, November 21, 1997 12:46 AM
To: 	Tesla List
Subject: 	Re: Herbach & Rademan


>I got my new H&R tansformers today.  They put out about 3.5kV each for a
>total of  ~7kV rms or 10kv peak at 300 ma.  I wired them up and let the
>sparks fly between two electrodes. These things really pump out the HV
>amps.   I have a few questions though as this is my first attempt at
>coiling:

Cool.  What did these units run you $$$ ? Are they really well insulated 
enough to survive with two in series?

>I'm a college student and live in a dorm, therefore when the coil is
>complete it wouldn't be a very good idea to turn it on in a building
>filled with network lines and sensitive computers.  But would it be safe
>to operate the primary to test and adjust the spark gap with the
>secondary away from the unit?

Gott Nein! *Never* operate the primary without the secondary present.  
Since there is no load, all the energy that would normally transfer to 
the secondary is instead induced right back into your primary circuit, 
creating HUGE voltages to stress your caps and trannies.  Besides, 
without RFI filters, any poorly grounded indoor tesla experiment is going 
to cause RF interference problems with TV, modems, telephones, etc...

>I'm well prepared to spend days in the shop building a cap for this
>unit,  but I'm just as ready to buy one.  Does anybody know of a
>supplier of ~50 KV caps around .08 uf acceptable for coil use?

That size cap is going to cost you, either way.  Figure about $600-$850 
for a Maxwell Labs cap of that value, or you will have to build *many* 
polyethylene/aluminum caps. Even a homemade 0.09uF -at- 50kV cap is going to 
really hurt the wallet, to the tune of about $400-$500 in materials.  

-Adam



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Adam Smith
absmith-at-tiac-dot-net
Epoch, Inc. Digital Music Project

www.tiac-dot-net/users/absmith/     Now with MP3!     Musik. Macht. Macintosh.
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