Re: A (neon) Scrounging story.

To: "'Tesla List'" <tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com>
Subject: Re: A (neon) Scrounging story.
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-stic-dot-net>
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 23:51:02 -0600
Approved: tesla-at-stic-dot-net

From: 	Adam[SMTP:absmith-at-tiac-dot-net]
Sent: 	Monday, October 27, 1997 12:27 AM
To: 	Tesla List
Subject: 	Re: A (neon) Scrounging story.

>
>From: 	Phil Chalk[SMTP:philoc-at-ozemail-dot-com.au]
>Sent: 	Sunday, October 26, 1997 10:45 PM
>To: 	Tesla List
>Subject: 	A (neon) Scrounging story.
>
>Hi all,
>
>I'll try to make this as brief as possible.
>
>Spied two neon signs in driveway of a shop in my street
>which had just changed hands.  Signs were in name of
>_new_ owners, but appeared trashed so I rang & asked if
>I could have them.  

That's a lot of work for one 7.5kV transformer, IMHO.  I don't know what 
it's like in Australia, but neon sign tranformers here is the US are the 
one part that isn't hard to find.  Usually good capacitors are the 
hardest to find or most expensive piece of the medium sized Tesla setup.  

Here in the US, finding a good neon sign transformer is as easy as 
picking up the phone and calling places listed in the yellow pages under 
"signs".  Specify that you want a removed-from-service unit in working 
condition.  I start by calling the places whose street addresses include 
"industrial park".  Every large neon sign maker I've ever been to (many) 
has had piles of these things, just laying around collecting dust.  
Usually I can get the 30ma ones for free, but 60 and 150ma units usually 
cost me $30 or so.  Oil burner transformers are good for small coils too, 
and you can put three or so in parallel for a good 70mA.  Most 
heating/plumbing repair guys have these handy, usually for free.

These things don't all have a long lifety either, so you really can't 
have too many.  I have found from my experiences that Franceformer brand 
units are really easy to blow, and Jefferson and GE units tend to last 
longer.  Others will have had different luck.

-Adam

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

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