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Re: Building your own HV transformer
> Original Poster: Chris Tominkson <internetinbox-at-yahoo-dot-com>
>
> I was looking at this page:
> http://members.tripod-dot-com/~dbrunner/hvxfmr1.htm
>
> That tells you how to makea high voltage transformer, that puts out 24
> Kilovolts, 1.something Amps. Sounds pretty simple, but I am still
> confused on the position of the iron rods. It sounds like in this
> transformer, they are not directly across from each other, but on the
> same rod, and across from each other?Something weird like that.
He's doing a two-step stepup, first to 2.4 kV and then to 24 kV. But what
puzzled me was the part list :
# 2 15" long, 1" diameter steel rods (call your local iron store)
Won't solid steel rods cause enormous losses in eddy currents? Well, it
might be interesting to see (for a while), but the fun won't last for long...
And another thing is insulation. "10 AWG uninsulated wire" for the primary??
Ouch... Even though you _can_ varnish the wire so that it feels "insulated",
a proper wire would be safer and easier. And then you'll be needing some
insulation between the windings and the core, especially in the second
transformer.
Anyway, does anyone have some simple (or not so simple) formulas to
approximate core thickness (laminated silicon steel), primary windings needed
to not saturate the core at the wanted VA level, etc. I've found a couple
places on the net but the results were so wildly in disagreement that I feel
I need a third (or fourth) opinion. For example, I think I can get a cheap,
used 3-phase transformer from the junkyard which has about 3" by 3" core
thickness. How much abuse would this take? And I also already have a smaller
typical EI-type laminated core, which has a thickness of about 1" by 3".