Good Deal?

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Good Deal?
From: Robert Volk <smrtmny2-at-earthlink-dot-net> (by way of Terry Fritz <twf-at-verinet-dot-com>)
Date: Sun, 07 Mar 1999 22:27:59 -0700
Approved: twf-at-verinet-dot-com
Hi all.

I had an opportunity this week to purchase a couple of items from an
electronic scrap dealer ( I had purchased a used lab vacumn from him and
had asked to keep his eyes open for a variac ).

He had two variacs ( 10amp )beautifully mounted in an aluminum box with
plug inlets/outlets. 

The second item he had was a high voltage power cabinet. This is the
item I'm hoping you more experienced engineers or physicists could help
me with. 

It has a giant transformer (I'm guessing a potential xfrmr?) that weighs
a couple hundred pounds. It has three sets of coils apparently vacumn
impregnated plastic of some kind. The output is rated at 15KV/150mA
(yes!), but it looks set up for DC output. inside the box, a circuit
board is bolted to the sides of the coils with bolts that I assume are
connected to the secondary? On the circuit board are six diodes (well
six similar sized pieces - 3 have a diode sign, 3 don't) all hooked up
in parallel (3 are marked BCD 25, 3 are marked EDI 8036). From this
board they are connected to a .1 uF capacitor rated at 20KV DB 4180 (no
indication if rated at AC or DC voltage). It also had a rating of ER
200-104 ( don't know what this means). It does appear that one terminal
of cap goes to HV terminal, other goes to ground? which is another
indication to me it's a DC output. 

The whole thing is controlled by 3 220V Variacs hooked up in parallel (I
think). On the front cover is a digital readout of output
voltage/current, on/off HV, Variac dial 0-100, on/off vacumn, on/off
water.

Lastly, the input shows  380/220/2.4Kwatts!? and says 3 phase + neutral
under that. How is this possible? 15KV*150mA=2250 watts. Where do they
come up with a 2.4 Kwatts rating?

Questions:
1] Can anyone tell me where this might have been used? Maybe a laser or
cyclotron?

2] Assuming it's DC output, can I hook it to my existing 6.5 inch TC
with added caps to match 150 mA rating? ( currently running 15K/60 mA
NST) Or what modifications are necessary to run it using this setup?

3] I'm thinking I can always use just the transformer, if I wanted, and
disconnect the diodes and cap, and run it in my primary tank circuit. Is
this right?

4) Being that the input is rated at 380/220, is there a problem hooking
it up directly to my 220 dryer outlet? Do I need to modify or jumper
anything on the transformer to get it to work properly with 220V only?

5)My first coil is powered by 15k/60 mA NST (900 watts). What can I
expect in performance increase with this monster as opposed to
increasing my NST to 120 mA?

I know this is a long post, and if Terry wants to keep reply's offlist,
that's fine. I got too good of a deal on this baby, couldn't turn it
down ( total for HV box and 2 other variacs - $100.00! ). 

Any help is GREATLY appreciated.

Excited in California
Bob Volk