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Re: Coil for rent?
On Tue, 29 Sep 1998, Tesla List wrote:
> Original Poster: Esondrmn-at-aol-dot-com
>
> In a message dated 9/29/98 9:28:24 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> writes:
>
> << Original Poster: "Jeff W. Parisse" <jparisse-at-teslacoil-dot-com>
>
> Doug,
>
> As a renter of professional Tesla coils (to TV, Film and
> Theater) I find your cost estimate for a seven foot capable
> coil absolutely incredible.
>
> Yes, I know we're talking about apples and oranges (big time),
> but even the worst homebuilt death trap is going to cost more
> than $200.
I would have to respectfully disagree with this, but there are a bunch of
"iff's" that I would have to preface my post with. It CAN be done, but
only IFF you're patient and IFF you're an avid hamfester/scrounger and IFF
you're lucky enough to be at the right places at the right times and IFF
you feel like taking the time to saw and rout and glue and nail and wind
and hammer and solder and roll and screw and wire everything together
yourself.
To bring it home, I have a coil that is putting out 64" sparks but is
capable of giving me much more. I'm using two 15/60 NST's to power it,
and they're not even running at their rated voltage since they're built
for a 277V primary and I'm only running 240V in to give me about 1600W.
When I get my PT's in the line, I should be hitting the walls.
The 60A, 240V variac stack that I'm using for my controller was bought for
$30 at a hamfest and included a nice little roll around metal cabinet, a
couple of high amp relays cost me $10 more at another hamfest, enough 6/3
wire and a few plugs and outlets to hook it all together ran $40, some
nice heavy hookup wire, a couple of switches and a few indicator lights
from my parts bin ($0), and the controller was done for about $80.
I've bought 14.4kV, 1.5 kVA potential transformers at a certain unnamed
salvage yard for $5 to $10 each, old and ugly but still cranking. Two
.05uF, 20kVDC caps that I bought for $5 each at a hamfest work just fine
in series for a .025uF primary capacitance. Add some 6" or 8" PVC pipe
for a few bucks from your local plumbing supply yard (the one I went to
sold me some 10' sections that had maybe two feet broken from the end
REALLY cheap), enough 3/8" Cu refrigerator tubing for the primary from
Home Depot will suck away 20 more of your hard earned dollars, a few
pounds of wire to wind the secondary for another $10, a wood box from
scraps and a vacuum motor from a defunct vacuum cleaner or shop vac and
some 1" Cu pipe (maybe $5 from your local scrap metal dealer) makes a nice
static vacuum plenum gap, a few other miscellaneous sundries (plexiglass,
insulators, chokes, lugs, connectors) that EVERYONE has laying around in
abundance in their scrapbox ;-), finally add some Al dryer duct for the
terminal capacitance for $15, and it all comes in right around $160 for a
kicking system that will easily put out 7' sparks when it's all tuned up
and tweaked out.
It might cost you a little more if you don't have the same kind of debris
I have laying around in your spare parts bins, but not a lot more if you
frequent hamfests, auctions, flea markets, yard sales, and the like.
Alternatively, for Really Cheap Coiling, if you weren't worried about
ramping things up nicely, but just wanted to jam the plug into the wall
socket and let nature take it's course, you could even disregard the
controller and bring it in under $100!!!
Now...if you wanted to take the time to sand and stain and lacquer
everything up real pretty like, you could even wind up with a museum
quality piece for not much more money.
Kids, you CAN try this at home.
Steve (with a wonderfully understanding wife, two adolescent boys, the
requisite dog AND the optional cat, 1.5 mortages, car payments, and a
compulsive packrat personality so cheap by necessity) Roys.
p.s. - Donations gladly accepted. Email me privately for details :-)