Re: Planning a magnifier

[Tesla729-at-cs-dot-com (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

Joshua, 

You are correct with your thought of going ahead and purchsing a larger
pole pig for your project in case you decide to later upgrade. It's always
better to have the power and not need it than to need it and not have it!
Also, you may want to check around your local area with electrical or
utility companies for your pig. T&R is agreat source for these and their
prices are competitive, but you have to consider the shipping charges
tacked on to the cost of the xfmr itself. Milwaukee looks to be several
hundred miles from Colman, SD, so I imagine picking it up yourself 
would be out of the question. I ended up finding a small company in 
Greenwood, MS that rebuilt pole xfmrs for utility companies and drove
down ther to pick it up myself (I reside in Memphis,TN so it was about
140 miles ea. way) and I got a brand new looking 14.4, 10kVA pig for
$270. The only shipping that I had to pay was the gas for my '84 S-10
pick-up to haul the 280 lb. monster!

For a commercial Tesla coil grade capacitor, try looking on e-bay under
TESLA COIL. I just bid on a Maxwell .01 uF, 45 kV cap. for $100 and so
far, I am the high bidder, and the auction will be over in a couplke of hours.
( It is about 7:45 AM CDT now). These same type of caps cost in the $400
to $700 range in the Surplus Sales of Nebraska catalogue (pgs. 90 & 91).

Finally, I'm sure that you already this, but please be very careful with this
stuff. A mistake with an NST and it will shock the snott out of you, but you
make a mistake  with a pole pig and it will quite likely shock the LIFE out
of you. Most coilers have to get "bit" once or twice before they really learn
to properly respect HV and that is why it is good to start small and work 
your way up.

Good luck with your maggie and keep it safe,
David Rieben