Rewinding BIG transformer

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Jason Johnson by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <hvjjohnson13-at-hotmail-dot-com>

Hello,
 
I'm at sort of a dilema. I have had my BIG transformer apart for a while now
and I need to get something done with it. The core proved to be impossible to
take apart unless I attack it with a hacksaw, and with 5x15 inches of iron to
cut through it would not end up very neat. I've decided to therefore wind it to
a realtively low voltage, say 5kv, and use low voltage on some projects and
experiments and use a voltage doubler (or tripler, or other voltage multiplier)
and run with DC for others. The low voltage/doubler configuration can be a good
thing IMO, it requires fewer turns, less insulation, less wire, and gives good
flexibilty for my experiments. I've aleady got a nice gap in mind that I'm
quite confident will be able to quench 5kv at 4 amps (think big tungsten
carbide electrodes, supersonic airflow and 12kgauss magnetic quenching
triggered gap in a semi-sealed possibly CO2 or H2 environment), for low voltage
experiments, and then the high voltage DC really shouldn't be much more of a
challenge than a gap for any regular 15kva+ coil (yeah right, thats childs play
:-). Its either this or someone can donate a 400hz generator (3 phase would be
nice too :-) capable of 24kva. Or I can feed it the square wave output of a
high power inverter (or maybe not :-). Cuz 400hz needs many fewer turns per
volt for a given core size.
 
How big do filter caps for DC need to be? Anybody with an equation? Ideas for a
voltage doubler with 120hz pulses, schematics for various voltage
doublers/multipliers/level shifters?
 
Also, were more tests done on the INDUCTIVE SOMETHING OR OTHER thread from
awhile back?
 
Whadda Y'all think? Anybody got any better ideas?
 
Jason Johnson