Garage cleaning

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

Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>

It being the new year, I need to clear out some incredibly valuable and
useful stuff (my wife calls it "that HV junk") from the garage. Before I try
alternate methods of disposal, I thought that there might be a list'ite who
could put it to good use.  It's free under two conditions:

1) You're going to put it to good use (which could include hoarding it in
your garage, just in case) and not going to turn around and resell it.
2) You're going to deal with moving it from my house (in Thousand Oaks, CA
(Southern Cal, about 30 mi from LA)) to wherever.  I'll help you load it,
but you're responsible for crating, packaging, tieing down, etc.

If there's more than one person interested, the one with the most
interesting application gets it. Kind of like giving a pet to a good home,
right?


Here's what's available:

30-40 kV, 350 mA DC power supply - It's several hundred pounds, in a 6 foot
high 19" rack. Basically a three phase transformer with a 6 pulse bridge
rectifier using 8020A tubes, all in a oil tank (which does not leak).
There's a switch to run the primaries in Wye or Delta, and there's two taps
as well.  There's also a three phase variac (30A, from memory), a contactor
with overcurrent protection, etc.  I have a partial rough schematic of
everything, if you want to try and use it as is. I don't have three phase
power, nor am I likely to in the near future, and it's just too big to
hassle with, but, if you're interested in fooling with a high power DC coil,
this is a nice start.. (I think a rotary converter, or a suitable array of
capacitors on the primary, might make a nice single to 3 phase converter).

A rack about 5ft high with: 2 plate transformers, 110V primaries at 40 Amps,
5300V, 750 mA out (approximately, I'm too lazy to go out in the garage and
read them), as well as a set of 8 oil filled filter capacitors, 2uF -at- 6kV,
with bleeder resistors, in compartmented polyethylene boxes.  I wired it up
about 5 years ago as a pair of voltage doublers for use as a capacitor
charging supply.  I think there's a big contactor in there too, but I can't
remember if I scavenged it out for something else. Again, if you're going to
do DC coils this would be a nice start. (or, you could consider this a small
pole pig... 8kVA at 10-11kV RMS).

A Xray machine power supply (CSX110) which is essentially a 500 Hz SCR
inverter that drives a transformer and solid state rectifier for 110 kV-at-
100mA (short duty cycle, though.. 5-10 seconds at that current).  You'll
need a 100Amp 100V DC supply to operate it (well, maybe not the 100Amps)...
It was originally designed to run off 100V+ NiCd pack, and has the charger
built in, but no batteries.  I have the service manual and full schematics.
It has wheels (After all, it was designed to be rolled around a hospital).
NO X-RAY HEAD!! (but does have the HV cables)

A bunch (8)  of HV pulse caps (75kV, 1.6 uF) from Maxwell and Aerovox.
They're about 250 lbs each.

These two items together make a nice start for a very impressive Marx Bank
(40 kJ, 600 kV..)

A pair of isolation transformers out of a TWT test set.  I'm pretty sure
they'll hold off 15 kV (probably rated for 25+), and they are 480V in, 120V
out (no taps).  The 120V winding is the one with good isolation, but, you
could run them back to back, or float the core hot. At least 2 or 3 kVA,
judging from the core cross section (probably 10 square inches). If you're
interested, I can go measure them. If you want to make an NST farm for, say
30 or 45kV, by seriesing the secondaries, these would be the hot ticket.
They're heavy, though... (50-100 lbs)

Some Ross Engineering HV relays (fairly low voltages, though: 25 or 40 kV),
SPST and SPDT, some latching.

A weird rack I built to hold 4 of the big caps. It looks like a fiberglass
pallet with some uprights, and it's made from Extren I beams (2x4") and
angle (3x3).  Unlikely you'll use it as is, but if you saw it apart
(Outside, lots of wind/water, and a Sawzall) you've got lots of good HV
structural stuff for standoffs, etc.

Send me an email (jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net) if you're interested...