A little worried. I don't want landlord to ban my hobby.

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

Original poster: "Garry Freemyer by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <garry-at-ndfc-dot-com>

The other day, I had the landlady look at a leak in my roof and I forgot to
put away my Tesla coil. Consequently she asked about it and I felt compelled
to be honest. At one point she asked if it were dangerous and I replied "Not
particularly" meaning its not a toy but compared it to a knife, if you are
careful and don't do something stupid you are ok.

I almost ended up being told that I could no longer stay there if I wanted
to keep the coil. Meaning that I coulnd't even POSESS it let alone run it!!
Her exact words were "Then you can't have it. Nobody is allowed to have
something dangerous here."

Luckily, I had a video of me running a small tesla coil. It showed me taking
sparks to myself from a tesla coil generating 6" sparks from a NST. The
plans were OLD and I have since learned how to build one that outputs 3'
sparks. Later, the video shows me running a coil putting out 15" sparks
using a brass knob. I no longer draw sparks to myself after reading the info
on the dangers on that. My feelings on this are that sure its spectacular to
draw sparks to self but I can never know if I am getting RF burns, or if a
hot wire under the floor is going to be my undoing. I'd rather be safe than
sorry.

So, at least for now, I can keep the coil. I plan on getting some pictures
of it in operation and video taping the coil so I can watch those rather
than operate the coil. Being alittle paranoid about fried NST, caps and
noise complaints I am keeping operations to the minimum.

Ok, now to the point of my post ...

I almost referred her to www.pupman-dot-com for more information. After
re-reading the safety sheet, I am glad I didn't tho not because I disagree
with anything on the site but because all it would have taken for my hobby
to be ended would be for her to read the phrase repeated over and over
"Tesla coils are extremely dangerous" for her to put an end to it all for me
and at such great cost, of hundreds possibly a thousand dollars I have spent
trying to get one that would last and not fry at the drop of a hat. I agree
that these things can be very dangrous in the hands of someone who is
inexperienced and does not have a healthy respect and knowledge of what even
high frequency output from a tesla coil can do.

I am just wondering if there is anything that could be done to reword it so
that if she did happen to look at this site - she is the type to look up
things on the internet. If she finds this site, my coiling days are over. I
would not be able to afford to move for at least another year from now if
that.

On the other hand, I understand the tone of the safety sheet. It is better
for someone like me loses their hobby and a number of people be scared away
from the hobby by the safety sheet than one single person to take up the
hobby and be killed by one little mistake.

So, Don't get me wrong. I am not saying we should minimize the danger. All I
am asking is do you think this sheet could be or should be reworded to take
a less "Terrifying" view of this hobby and still serve the purpose of the
safety sheet. I say terrified because if my landlady were to read that, she
would be terrified. I don't know if it could or should be modified. I am
just opening a thread for further discussion. Sure, I am one person, but I
would hate to come home to a note that says "Lose the coil or move." I think
I would start sobbing! I would hate to see my hobby ended like this.