Re: Preventing a REALLY expensive mistake.

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

Original poster: "Christopher Boden by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <chrisboden-at-hotmail-dot-com>

>Original poster: "John Williams by way of Terry Fritz 
><twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <jwilliams-at-edm-dot-net>
>
>Christopher:
>
>	If I were in that situation I would give serious thought to
>large industrial scale isolation transformers on the power feeds into
>the high voltage lab.

Been looking into this. Anyone know where I can get a 100 to 200A 240VAC 
transformer?

>	One of the fellows I know who builds really large coils depends
>on the spike dampening tendencies of the several hundred pounds of
>iron in his power control systems to keep line variances from the
>coils from going back along the system and toasting things in his home
>and garage.

I figure it's either that or I buy stock in Corcom :), I think I have to 
call them about sponsorship.


>	If you are going to be constructing and testing really large coils
>it is something to think about.  This guy does the big stuff.  Last contact
>I had with him he was working on a system that drew, I think, something
>like 90 KW input.  His "little" coils use 5 KW instrumentation 
>transformers.
>	It seems worth looking into if you have a "belt and suspenders"
>situation and from what you describe that is what you have.

Ok....it's driving me nuts. Having been raised by a gentleman for whom 
"(Rac)Coon's age" is a precise measurement of time, and "Holler" can not 
only be a verb, but a place as well. This is one I've never heard before. 
Please explain, offlist for the city boys :)


>	Concrete, even concrete that has set for many years, has a lot
>of moisture in it and a slab tilt up building, which seems to be what you
>are describing here, is made of steel reinforced slabs.  When exposed to
>the kind of potentials a tesla coil develops the stuff can hardly be 
>thought
>of as an insulator.  A friend of mine many years ago built a coil that 
>tossed
>of eight to ten foot arcs in his parents garage.  It did stike the floor
>several
>times.  Where it struck the arc caused the moisture in the concrete slab to
>vaporize and blow chips out of the concrete.  But that is all.

I've been kicking around the idea of completely covering the floor with 
steel plate. If the plate were well grounded I would think you could stand 
on it while discharges struck it and you'd be fine. I'd have to account for 
creeping and such (it couldn't go wall-to-wall because the floor would have 
a different expantion rate than the steel and the steel would buckle) but if 
I left 6" on 2 walls it sould be fine.

>	What kind of walls do you have separating the various areas
>you will be using?

The building is of Brick construction for the walls, massive concrete floors 
with concrete pillars underneath. Basement walls are block. Roof is wood.

Is this all one open space and if so will you be
>constructing
>your own wall systems?

Depends on where in the building you are. The HVL is one open space (for the 
most part), we willl be building several walls in other parts of the 
facility.

If you do have to build your own walls I would
>think about turning the computer area into a faraday cage.  All it would
>take is a bit of chiken wire and some serious crimping tools during
>construction.
>	My two cents...
>
>	John
Thanks Boss!

Have fun!

Christopher A. Boden Geek#1
President / C.E.O. / Alpha Geek
The Geek Group
www.thegeekgroup-dot-org
Because the Geek shall inherit the Earth!



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