Restoring a NST & Other Qs

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <MaverickIce00-at-aol-dot-com>

Hi Terry, List, 

Today I exchanged my old NST (6/30) because it had a 277 volt primary (which 
I didn't notice at the time I bought it) for an "antique" 7.5/30 NST, but 
this "new" NST of mine has a ton of surface rust, which is constantly flaking 
off and looks really nasty. But basically, i'm wondering how I can go about 
removing all this rust and making it look nice and pretty (i'm a 
perfectionist, I can't help it...). I've been thinking, after checking out 
Chris Boden's work with his pig, that I can sand it down to the bare metal 
with some sandpaper or maybe emery cloth, then using my shop teacher's 
airbrush (used for model aircraft, cars, boats, etc.) to coat it with a 
couple layers of flat black acrylic enamel paint. I have some 100 and 220 
grit sandpaper at hand already, would the 100 grit work well with a little 
Makita electric sander? 

Also, relating to the "Sparks - Bright in the Middle" thread, I noticed that 
while playing around with my Sculptured Electra (those curvy glass tubes with 
the sparks racing around the inside that you sometimes see in electronics 
stores...) that the little purple arcs (up to 1/2" max.) drawn off the 
surface off the glass onto a light bulb contact and then to a sharp point 
would have a very dark (almost invisible) section in the center of the arcs, 
with much brighter ends. (Sorry it's a little OT, Terry.) 

Another thing is that you can draw arcs to your finger, which result in 
small, painful, smelly (like burnt human flesh...) RF burns, which usually go 
away within a day or so, but I was wondering why these RF burns are so much 
worse than lower frequency electrical burns... I bring this up because while 
running a Jacob's Ladder and testing it for RFI by looking at a TV in the 
other room, I accidentally touched the output of my 7.5/30 NST... I know, 
very stupid and careless, but for a split second I saw an arc jump off the 
terminal to my finger, and it left almost no burn whatsoever, even though the 
arcs from my JL are extremely hot (like flames, i'm sure most of you know 
what i'm talking about). So what exactly does frequency have to do with the 
severity of an electrical burn? Surely, my 24 watt Electra is much less 
powerful than my 225 VA NST, but it still leaves pretty nasty burns, I wonder 
why... 

That's basically everything... 

Regards, 

Josh Hunsaker 
---------------------- 
Denver, Colorado 
MaverickIce00-at-aol-dot-com 

PS: About that little brush with the NST, I was being careless and frankly 
stupid, and forgot that the thing was plugged in, and when I reached to 
adjust the terminals for the JL (one had fallen down and wasn't arcing 
anymore) I touched both terminals and got a substantial jolt. A warning to 
beginners and experts alike, BE CAREFUL, and certainly more careful than I 
was. Had it been a more powerful unit or a pig or MOT, I might not have 
survived... (definately not survived in the case of MOT or pig...) But in the 
end, i'm doing okay, and don't see any major after affects of the shock, 
other than an upset stomach, but then again, like Shad said, that flu does 
leave you weak, and i'm not sure what the upset stomach is a result of flu or 
shock (or both...). 

PPS: An interesting note is that the shock was almost identical in terms of 
pain with a fully charged 330 V 220 µF photo flash capacitor that I came into 
contact with (except that I could feel the NST all the way up to my shoulders 
and through my chest cavity (a very bad thing(tm)...)). I'm guessing that 
this has something to do with the sheer energy of a capacitor, some 11 Joules 
in this case (although that's nothing compared to some of the caps you people 
have out there). The bottom line, be EXTREMELY CAREFUL WHEN WORKING WITH HIGH 
VOLTAGE, I had to be reminded the hard way. I guess i'm very lucky that i'm 
not having more serious problems, only being 14 and all. I can remember 
almost countless electrical mishaps that i've had in the past that may have 
very well killed me... 

PPPS: Terry - Sorry that it's a little OT with the Electra. BTW, thanks a ton 
for the caps! They're great!