Re: Dumbing Down a Heavyweight

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Tesla729-at-cs-dot-com>

In a message dated 6/9/01 10:22:03 PM Central Daylight Time, tesla-at-pupman-dot-com 
writes: 


>
> Dear List, 
>
> Tonight I undertook the unhappy task of dumbing down 
> my 6" x 30" coil system. I simply can't tolerate the 
> constant hits to the walls and ceiling. The interior 
> of the garage is sheathed with plywood for heaven's 
> sake! Not to mention the electrical wiring running 
> through the studs. I'm just begging for a fire if I 
> keep it up. Reluctantly, I replaced my new 8" x 26" 
> pool toy toroid with the original 4" x 20" drainpipe 
> toroid and retuned. Predictably, the streamer length 
> decreased to about 60" average, although there seem to 
> be more of them. I didn't expect the color change 
> though. The shorter sparks are less intense and more 
> purplish instead of the hot, blue-white I'd become 
> accustomed to. After payday, I might try covering the 
> ceiling and the nearest wall with grounded chicken 
> wire. Until then, the beast must wear a muzzle. Too 
> bad. 
>
> Greg 
> http://hot-streamer-dot-com/greg 



Hi Greg, 

I can certainly sympathize with your plight. I am operating 
a 10 kVA pole pig driven system in a painfully claustropho- 
bic 12 X 20 ft. WOODEN shop building. I have to "muzzle" 
my beast down to around 7 to 8 kVA, and that's really push- 
ing it too much. At this level, I get 8 ft+ bright white-hot sparks 
striking the walls, floors and ceiling joists. I haven't had any 
fires yet (crossing my fingers), but it is obviously dangerous. 
I only have one electrical line running along the top of one wall 
and I have covered it with grounded chicken wire. And running 
outside is really out of the question in my urbanized environ- 
ment :-(   I can run my system up to nearly 12 kVA, but that 
would definitely be pushing it too much in my little shop. I re- 
wired my control panel variac for 0-240 volts out instead of 0- 
280 volts out, since I never run it over about 220 volts in (this 
puts the input to the pig in the 7 to 8 kVA range - around 35 
amps). 

David Rieben