Re: liberating pigs??? (fwd)

["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>

>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2001 19:22:03 -0600
>From: ebyng <ebyng-at-netlimit-dot-com>
>To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>Subject: liberating pigs???
>
>Hello ya'll
>Where has everybody liberated pigs from???
>So far I've been told off by:
>1. The power Co.
>2. The Scrap yards
>3.  The nieghborhood electrician
>
>Any hints??
>thanks
>Erik
>

Sure.....here's a couple hints.

1. Don't even THINK of getting a Pig until you've built and run a couple 
smaller coils and other HV projects. You're playing with incredibly powerful 
forces of nature here. Learn the basics and the safety procedures before 
playing with the Instant Death level of toys.
NST's and OBITS *CAN* kill you. But most people who have been bit by one 
live, and learn a hard lesson. Has anyone ever survived contact by a Pig? 
I've never heard of it (and would like to know). There are a LOT of "Near 
Miss" situations that we never talk about, it would make an interesting 
thread. I've never been hit by an NST, but I got bit by an OBIT in my VERY 
early days of playing with HV. I've kept the cord in my pocket since.

2. Don't get a Pig until you have a home for it. They're a SERIOUS pain to 
move. The Group has sat on our for a couple months (and it STILL hasn't been 
used yet). We've put a LOT of time into cleaning it up and making it pretty, 
but only plugged it in 2 times! And that was just to make sure it was 
working well. The 2 times it's been powered were under such little amounts 
of resistive ballast that we could only pull a 1 or 2" arc with a Jesus 
stick. Not terribly impressive :) Before we had the Sigma-6 facility it 
stayed in a Body Shop for a month and then at a local Garage for another 
month. It couldn't come to Little St because there is NO WAY I'm hauling it 
up and down 3 flights of stairs (and I have doubts the floor would hold the 
weight! Our big is a LITTLE one and it weighs 208Lbs (it's a 10kVA-at-13.8kV) I 
HAVE seriously injured myself trying to move it, and am NOT making that 
mistake again.
When you have a nice place to work on your coil, and don't have to move it 
all the time, and also have a concrete floor, then you're set :)

Places to shop for Pigs.

We have found several looking around town, it's not hard. The problem is not 
just any pig will work. The ~2kV ones are VERY popular, and useless as an 
Amish Nintendo. For coiling the higher the voltage the better. Pigs under 
12kV aren't worth the time. YES, there ARE a lot of people who work in the 
LV areas of coiling. MOTs are only good for 2kV, but most of these people 
use methods of doubling the voltage (series trannies and such) because it's 
a LOT easier to coil in HV. Look for Pigs in the ~13 to 18kV range.

Abandoned Factories! The ABSOLUTE best place to get large amounts of HV 
gear, if you know where to look! We have pulled everything from Insulators, 
to MAMMOTH (like 200lbs and 4'tall) switches, to copper buss, 500MCM cable, 
BIG caps, PT's, and God knows what else from sites in our own hometown. I 
won't go into specifics (statute of limitations and all that), but if you 
get creative there is a LOT of stuff out there to find. And if we wouldn't 
have taken it, it would be in a dumpster by now. The plant had sat abandoned 
for 17 years, and the scrappers had long since cleaned out all the High 
Dollar schtuff (like the generators and such). But if you LOOK you will find 
lots of stuff. The downside is you're gonna WORK for it, and hard. If it 
were easy to get it'd be gone by now. The plant will be torn down this 
summer.

IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTE!

The plant we do most of our scavengeing from not only had the power turned 
off, they completely removed the entire substation that fed it. Otherwise we 
would have NEVER touched half the things we have. A line carrying 2kV looks 
JUST like a dead one. Unless you can see BOTH ends of a wire, don't touch 
it. Things CAN be fed from multiple points, and MANY HV lines are backfed 
for reduntancy reasons. This is NOT a thing where you get a second chance, 
you WILL die, and in a messy painful way.

Switchgear Shacks:

In looking around your abandoned factories, look for little buildings that 
look like a bunch of grey little outhouses bolted together. They are 
modular, each module being about the shape of a refridgeorator, only about 
25% bigger in each dimention. They will be 2 units deep, and 8 or 10 long, 
with LOTS of wires coming out all over. There will be 2 doors (usually one 
on each end) and on all the ones we've seen there is alittle metal sign that 
says General Electric Switchgear on the doors.

You have found HV heaven.

The door will be locked (Usually with a padlock) and the second you open the 
door (you do NOT need to pick the lock, remove the door, or make any noise 
to open it, but I refuse to tell you how, you figure it out) you are in 
violation of SEVERAL laws, both state and federal. You can be arrested, 
killed, etc just for STANDING IN THERE.

Now that you've got your buddy on the radio outside watching, and you 
concience was left in your other pants, you're COMPLETELY sure the place is 
abandoned, and the power is off (You can see the cut cable ends sticking out 
the top of the switchgear building like severed veins) here is what you look 
for.

Lining one wall will be a row of cabinets. They will each hinge on the left, 
and open from the right. When opened they will lock in place with a bar at 
waist level. There will be 2 doors per pod, one top, one bottom. Several 
switches, buttons meters and lights. Each door will be held in place with 2 
large captive bolts (about 1" head or bigger) these come off easy with a 
cresent wrench.

Now, in your pocket is a non-contact voltage sensor that you tested before 
you left and KNOW works well. A MINI-MAG, and a cresent wrench (you will 
need sockets in your backpack too).

1. look for ANY operating lights in the room, if they work, leave, it's not 
safe.

Touch the voltage sensor to everything. If it alarms, leave, it's not safe. 
Make this a habit. Before you touch ANYTING or cut ANY wire, test it first. 
You'll be amazed how many "Dead" wires, aren't.

Ok...open the BOTTOM doors (the top ones are useless for what you want)
When you fond the right door insode you will see what looks like 2 drawers, 
each with 2 handles. The handles will be stainless tubes that are horizontal 
and can be made to slide apart about an inch.

There will be a large drawer on the bottom (this onw will have a circuit 
breaker on the door as well) and a small one on top (ne breaker, just 
handles.

1. Turn the breaker off (the drawer won't open with it on).

2. Grasp the 2 handles on the TOP drawer and SLAM them together, they will 
each move inwards about an inch. Now pull and the 250+Lbs of drawer will 
slide out. Pull it ALL the way out untill the grounding straps engage 
(you'll see them inside along the top when they do).

Those big things you're looking at with the fuses.....yeah....those are PTs 
(Potential Transformers). Congratulations, you're in the butter zone.

1. Voltage Test, then pull the fuses (Careful, the ones we found were Glass 
with a white granule stuff inside and a VERY thin wire).

2. Test and cut the wires. There will only be wires on the LV side (120VAC) 
the HV side (probably 2400V though we have a pair of 14400V) will be 
connected by copper buss.

3. Unbolt the buss, make SURE to keep the bolts for the tranny connections.

4. Unbolt the mounting bolts (be ready to cram you butt into some VERY tight 
and scarey places to get some of those bolts off.)

5. Lift......grunt....slam your finger.....grunt...swear.....LIIIIIIIIIFT 
them out of the cabinet and into the van parked nearby.

Congratulations, you now have a few PT's.

Now look in the bottom drawer.....he he he

You will find in there a 10kVA dry Pig (It's actually a PT, but a REALLY BIG 
PT). It connects JUST like the PT's and all the same rules apply. The 
problem is, how do you get it out? It weighs well in excess of 200Lbs.

Pull one out and you have us beat, the UET has never gotten one out......yet 
;)

Have fun, and of course this is ALL for educational purposes only, I, The 
Geek Group, and The Geek Group's U.E.T. (Urban Exploration Team) do NOT 
reccomend you vandalize or commit theft, grand theft, unlawful entry, 
breaking and entry, or sabatage by doing the things outlined herin. That of 
course would be absolutly stupid.....but a heck of a lot of fun nontheless. 
;)



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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