Re: liberating pigs-Part 2

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

Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>

Hmm.. as one who flamed Chris several times (but nicely, I hope, not
abusively) I have to agree with his comments.  One of the best pieces of
advice on HV that I got from a wise old (operative word there) HV guy was to
buy or build a biggish Van deGraaf generator (one that will hurt but not
kill if you get zapped).  There is nothing like working around a 400-500 kV
VDG to get a real feel (literally) for corona, HV fields, etc.  A few
inadvertent zaps to the head when you lean too close, or through the feet
when you get charged by induction, and you learn.

With a TC, even a small one, there is so much going on when trying to tune
it, and all that noise from the spark gap, that you don't really pay much
attention to the subtleties of the field, etc.  And with a smalish NST
powered coil, when you do take a secondary hit ( only twice now for me), it
doesn't hurt all that much, so it isn't the surprising and painful learning
experience that the VDG zap is.

The pig powered coil is going to have all sorts of problems that the NST
coil didn't, and you don't want to get so wrapped up in fooling with it that
you forget and get toasted.

That said, I looked in vain for a cheap (<$100) used/surplus pig here in
SoCal.  They aren't to be found.  I acquired a wide variety of other HV
transformers in the mean time.  I finally got a pig with Jeff Parisse's
group buy for $200 (and I haven't even gotten around to picking it up.. I
think he finally sold it to someone else).  The most frightening pig
acquisition story I have is mentioning that I'd be willing to pay $100 for a
pig  at the special effects shop where I used to work, and one of the
younger guys with more guts than brains took it into his mind to grab the
handy chain saw, some bolt cutters, and so forth. He ventured into the hills
to "acquire" a pig for me. He figured that he could just chainsaw the pole
and it would fall down, breaking the live wires, and he would then be able
to leisurely (at night of course) chop the sucker loose.    It was quite the
experience, from what I heard. All manner of problems: chainsaw binding in
the pole, etc., and the net result being a pole slightly tilted hanging from
the live lines... Thank god he didn't kill himself or start a brush fire.

> new to this (wow...did I say that?) I'm a VERY new coiler, and a newbie to
> HV as well (less than 5 years), but I've gotten to the point where, by the
> types of questions you're asking, I (and most others out here) can tell
> where in the learning curve you are to HV work.
>
>
> I don't want to discurage you, and I don't want to sound like I know
> everything, because I'm a HV moron. But I've spent a few years getting
> flamed, trashing gear, blowing copious amounts of cash, getting blistered,
> and wasting months of work. I know a LOT of what NOT to do. I've asked a
> million dumb questions (and answered quite a few). I've paid a lot of dues
> in here. We all have.
>
> The guys in here will bend over backwards to help you, it's part of the
> deal. They will also FLAME YOU HARDCORE (with the emails your posting I'd
> hate to see what your getting offlist by now). IT's OK, don't get
> discuraged. HV is a weird hobby. With trains, if you screw up, you start
> over, no biggie. With HV, the learning curve is rather severe. This is a
> VERY pass/fail hobby. If it doesn't burn down, you pass, if you're alive
at
> the end of the day, you pass, get it?