Re: Really big MOT power supplies

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

Original poster: "Chris Arnold by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <chris_arnold-at-msn-dot-com>

Chris,

Good luck, as this is sure to be a bit of a challenge.  I wanted to say two 
things about this tho: 1) Be very very careful w/ your MOTs.  I don't know 
if you've checked out just what a single MOT can do, but if you want to 
seriously educate yourself about how dangerous they are just hook one up to 
a good 20 amp or larger outlet (preferably w/ a circuit breaker 'cause it's 
most certainly going to blow eventually) and get the output away from the 
transformer to escape the magnetic flux from the shunts, and using a long 
insulated handle (several feet of PVC) draw an arc from it.  I guarantee 
you will be impressed by the size and wicked appearance of the arc.  2) For 
this reason, I woud strongly recommend that you not even consider using 
switching for the secondaries on the ballast transformers.  Those 
secondaries will most certainly have extremely hazardous voltage present at 
them as well.  If you still want to have that option, I think you could 
probably make a jumper wire with a female spade terminal on the end 
inserted under the grounded side of the balast MOT secondary and use that 
to short the supply.

Good luck and be safe,

Chris Arnold


>From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
>To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>Subject: Really big MOT power supplies
>Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2003 08:18:03 -0600
>
>Original poster: "Chris the great by way of Terry Fritz 
><teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <downnessisgoingup-at-hotmail-dot-com>
>
>
>Hello Everyone!
>
>I hope someone can answer some of my questions about buiding a MOT tesla 
>coil power supply.
>I haven't got the transformers yet, but I know this won't be a problem (I 
>know several people with old microwaves).  I was planning on having 6 of 
>them in series.  There would be an optional ballast (made with another 
>MOT), and the whole thing would be submerged in oil inside a large 
>tupperware container.
>This should give me around 12000 VAC at maybe 8000VA (ballast off).
>Is there any tips on building something like this?  I also plan to use it 
>to power other high voltage projects, such as a jacobs ladder.  Is there a 
>high transformer failure rate with this many in series (and the 
>corresponding much higher voltage)?  Would I need to use paralled MOTs as 
>a ballast instead of one because of the power the system will draw?
>I will have a switch to allow the circuit to bypass the ballast for higher 
>power, and also to short or unshort the ballast secondaries, to give me a 
>couple power levels to play around with.
>
>Thanks in advance!