Re: Wire worries......do I need HV wire, or will 600V hardware store wire do?

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

Original poster: DRIEBEN-at-midsouth.rr-dot-com 

Jack,

As long as you allow for plenty of spacing between the energized HV wire
and a grounded or opposite polarity object, the insulation rating really
dosen't matter. However, if you must bring the energized HV conductor
against a grounded object, then you can just run your 600 volt rated
house wiring through some adequately sized vinyl tubing, which is also
sold in the hardware store ;^) This will greatly increase the voltage
standoff gradient to well accomadate voltages <20kV. You can also pick
up "GTO cable" which is used to transmit the HV from NST to the neon
signs from your local neon sign shop for about $.50 a foot, or even
cheaper on ebay. GTO-15 cable is rated at 15 kVAC and GTO-10 is rated
at 10 kVAC.

David Rieben



----- Original Message -----
From: Tesla list <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Date: Thursday, January 8, 2004 6:50 am
Subject: Wire worries......do I need HV wire, or will 600V hardware  store 
wire do?

 > Original poster: Phlunktfysics101-at-aol-dot-com
 >
 > Hello all!
 >
 > I'm a new coiler, and I'm at the point where I have just about
 > everything
 > here to assemble my coil, except perhaps suitable wire.  I bought
 > some 8
 > AWG copper multistranded wire from the hardware store.  It is
 > thick, and
 > seems heavy duty, but it is only rated at 600V.  Just about all
 > the wire at
 > the hardware store is 600V max.  I would be using this to make my
 > connections from my 15,000V 30mA NST and 45kV Maxwell Caps.  My
 > question is
 > will the insulation burn off or something?  Do I need to shell out
 > the big
 > bucks for HV wire?  Or are most people using the same low voltage
 > wire?  I
 > looked on all the popular sites, but wire voltage rating is rarely
 > mentioned.  And when it is, it's always HV wire like 30kV or
 > something and
 > I cant tell if it's just for bragging purposes.
 >
 > Also, I built a "vacuum sucker gap" modeled after the one on Gary
 > Lau's
 > website.  It seemed to be a good easy to make alternative until I
 > can rig
 > up an RSG.  Has anyone else used one of these, and do they work well?
 >
 > I appreciate any advice.
 > Jack
 >
 >
 >