Original poster: Davetracer@xxxxxxx
In a message dated 7/3/2005 10:14:47 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time,
tesla@xxxxxxxxxx writes:
Original poster: Mddeming@xxxxxxx
In a message dated 7/3/05 2:12:42 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
tesla@xxxxxxxxxx writes:
Original poster: Adam Britt <beans45601@xxxxxxxxx>
its still not worth it.
-Adam
"For a given value of 'it' " ?
I just built a neon sign powered coil (12kv/60 ma). I'm low on
spare change at the moment.
So I wandered by WalMart and got a big metal pot. My son picked
up some copper tubing, then bent it into continuous bottle-shaped
segments, so the bottles going in had support, and also had
whatever benefit possible from having the current and voltage
"piped" right to the bottles. Then I picked up a 12-pack of Corona
[no pun intended] beer, poured out the beer, filled with water to
about 2" from the top, and used some thick copper wire to form
center electrodes for the bottles. I used table salt both inside
and outside. Finally I filled the pot with water to the same level
as the bottles. The pot sits on thick books to keep from
accidentally zapping into the floor.
Results: It works fine. There has not been a punchthrough yet
[knock on wood]. The copper tubing inside keeps the bottles from
falling over quite nicely, and the Corona bottles are just
wonderful with their long necks; in fact someone on the list recommended them.
I don't see any point in using oil, laxatives, chocolate or
concrete. (Of course those are probably for a different design of
caps). I think that probably the cooling effect of the water helps
keep the bottles from shattering from heat stress.
This may have cost as much as $20, but it could have been $10.
This coil is putting out the biggest sparks I've ever made with
a TC, and during a tuning session the other day, tripped the fire
alarm many feet away on the ceiling. I have two thoughts about that:
(1) "What a pain!". (I had to call and tell them it was an accidental trip).
(2) *COOL* !!
While some of the coils from people on this list are
constructed beautifully, my experience has been there is cost and
time attached to that. You really can build these things on a
shoestring. I'll probably experiment with MMC cap arrays when I
accumulate more quarters in the spare change can.
-- thanks,
Dave