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Re: NST Pulse Voltage- getting pole pigs

Original poster: "David Rieben" <drieben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Steve, all,

Seems strange that pole pigs would be that terribly hard
to find ANYWHERE that there is wide scale commercial distribution
of electrical power ;^)  There must be at least one per every
3 to 5 households! Maybe a source of cheap surplus pole
pigs is rare in the UK but it's not always easy to obtain surplus/
cheap pigs here in the US either. Because of our letigious society
in the States, many suppliers are a bit skiddish about sel-
ling a fully functional distribution transformer to just any Tom,
Dick, or Harry off the street! Can't really say that I blame them!
T&R Electric used to cheerfully sell pole pigs to anyone who
identified him/herself as a Tesla coiler but that all came to a
screetching halt a few years back. I can't recall the details
but some coiler who had bought a transformer from them ended
up giving them a "lot of grief" over the purchase and they just
decided that it wasn't worth the trouble to sell single transfor-
mer units to individuals for private use anymore and that was
the end of that :^(  A few "bad apples" can really ruin a good
thing for a lot of us! I had to call a few places to find a relatively
local source (3 hr. drive) for pole pigs that was willing to sell one
to me as an individual for private use. My local electrical utility
was not a viable source since they have there own transformer
rebuild/repair shop. Now that I have secured a rebuilder that will
sell me pole pigs, I'm careful about who I refer to them for that
purpose as I don't want to end up losing my sorce for pole pigs
because of soemone elses misfortune/stupidity. Remember too,
that most transformer manufacturers or rebuilders fill orders for
many transformers at a time so be polite and don't give them a
"bunch of static" over your one little pole piggie that they graciously
took the time to sell to you.

David Rieben


----- Original Message ----- From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, August 15, 2005 6:41 PM
Subject: Re: NST Pulse Voltage- getting pole pigs


Original poster: Steve Conner <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxx>


Does anyone know a good place to get pole pigs from in the UK at scrap prices for repair?

You already noticed that we're not so keen on neon signs as the Americans. But pole pigs seem quite rare in the UK too. We don't need so many because we use a sensible mains voltage! *grin*

You just missed a pig- it was grabbed within minutes of getting advertised on the UK Tesla mailing list, on Friday or thereabouts. I've been coiling for 3-4 years now and only seen a couple of pigs for sale in that time.

There are lots of alternatives to NSTs and pigs for the British coiler. Solid state and DC resonant coils have always been popular here. A DC coil can produce great big sparks from a couple of MOTs without stressing the insulation as a stack does. The best I have seen is almost 7ft from two MOTs, and I have managed about 4ft from a single MOT. However DC coils need extra capacitors, HV diodes, and iron-cored inductors that add to the cost and hassle.

You can also try MOT stacks, paralleled oil burner ignition transformers, Thor-style switched-mode supplies, you name it. If you're feeling rich, you can even buy new NSTs from Tunewell Transformers.


Steve Conner