Original poster: David Speck <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Tony, It's simply a matter of taking the time to reinvent the wheel.The optimum materials for a transformer core are not the sort of thing you can get at the neighborhood Wally World. High silicon transformer steel is pretty much used for -- well -- transformers. It is a real b*tch to work with -- hard as knife blades, brittle, and it's murder on cutting tools, not to mention your hands. I know -- I tried to make some custom solenoids in High School out of old tube TV power transformers. Ruined several sets of aviation snips in the process, and ended up with lotsa pieces resembling potato chips with razor blade edges. Shoulda bought them, but didn't have access in the pre-Internet and pre-eBay days.
The design and construction of the windings in not trivial, either.Sizing the windings, and spacing them properly to simultaneously optimize magnetic efficiency, heat dissipation, and high voltage integrity has preoccupied flocks of mechanical and electrical engineers at GE, Westinghouse, Allis-Chalmers, and others for the past 120 years.
With Dr. Resonance offering complete, tested and really pretty pole pig units for the cost of 20 hours of minimum wage labor, it just doesn't make any economic sense to try to roll your own, even if you could get the materials for free. It's actually kinda amazing that he's selling them completely restored and functional for little more than the salvage value of the copper in the windings. You might want to pick up a couple of them while they are still available to a private citizen.
Dave Tesla list wrote:
Original poster: "Anthony R. Mollner" <penny831@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> I have a question that I have wondered about for a long time and perhaps someone can comment on it. How difficult is it really to "Make" a pole pig or a transformer of some kind? I mean, why can't we wind a core, put it in a bath of transformer oil and put it to use? Huhh, huh? Any xfmr guys out there have an idea on that??? Tony