RE: The simple problem with Tesla coiling now... Re: Xfmrs

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: G Hunter <dogbrain_39560@xxxxxxxxx>

It's been interesting to watch this thread evolve.  On
the first reading, I thought Terry's rant was a bit
over the top.  However, Terry is usually a pretty
sensible guy--not given to undue alarmism.  After
thinking it over, I've come around to his point of
view.

I launched my HV investigations as a middle-schooler
(we called it "junior high" in those days).  I fiddled
around with old car ignition coils, guided only by
ancient texts scrounged from the dusty stacks of my
school and city libraries.  With much tinkering I
managed to get acceptable sparks from junkyard
ignition coils.  I was "bitten" a few times, but such
shocks weren't dangerous, and they taught me proper
respect for electricity.

Eventually, the ignition coil was able to excite a
small, crude Tesla coil.  The purplish corona and 2 or
3 inch sparks to a knife blade or to the base of a
clear light bulb kept me occupied for months.

Years later, the "huge" 6" sparks from my first-ever
NST coil kept me experimenting for weeks--until the
NST mysteriously died one day.  Hmmm...

Then came 1995 and my first Internet account.  A
search engine query for "Tesla coil" got scores of
hits!  Like many others, I wasted no time in putting
up a web site.  Years of hard-won, painfully acquired
knowledge was now condensed into a few pages--with
pictures & diagrams to boot!

That's not all that changed.  My parents' first
microwave oven was very heavy, very expensive, and ran
for 20 years.  That it might contain any useful parts
never occurred to me--it went to the dump.  Now ovens
are throwaway cheap and easy to find.  A quick tour of
Long Beach the night before trash day often nets me 1
or 2 from the curb.  And thanks to the Internet,
anyone who can read knows they contain a beefy 2KV
transformer.  The net will further instruct our
scavenger on how to stack and/or multiply them into a
potent--and lethal--HV power supply.  No months of
experimenting and failure required.  The novice can
simply bypass the learning curve.

Why bother with MOTs?  Got a few bucks of birthday &
christmas money stashed away?  The newbie can pick up
NSTs, PT's, or X-Ray transformers on E-Bay, and have
them delivered right to his door.  Again, the helpful
www will show our newbie how to wire these up in
minutes.  I wonder what accidental contact with 1500VA
NST bank will do to a young person's cardiac rhythm?

And where might a youngster get such outlandish
notions?  Why YouTube of course!  Always lots of cool
HV stuff sparking on those video clips.

And it ain't just Tesla coils.  Wanna make a can
crusher?  How about a rail gun, a 5kva jacob's ladder,
or a UV laser?  Ditto for amateur chemistry.  Want to
investigate flash powder or neato mixtures of peroxide
and acetone?  Want your first-ever model rocket to put
you in the mile-high club?  How about a potato cannon
that can disable a car!

The "cool" ideas are all out there on YouTube for the
curious to see.  Helpful web pages will instruct the
reader with plans & materials lists to pursue those
cool ideas.  And E-Bay will provide the even the most
arcane parts & materials peculiar to the subject of
interest.  And an instant "expert" is born.  He can
skip the years of hard-earned experience and go right
to the advanced stage of almost any hobby.  Except he
isn't an expert--he's an inexperienced novice using an
expert's gear!

Scary?  Sure--a little.  Fortunately, these instant
experts are mostly a danger to themselves.  But it
could be bad for all of us too.  Our hobby is mostly
underground, and I like it that way.  Coils and
coilers are barely a blip on the radar of public
consciousness.  However, I suspect the first
high-profile coil-related death or dormitory fire will
bring an abrupt end to our comfortable obscurity.
Think we are safe from regulation?  I'm sure the guy
who invented lawn darts never saw the end coming
either.

For all my rambling, I don't have any solutions.
There's no way to put the Internet genie back in the
bottle.  Self-censorship?  No way!  If I figure out
something cool, I'm going to put it on the site for my
fellow hobbyists to read about.  Likewise, I
frequently prowl my favorite coiling sites to see what
others are up to.  I'd be disappointed if I knew they
were holding back.

So--Terry is right to be concerned, but I don't know
what to do about it.  I guess it's up to the
old-schoolers to do double-duty as teachers and
mentors, and to try to develop a safety culture both
on our sites and on this list.  Beyond that, we can
cross our fingers and hope we stay out of the
headlines (and the obits!).  What else is there to do?

Greg

> >From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
> >To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
> >Subject: The simple problem with Tesla coiling
> now...  Re: Xfmrs
> >Date: Sat, 03 Mar 2007 14:41:56 -0700
> >
> >Original poster: Terrell Fritz
> <terrellfone@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> >
> >Hi Jim,
> >
> >At 05:02 PM 3/2/2007, you wrote:
> >>Original poster: Jim Lux <jimlux@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> >>......................
> >>
> >>I've always thought that most people who work with
> high
> >>voltage/high energy/other inherently dangerous
> activities really
> >>only appreciate the danger after one of those
> "near death"
> >>experiences where you go "Wow.. that was a close
> one".  I only wish
> >>I could find a way to contrive such an experience
> for new engineers
> >>that would be safe, but scary.
> >>
> >>When I started fooling with HV, an elderly HV guy
> (elderly is a
> >>good sign, if you think about it; and elderly to
> me back in my
> >>early 20s might not seem so today in my
> 40s....<grin>) said that
> >>everyone should start with a decent sized Van
> deGraaff
> >>generator.  High enough voltage so that corona is
> omnipresent and
> >>you get a feel for design issues and that the
> practical effect of a
> >>HV field can extend quite a ways. Low enough
> energy so that the
> >>inevitable mistake hurts but doesn't kill you. A
> low powered tesla
> >>coil is probably in the same category.  You can
> make some small
> >>mistakes and all that happens is something catches
> fire, the
> >>insulation burns off, etc.
> >>
> >>After you've done some small amount of doing, then
> it's time to
> >>make that honest self assessment.. Is this
> something I really
> >>should be doing? But heck, people do dangerous
> things with no
> >>experience all the time. Most people survive
> through life.. partly
> >>by luck, partly by self knowledge, and HV
> experimenting is no
> >>different.  If you are excessively bold, you wind
> up being a Darwin
> >>award holder.
> >>
> >>Where it gets a bit stickier (and is a totally
> different subject)
> >>is when other people's safety starts to enter the
> picture (public
> >>shows, your kids wandering around your gear)  or
> where there's
> >>significant consequential risk if you "have a bad
> day" (gosh, sorry
> >>we inadvertently burned down the school).  That's
> where I think I'd
> >>start to draw the line and require experience and
> a second set of
> >>eyes. (And, I confess that I've become
> substantially more
> >>conservative as I've gotten older...maybe it's
> those near death
> >>experiences?  maybe it's just experience and
> knowledge.. maybe
> >>that's the difference between knowledge and
> wisdom?)
> >>
> >>
> >>Jim
> >
> >I started "HV" with ignition coils from the junk
> yard in the fifth
> >grade. Got shocked all the time ;-))  Then got into
> the mail order
> >sources on Tesla coil plans.  They never worked...
> Then went to
> >"school"...  Then worked on 375kV power line
> equipment... Then
> >worked in the high energy power supply business for
> another 18
> >years...  Then "retired" ;-))  Played with lots of
> vacuum plasma
> >things and lasers in there to...
> >
> >So after a lot of "skool" I know "how to do it" now
> ;-))
> >
> >So I studied Tesla coil arcs, and stepped further
> back with each study...
> >I studied the EMP dangers, and stopped doing public
> coil demos...  I
> >studied the dangers of my modern circuits, and
> stopped publicly posting them...
> >
> >The "simple problem with Tesla coiling" NOW is, It
> is VERY dangerous!!!
> >Unlike the "good old days" when nobody got a coil
> to work for the
> >first few years...  Now a days, the information is
> there to make a
> >gigantically powerful coil right off in an
> afternoon with two old
> >microwaves and a pair of pliers...  Worse yet, is
> that the new super
> >high power coils are "much easier" to make than
> older designs...
> >
> >It really is "NOT fun games" any more...  If a
> young kid pulls a MOT
> >instead of a ford coil, the 2kV at 2 amps will blow
> his dead guts
> >all over the house!!!  The totally screwed up coil
> "plans" that
> >could not shock your cat 20 years ago, have been
> "replaced" by coils
> >that can send kitty "into orbit" now...
> >
> >There are a "few" "safety gates" still in place,
> but they are "fragile"...
> >
> >I "very deeply fear" that newcomers to our sport
> might "grasp" the
> >newer technologies "right off" and simply kill
> themselves...
> >
> >I am not sure "how"...  But we are at the brink of
> needing to take
> >safety "a great step further" now...
> >
> >Cheers,
> >
> >         Terry
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
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