[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: [TCML] First (or maybe 2nd) light on my medium-sized SG coil



Mark, DC, all,


Yessir, I did catch the insulation in my attic on fire from
a streamer hit back in the mid-90s. I didn't realize what
had happened at first but around 30 minutes after firing
my coil, I kept noticing a smoke smell in the house. Be-
ing a professional firefighter, I was on the ball pretty quick
and found a patch of the cellulose insulation smoldering
in the attic above where I had fired the coil. Fortunately,
it was ONLY smoldering and a pan full of water handily
extinguished the dinner plate sized patch of charred insu-
lation. If I had gone off and left the house for several hours
while this was occuring, the outcome likely would have
been far more grave. The house that I'm in now is of a
newer construction and has the non-combusitble fiberglass
insulation, but letting power arc streamers hit walls and
ceilings is still definitely NOT a good idea!!

David


----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark W. Stolz" <mark_w_stolz@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Tesla Coil Mailing List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 8:12 AM
Subject: RE: [TCML] First (or maybe 2nd) light on my medium-sized SG coil



Listen to DC on this!

I thought for sure I had set the house on fire in this manner when playing with MOT supplies.
http://stolzweb.org/tesla/psu/mot/4motsparks.htm

Fortunately there was no fire....this time. Taking it outside is not a bad thing.

Mark Stolz
Pearland, TX
http://teslacoils4christ.org/

Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2008 13:28:23 -0700
From: resonance@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [TCML] First (or maybe 2nd) light on my medium-sized SG coil
CC:


You hit upon something that is very dangerous to any that runs a large coil
in their garage.  The greatest danger is that if a spark strikes a wall,
travels thru the wall seeking a ground source such as a wire, the dissipated
energy within the wall construction materials may not lead to an immediate
fire which can be detected and extinguished.  The greatest danger is the
smoldering of construction materials which continues to smolder and
eventually breaks out into a fire a few hours after you have retired for the
evening.

You could simple string a grid of 12 inch spacing of enameled magnet wire
(sand off the enamel) at intervals along an adjacent wall such that any
errant sparks will strike the grounded magnet wire grid and not go into your
wall where it could cause a fire hours later.  A 1/2 of a dozen wires in
nearby areas gives the spark a definite ground attachment point and will
prevent fires from forming as you snooze.  Of course, this does not always
occur but it only has to happen once to give you a real bad hair day.

An example I can recall from recent memory is in the photos in Dan
McCauley's book on soild state resonance transformers. The sparks striking
the wall could have been seeking grounds in construction materials which
could several hours later burst into a large house fire.  Again, this did
not occur, but it's like driving on bald tires. A blowout (or flameup) only
has to happen once to give you a bad day.  This is an extreme example of
exactly what NOT to do under any circumstances.  Use ground wires on the
interior surface of the wall or do it outside ---- NEVER INSIDE YOUR
HOME! If you insurance company ever saw a photo of this occuring you could
be cancelled immediately!

Safety first and happy coiling!

Regards,

Dr. Resonance



_________________________________________________________________
Use video conversation to talk face-to-face with Windows Live Messenger.
http://www.windowslive.com/messenger/connect_your_way.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Refresh_messenger_video_042008_______________________________________________
Tesla mailing list
Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla
_______________________________________________
Tesla mailing list
Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla