Re: [TCML] Strickfaden Neon Sign Transformer

["jhowson4@xxxxxxxxxxx" <jhowson4@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yup, its 1/4 thick cast  acrylic 

The rods are positioned in such a way so that the arc extinguishes well below the top. 
The rods are held with some acrylic rod attached to a cap piece.  Just drilled out the ends of the acrylic  rods and the conductor fits inside. The cap price also has a brass mesh to allow for airflow. 
And some very small holes in the base of the tube creates a small constant airflow with a fan preventing toxic gas build up. 

It operates in a timer too. So I think the arc goes up 4 times or something like that and then it says off for 20 seconds. 

Power supply is 15kv 60ma. 

I have tons more slow mo videos, I just need to upload them to YouTube as the gifs are way too large for a regular photo site. 

John "Jay" Howson IV

Sent from a tiny phone with a tiny keyboard. 

----- Reply message -----
From: "Jon Danniken" <danniken@xxxxx>
To: "Tesla Coil Mailing List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [TCML] Strickfaden Neon Sign Transformer
Date: Mon, Oct 15, 2012 12:15 pm


On 10/14/2012 12:28 PM, jhowson4@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> I mounted my ladder rods within a tube and made a physical connection at the top to hold them in place. worked excellently.
>
> The other trick i learned was to make a third electrodes at the base, which is connected to a side by some HV Mohm resistors.
> This makes it easier to start the arc reliably. Made it ideal for a museum display we made
> http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q295/JHowson/Jacobs%20Ladder/IMAG0111s.jpg
>
> Here are some slow motion shots we took of it starting using this electrode
> http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q295/JHowson/Jacobs%20Ladder/Ignition/ignitionslowmo.gif

I'm assuming that is a plastic (not glass) tube...how do you mount the electrodes to the tube so that the heat from the rods doesn't melt the plastic?

Jon

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