So last night tested it. Totally gave up on using powerstats as reactors :) (Thanks for the warnings guys!). I've used them on table top coils that way but they're a real disaster at high power levels.
When I left off last week I tested the pole pig with just 1/4 of a large powerstat to limit the current. (wired as a series adjustable reactance coil). I got full range from sparks to white flames. Last night though to proceed that way and BAM! Breaker blew no matter what. The pole pig operated fine without a tank circuit but the moment it was loaded it blew the breaker every time!
At a loss and already tired from setting it up we scoured around for anything to limit the current. Arc welder? "A friend borrowed it..." Where are my old space heaters? "I threw them out...". Geez. Then my Dad remembered - "hey what about the low tension ignition coil you made me for the engine?".
It was crude, from old recycled (and kinda rotten) cotton covered 8 or 10 AWG wire, a few layers crudely wound on a 1.5" x 12" laminated core. Well it works well at 6V, how bad can it be on 240V?
(grin)...
http://www.electrotherapymuseum.com/2014/FirstLight/content/index.html
Well it didn't blow the fuse. It did catch on fire from the cotton covering shorting inside :P !!
But I took some brief videos. Here are some stills, untuned, gap set to 4 ft, just a brief moment of arcs. They were hot, thick, and ... if nothing else, a start. I'm working on large reactance coils...a real first light hopefully in a week or two.
The larger primary and looser coupling helped a lot.
These discharges were thick! One thing I tried, the .1 mfd is close to mains resonance on a 30A line current limited... so I added a .06 50kV Maxwell cap to make the capacity .16 mfd. I may end up just using 2 of the 4 original caps in parallel for .2 mfd at 50KV...
Jeff
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