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Re: Near death from the smallest Tesla Coil I've ever built
On a side note - I've done the same thing with my bank of 15kv, 90ma
neons. Darn, don't you hate that?
-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Date: Tuesday, September 07, 1999 4:26 AM
Subject: Near death from the smallest Tesla Coil I've ever built
>Original Poster: "Jeff Behary" <jeff_behary-at-hotmail-dot-com>
>
>Bill,
>
>Ok, I've been building Tesla Coils for 5 years.
>My latest coil runs from a 90kV X-ray transformer.
>
>Last night I acquired the smallest neon transformer I've ever come across,
>3kV 30mA.
>
>I was tired, in the garage all day (literally), plugged in the coil (with
>the power off) and decided to tighten up the transformer connections a bit
>more before throwing the switch. Well, the switch on the transformer was
>faulty and after several seconds of firmly gripping and tightening the
input
>power nuts, the switch failed and power kicking in: I instantly had 3kV
>30mA shorted across my heart, coming from either hand, up my arms. My body
>was shaking in pain and fright for 20 minutes afterwards.
>
>That transformer, hardly the size of a grapefruit, nearly ended my life!!!!
>
>And from such a foolish thing. Don't mess with any connections without
>totally disabling the power, unplugging the coil, switching the breaker,
>etc.
>
>30mA at 100 volts can kill a person. That transformer was rated at 30
times
>more than that. And that was about the smallest high voltage transformer
on
>the market.
>
>Don't ever let yourselves get in too much of a hurry, or too tired while
>coiling. It's not worth it.
>
>Jeff Behary
>
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>