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Shopping for neon transformers
Subject:
Shopping for neon transformers
Date:
Wed, 9 Apr 1997 17:29:17 -0400 (EDT)
From:
FutureT-at-aol-dot-com
To:
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
All,
Well since I didn't find much at Timmonium (Richard Hull had already
"cleaned
out" the place out and "cleaned up" as well -- he did leave a few scraps
of
wire and some connectors behind), and after hearing of folks "neon
bonanzas",
I figured I'd do a "neon run" in my local area.
The yellow pages showed 6 neon sign shops, so I mapped out a route and
visited them all. But first I donned the proper attire of tattered
jacket,
and assumed a suitable poverty stricken demeaner. The first shop was in
an
old neigborhood; no fancy offices here, when you open the door, you're
on the
shop floor, dark and mean, from the days when shops were shops, and
transformers were transformers. After hearing the familiar story that
"there
were none for sale", I said " I'll take them even if they're burned
out". He
said, "let me look", and proceeded to extract a monster 9000V, 120mA
tranny.
"Don't know if it's good" he said, " but you can't beat the price, haul
it
out of here and it's free", (Of course it checked out fine).
Next stop was an equally beaten down location, here I picked up a 12kV,
30mA,
and a 9kV, 30mA, for $5 total. A few places said they just throw out
their
old transformers but promised to save them for me. Finally I went to a
"high
class" sign company. They had a beautiful building, giant office,
modern
furniture -- the works. they wanted $35 for a 15kV, 30mA., after some
idle
chit-chat, I walked out with the transformer for $20. This is the most
I
ever paid for a neon transformer, but on an average price basis, it
works out
right.
Plenty of trannies out there, just waiting to be picked up!
Neon transformers for today and tomorrow,
John Freau