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Hey Sam (was Re: info wanted)



Original Poster: "Sam Barros" <sambarros-at-hotmail-dot-com> 
 
Cīmon, cheer up, Sam. 

You have got most of your parts together. You canīt stop going now!! That
would be crazy.

I know of the problems you have, because I live in germany. Judging from your
listed prices it is somewhat more expensive to build a TC in Holland, than it
is in germany. 

A rough guestimate for my 8" coil lies somewhere around $400 (including the 6
NSTīs, tho).

Have you tried calling your local train repair company? I didnīt have any luck
in germany (could only get >30kVA units), but give it a try. These smaller
pole pigs (3-5kVA) are mounted along the railway for service purposes.
Matthias Anderson from Sweden got his from them. If you have a possibility to
get to Sweden (if you canīt get them in Holland) Iīm sure he would be willing
to help you.
 
I posted a list (a while back) of company types I called to find xfomers. I
canīt find it just now, but it is on the list archives somewhere. If I
remember right I mentioned about 20 different types of companies that had
something to do with hv one way or another.

The problem why our fellow american coilers canīt send you an xformer is
because it is simply too expensive. Bill wanted to help me get a skinned
(uncased) pig. The pig cost around $100 plus $70 shipping to his house, but
the shipping across the ocean would have added an additional $290 (on last
class mail !!) Plus you have to add tax and duty fees (22% in germany). In
addition to the $460+ you would have to add shipping from the duty officials
to your door step. Sure a pig is heavier, than an NST, but you get the idea.

If you absolutely cannot get hold of any HV stuff (how about 5 salvaged OBITS
in parallel ?) do like I told you a while ago. Go out and get an old welding
or other high current/low voltage xformer (car jump starting equipment is
another one). Who cares if the secondary is shorted or burned out? and rewind
the sucker for HV/lower current. 

Some of the cheaper jobs (read: wound with AL wire) have seperatable cores
(remember cheap price = no insulation varnish or welding of the laminations),
so you can rewind it a lot easier. The nice thing about AL wound xformers is
that they WILL die sooner or later, simply because AL wire sucks for high
power (welding) equipment. The companies use AL wire, because (and only
because) it is cheaper than copper. As the welders die sooner or later
(usually a day after the guarantee time has elapsed) they sell more of them.
If you are lucky you might find one in a welding repair shop for free. Just
keep asking.

Itīs a little work (the rewind job), but go for it!! Have a look at Mark
Finnisī site. He did a great (superb) job on his xformer and Iīm sure it WILL
work.

If my 6 NSTīs donīt get me into the 2.20m and better spark region I will wind
up (no pun intended) winding my own xformer, too.

I had to make about 150 calls to get my 6 NSTīs, so donīt give up so easy. If
you try their patience enough, they might give you some, just to get rid of
you.

Remember, Nikola Tesla had to improvise, too. If he had given up, none of us
coilers would be able to enjoy the lightning like sparks. 

Sure Europe isnīt exactly THE gold mine for making Teslaīs coils, but keep
going.

So: canīt get it? Make it!!!

Good luck to ya and stop being so gloooommy.

Coiler greets from germany,
Reinhard


  I'm from Holland so I guess I should tell you something about building 
 Tesla Coils in Europe:
  Well, first, when you see those great posts by our American fellows 
 saying "Hey, I got this and that for free", or "I got ten pounds of wire 
 for 3 dollars" and such, well, FORGET IT!!!
  I paid 50 dollars for 680 meters of 22AWG (0.60mm) wire for my 
 secondary. 30 meters of 0.8mmm thick copper tubing (for the primary) 
 cost me 80Dollars. My Secondary coil form (PVC pipe 20cm diameter, 70cm 
 high) cost about 25 dollars, and I was lucky they just had it laying 
 around, because, strictly speaking I would have to buy 5meters minimum. 
 The acrylic endings cost another 20. Varnish cost me over 100 dollars in 
 total (Ok, I used a lot, and I had epoxy, enamel, polyurethane and 
 urethane).
  The toroid cost about 80 dollars (13cm rubber tubing, about 1m50 long, 
 covered with aluminium tape).
  In total, My Tesla Coil (a medium model) cost me over 400Dollars. And I 
 still have capacitors, spark gap, transformer, chokes, filters, and 
 other things on the power supply to get it working. So the final cost, 
 without the transformer, will be well over 500Dollars.
  Now, onto the transformer: You have a go at getting Neons in Holland 
 (or most other European countries for that matter). You'll find out that 
 for some pathetically stupid reason they are ALL power limited to 
 400Watts. AND, as if that wasn't enough, you can only get them new (old 
 ones are sent to the factory). A new transformer will cost about 
 200dollars. Maybe more.
  Now, from Italy you can order 1000Watts units. They cost a staggering 
 THRE HUNDRED DOLLARS EACH!!! Now, for all that money you could get 
 yourself a couple of pole pigs in America. And, considering that Neons 
 always end up failing in TC use, that price is absurd. Since they are 
 made in Italy, you might as well give up looking for used ones now.
  In case you are curious, a microwave oven transformer (which, by the 
 way doesn't work good for a Tesla Coil) costs 150Dollars new. Again 
 getting it old is impossible because the broken ovens have their parts 
 reused (cheap people!).
  Any other transformer you might hear off is unavailable here. Now, I 
 have asked about 10 times but NO-ONE on this list will send me a 
 transformer. Whatever selfish reasons they might have for it...
  So, basically, unless you are really rich (or really stupid), DO NOT 
 ATTEMPT TO BUILD YOURSELF ONE.
  I am sorry if this doesn't really sound positive to you, but 
 unfortunately, Europe is not the place to be if you want to build a 
 Coil.
  I have tried and now I find myself with this over a meter high, 
 beautiful 500+dollars piece of useless equipment. Kind of makes you 
 wonder why I built it in the first place… Well, I built it because I 
 need it! I am not waiting over 500Dollars just to sit down and watch 
 sparks fly until the neighbour call the police and I get arrested for 
 something that is illegal here. I seriously need this Coil for a serious 
 project of mine. There is a lot of money at stake, but nevertheless I 
 can’t get what I need:-( And, to make matters worst, I am just about out 
 of money.