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Yet another safety note...



>Original Poster: Stefan Bishay <stefan00-at-gte-dot-net> 
>
>The other day at the Seattle weird science meeting, we were using a 15/60
>NST and a 65kv .024uf cap to cook carrots and power an overunity device
>(which blew up!). In the circuit we had, the cap was connected across the
>NST, so that it would short out when the power was off. But it did not go
>as planned, the cap did not totally discharge when it was shut off. Of
>course I reached down to change the carrot, and grabbed the leads with both
>hands. It felt like running into a brick wall, and gave me one hell of a
>headache for the next few hours. I hate to think what would have happened
>if the cap was fully charged! Anyway, please folks, be careful. Always
>assume a cap is charged unless it is shorted out. Don't be as careless as me!

In my coil (as with most, I suspect), the NST provides a DC path for the cap
to discharge when not operating, as long as all connections are secure and the
cap is a single unit (not several in series).  While some may view this as
complacency, I have more or less come to depend upon this.  I'd be interested
to know what caused your discharge path to fail.

Gary Lau
Waltham, MA USA