Re: safety gaps at high power

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <Rscopper-at-aol-dot-com>

I don't use a safety gap on my 10KVA pig, and I am running it at 25KVA.  My 
current limit is a big choke wound with about 30 pounds of 8awg wire wound as 
a spool (no core). 

Scott 


In a message dated 1/5/01 9:13:26 PM US Eastern Standard Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes: 


>
> Hi all, 
> I've got a quick question for y'all. I have a safety gap that I installed 
> on my 10 kVA pole pig. The problem that I have with this SG is that 
> when it is set to where it does occasionally fire, it immediately power 
> arcs, when it fires, due to the heavy current, and will only extenguish 
> when I turn the power control variac way down. If I set it where it dosen't 
> fire at all, then I am defeating the purpose of having it in the first 
> place. 
> I was wondering if any of you other "pig" coilers had noticed this pro- 
> blem. I remeber reading an article by Richard Hull in one of the TCBA 
> volumes, and he stated that he didn't even use safety gaps at power 
> levels over 5 kVA due to this problem. BTW, my pig is externally bal- 
> lasted with an arc welder. Comments anyone? 
>
> David Rieben