RE: HV Wire - electrical tape?

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

Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>

Hi All,

Dan makes a good point here.  RG-8 coax is used for many high voltage 
applications but they tend to be low current limited situations.  If that 
cheap ol' RG-8 shorts out on say an X-ray or other low current sources, 
they will just shut down.

However! If you are running BIG power, that RG-8 will explode dramatically 
if it fails.  Guess how I know this =:O  The arc will cause a big pressure 
build up under the outer insulation and just blow it off.  Then the coax is 
like a fire cracker fuse and just burns down to the source...

For low current limited things, RG-8 is cheap and works great.  But, if you 
have big power behind it, that RG-8 can blowup like a flare!!  "I" would 
strip the outer shield off it for high power use and just use that thick 
polly insulation all by itself.  If you ground the outer braid, it is just 
too tempting for the high voltage to sneak a path to it and make a big bang...

Cheers,

         Terry


At 10:37 AM 1/3/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>Our HiPot tester at work, that tops out at 75kv uses RG-8 for the high
>voltage lead.
>
>
>Just remember that your HiPot tester is relatively low current.
>
>Dan
>
>
>
>
>Perhaps this could be used here.  The braided shield is hooked to gound.
>
>--jeff