Fun with Super High Voltage!

[Alan the Great]

Hi all, I'm back again!
Anyways, I have a broken plasma ball on my shelf, with what appears to be a transistor driven flyback transformer capable of quite a few kV. Especially since this is one of the giant, one foot diameter plasma balls.

Unfortunately, I have absolutely no idea how to go about doing fun stuff with this. I have a few too many IQ points to just plug it in and touch the bare wire, but I think this could make a cool arc welder, or an ion motor driver.

[keith]

Welcome back ;)

[Alan the Great]

Thanks, I'd almost forgot about these awesome forums... and how quickly replies come in!

[Alan the Great]

Just so that google might pick this up, I decided to cheat a little:

looking for ideas arc welder electricity bang shock explosion plasma ball pr0n

There. And once again, if anyone has any ideas of what to do with this, I really am that bored.

[Case]

If you want to get started in high voltage experiments i sugest you do what i did before you try to reverse engineer something.

Build a Jacobs ladder a small one. That will give you a small understanding doing the research on parts and building one and basic principles. Than try building a small Tesla coil I did that next a 250,000v model. Now I have a dual circuit (needs two 15amp circuits) to put out about 1.4kV and 30in long sparks… Love it :)

Im working on a tube based version now that I can scale all the way from 1.5kV to 5kV, reason I want a tube based Tesla Coil is because there’s no spark gap and I want to use the coil as the center of a kinetic sculpture :)

[Alan the Great]

I'd love to be able to make a tesla coil, jacob's ladder, etc, but I just don't want to spend that much money. I'm starting a different project now, anyways... a jet engine made out of a car/truck turbocharger!

[Case]

Jacobs ladder is easy all you need is a neon sign transformer. If you go into any neon sign place and say hey im a student blah blah blah and tell them you’re working on building a Jacobs ladder (they will love this) and need a used neon sign transformer they will either sell ya one super cheap or just give it to ya.

They love that stuff and they cant reuse or resell Used transformers so they just pile up.

A tesla coil can run ya I wont lie about that but again its all about surplus mmmmm :)

That’s what will teach you more hunting down parts to substitute for others gives you a deeper understanding on how things work…

For example most coils use a spark gap the design im using now I intend to build accomplishes the same thing but with a tube no spark gap at all.

[Alan the Great]

Ok, I'll look into the neon sign thing... there's enough neon signs around my city for there to be at least one. For now, though, I'm going to concentrate on junkyard scavenging for turbine parts.

[TechnoMancer]

An arc welder is not really possible as they use high current to melt electrodes not necessarily high voltage and the high voltage has low current as a rule when generated by a transformer.

[Alan the Great]

Thanks, I didn't think of that.... of course it needs high current. Oh well, I might be able to fire it up and get some 'safe' sparks, then.

[TheDealer07]

Just how much would a Tesla Coil cost me if I used only surplus parts. I've always thought about building one, and even got the schematics for one once, but never really got into though i would love to make it a project of mine

[Case]

if u want a small one that you can play with safely and feel the voltage can probably build one for a few hundred like 300 or soo

[Alan the Great]

If you do it right, I would think under $50. Check around junkyards for ignition coils, etc.

I suspect that you are looking for some way to make big sparks for cheap, yes?

Check out some of the experiments involving ignition coils and not much else. Google is your friend here.

[TheDealer07]

Big spark cheap pretty much defines what I'm looking for at this point. That and nothing that will turn my apartment building into a smoking crater if i get a connection wrong - ill save that for when i get a bit more experience

[Case]

go with the 250,000v plans from this place http://amazing1.com/tesla.htm it is a very safe design compared to most.

[keltinator]

Ooh, a jet engine?!

I'd like to get one of those on my bike...