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Straingest score I've ever had!!! (pix)

djnagle

djnagle

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Hi All, last night AndyMan sent me a link to a local CL ad for two Van De Graafs. They are very straing and home built electrical shock generators. I just had to have them just because of the way they look. One works and the other does not. I don't even know how to fix them as I am not sure what all they do except shock you.
 

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Most of us try to reduce or eliminate static electricity around our rigs, and you go and buy two generators! Are you always this contrary?
 
Van De Graaf generators use a mechanical means (usually a spinning belt) to store up a static charge (think rubbing your socks on the floor). Those look more like tesla coils whichgenerate a high voltage electronically and can produce a potencially leathal shock. I would do some reading about then befor working on or staring them up.

The cool thing about tesla coils is that the put out a contiuous arc. Just like in the movies. An arc like that will throw off loads of RFI, EMI and everything else you can think of though.
 
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x_25 said:
Van De Graaf generators use a mechanical means (usually a spinning belt) to store up a static charge (think rubbing your socks on the floor). Those look more like tesla coils whichgenerate a high voltage electronically and can produce a potencially leathal shock. I would do some reading about then befor working on or staring them up.
Click to expand...

Agreed, the only Van De Graaf generators I have seen look no where near as frightening. My friend built one in middle school, it was just a PVC pipe with a long rubber belt being drawn past a metal comb which was attached to a metal dome. The other one is in Discovery world, an interactive museum of sorts in town. I have not seen the insides of that one, but it is big, and very amusing.
 
The combination of big glass insulators and what looks like about 4 gauge wire would scare the living **** out of me. Whatever you do, don't do a thing with that until you find somebody who knows what it is and how to use it.
 
A-yep, those are some tesla coils, Van de graffs are belt-driven static condensors, which still shock you:D. Tesla coils on the other hand are much cooler. In some of those pictures there are two doorknob looking things, I believe those to be spark-gaps, which help control the device. One of those is driven using a neon sign transformer (serious tesla coils use pole pigs:yikes:), the other must be using the spark plugs as a charge multiplier:dunno:. Basically, they are giant terrifying transformers....so if ya ever get too scared send them to me:D (just kidding, they are great fun).

Just use normal precations and all should be fine. The one on the right (first picture) is certainly the best of the two. I'm not sure how to fix the other, or if its worth it. Plenty of sites out there to building your own (actually quite a bit of math involved).
 
I have built both Van De Graffs AND Tesla coils, and what you have there, my friend, is definitely a pair of Tesla coils -- and from the look of them, NOT to be played with carelessly.

Read up on them, how they are designed and what they do, and how to use them safely, BEFORE you try to plug them in or to anything with them.

READ UP ON THEM FIRST. UNTIL YOU UNDERSTAND EXACTLY WHAT THESE ARE, DO NOT PLUG THEM IN!

Got the message?

In case you didn't, do not plug them in until after you have read and studied enough to know what you are doing. Got it?

Incidentally, there is PLENTY of info about these online -- you don't even need to visit a bookstore! :no: :D And once you know what you are doing, you'll find you have some very cool playtoys there; esp. the one with the big copper-tube coils near the base!
 
Thanks All. I thought they might be T coils. I watched some youtubes last night about Van De Graafs and these did not look like them. I will do some reading and go from there. In one shot, you can see a Van De Graaf tower with bulb on top. I thing there was a V D Graaf generator on the bottom of the black one, but it is gone now. I really just wanted them to put on the shelve for looks but it would be cool of they worked.
 
Oh, and incidentally, if you can locate a mercury-vapor diffusion vacuum pump and a few other bits, you can build a particle accelerator ("atom smasher") using the output from those things as a beam source, that will give some pretty neat results. You have the basis for a great "mad scientist's lab" there, already! :yes: :thmbsp: Oh, and be sure to dredge up a Wimshurst generator, a few Jacob's ladders and some huge leyden jars and such, just for added visual effect. Very, very cool... especially at Halloween when you put all that stuff near the front door... :D

EDIT: I just read your comment about thinking that there was a Van de Graff near the base of the one Tesla coil. That wouldn't be surprising; you can get some spectacularly ramped-up lightning bolts off of the combination, if you hook them up right. Whoever put those things together, was seriously into some high-voltage "fun". Are you sure you didn't get them from the estate sale of someone recently departed...?

Oh, and your idea of just putting them on a shelf for looks is an excellent one! They are GREAT for that, and while they can be fun otherwise, they can also be genuinely dangerous. If you really want to have fun with electricity, stick to the Van De Graffs --they are much safer than Tesla coils, which easily generate dangerous levels of electricity.
 
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Arkay said:
I have built both Van De Graffs AND Tesla coils, and what you have there, my friend, is definitely a pair of Tesla coils -- and from the look of them, NOT to be played with carelessly.

Read up on them, how they are designed and what they do, and how to use them safely, BEFORE you try to plug them in or to anything with them.

READ UP ON THEM FIRST. UNTIL YOU UNDERSTAND EXACTLY WHAT THESE ARE, DO NOT PLUG THEM IN!

Got the message?

In case you didn't, do not plug them in until after you have read and studied enough to know what you are doing. Got it?

Incidentally, there is PLENTY of info about these online -- you don't even need to visit a bookstore! :no: :D And once you know what you are doing, you'll find you have some very cool playtoys there; esp. the one with the big copper-tube coils near the base!
Click to expand...

Yep, got the message loud and clear. When I picked them up the guy (that did not really know what they were) turned the working one on and told me to slowly move my finger towards the tower. I thought they were Van De Graafs so I did it. At a point, I started getting shocks. He told me that when he first got them, He plugged them in and after a while he grabbed the tower, thinking it was a VDG, and WOKE UP on the floor. At that point I decided not to plug them in until I knew what they were.
 
33&athird said:
A-yep, those are some tesla coils, Van de graffs are belt-driven static condensors, which still shock you:D. Tesla coils on the other hand are much cooler. In some of those pictures there are two doorknob looking things, I believe those to be spark-gaps, which help control the device. One of those is driven using a neon sign transformer (serious tesla coils use pole pigs:yikes:), the other must be using the spark plugs as a charge multiplier:dunno:. Basically, they are giant terrifying transformers....so if ya ever get too scared send them to me:D (just kidding, they are great fun).

Just use normal precations and all should be fine. The one on the right (first picture) is certainly the best of the two. I'm not sure how to fix the other, or if its worth it. Plenty of sites out there to building your own (actually quite a bit of math involved).
Click to expand...


Pole pigs for a Tesla coil? That is truly, deeply INSANE! I like playing with neon sign trannies, and that is scary enough, but pole pigs --feeding a tesla coil? :yikes: Reminds me of some of those old photos of 12-15-foot "lightning bolt" sparks... No, thank you. :no: Enough stories out there of partly-melted, partly-charred and otherwise dead people who didn't have enough respect for really high amperages. Fun? Yes, in a way. But a wise amateur also says "scary!" and leaves that stuff to the true professionals... who rarely consider DIY efforts like this stuff as "fun".
 
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