The power supply I am using is a 15kV@30mA NST and a 15kV@60mA NST wired in parallel for 1350 Watts. Naturally, the first thing I did when I got the transformers home from the shop was to hook the 30mA NST up to a couple of lengths of heavy duty wire and make a jacobs ladder. I should have used the 60mA transformer but I figured (rightly) that the smaller of the two would do well enough. I was very pleased with my purchase, $60 well spent. If only capacitors were that cheap!!!
6/3/2001: The NST's are mounted in the control cabinet, I hooked the mains up and threw the switch ready to phase them in. First, I tried both the right hand terminals, 1mm spark. Either they were in phase first go or the 60mA NST was one legged. The best way to find out would be to connect them out of phase, so I did!! I took the EHT cable across to the left hand terminal on the 60mA NST and when I got roughly an inch from it, ZAP!! A nice Yellow arc, really robust right up until it quenched at about 4 or 5 inches (when the main power was disconnected), it resembled a flame. It was a really amazing sight as it moved surprisingly slowly without zigzagging much, roughly 650W of power (at a guess) is something to behold. I think I realized at that point how much 1350W of power is, up until then, it wasn't much more than a number. Check out the control cabinet link to see a photo of the arc produced at full power. |
