heater that I was going to take to the dump but never got around to it. Then it hit me one
day that it looked like the transformers on telephone poles. So the idea was born..............
IF YOU HAVE NEVER HANDLED HIGH VOLTAGE BEFORE DO
NOT MAKE THIS A WORKING MODEL!
NEON TRANSFORMER VOLTAGE CAN KILL
YOU!
paint on this but only used one can of paint as silver goes a long way. Then I cut a piece
of 3/4” plywood for the top and cut a hole out of the middle for the flue pipe hole. Then I
attached a piece of 2 x 4 over this hole this is the mounting block for the Jacob’s ladder
wires. I used 8 gage wire for this about 30” long that are screwed into connector blocks
on the 2 x 4 block. I painted this part red and made a Plexiglas box to fit over the Jacob’s
ladder. To weld the sides of this together I used my soldering iron and melted the pieces
together with butt joints. Then this was screwed to the 2 x 4 block on top of the plywood.
I did it this way so I could remove it to bring it into the house at night so it would not get
wet, 12,000 volts and water don’t mix (found this out the hard way). To mount it to the
water heater I just put three sheet metal screws through the plywood and into the water
heater top.
To spruce up the front of the transformer I mounted an old battery charger to it,
some spare knobs I had and some extra wire and an old vacuum hose I had and printed
out the “HIGH VOLTAGE” sign on the computer (copy the one from this page) and
laminated it then taped it to the front. To run the Jacob’s ladder I have a 12,000 volt neon
transformer I got on ebay (if you bid on these early in the year they are a lot cheaper than
around Halloween) that is switched on and off from a knife switch board I made so it
doesn’t have to run all the time. The whole thing sits in the back of the lab away from the
patrons so there is no danger of them coming into contact with any of the wires or the
Jacob’s ladder. For extra safety I also run a wire to a piece of rebar rod pounded into the
ground and up to water heater with a screw so it will be grounded from any stray current
that could come off of the Jacob’s ladder.
