...i think we get the picture. We could start another thread. "Our most memorable shocks". When I was just a wee lad I tried and was eventually successful at building a Tesla spark coil. Say I wish I had a camera 40 years ago to share my escapade...Here's how is went:
Got the tesla coil assembled then I plugged in the xfmr to power it up but it only hummed with a ...strange sizzling sound inside the metal box.
When you get older you realise that some things are probably just left alone...but to a 14 year old...that's a different story. Ok, time to tear the old xfmr apart and fix the problem. I meticulouly spent hours and hours removing tar from the xfmr case until I had completely exposed the xfmr core and windings. I repaired the connection and plugged in the primary.
I quickly found out why the xfmr needed to be immersed in tar...it's kinda like the insulating donnut on a flyback transformer ...it keeps the outer HV from arcing to ground. Well, ....
the xfmr lite up in a ball of fire. It was quite a scene. Definitely out of the twlight zone. I had erected the thing on top of the family pool table thinking it had a nice large padded surface.
My next problem was how do you extinguish a burning neon sign xfmr on top of a pool table? ...and then within a second or two a mains fuse blew, and the room lights went out...except, of course the light from that nice burning glow. Oh, did I forgot to mention the smell of buring tar?
Live and learn. I threw a bath towel over the burning mess and it extinguished itself; after which I dumped the old xfmr in the garbage. Finally, I got a good xfmr and the memory of Tesla produced a wonder 4 foot long corona discharge from the project. I probably nuked myself many times with that thing...still had kids though...guess it wasn't that bad.
