>> Reminds me of the time I was having fun charging various caps I had laying >> around with a 15,000 Volt neon sign transformer ... >Reminds me of the time a friend an I were cutting rings of fluorescent >tubing using the arc from a 15KV neon sign transformer ... Sounds like this thread has become all about who has done the stupidest thing in their youth/lifetime - with a strong educational, training and saftey aspect, of course :-) I'd love to tell you all about "The Headmaster and the bomb" but I shouldn't take the time just now as it's a wee bit long if told properly AND it's got no electronics/electrical content (usually it would have had, which was part of the problem) AND I can't go posting such content on an electronics list, can I :-) ? Definitely covers education, saftey and training and must have alesson in it somewhere but I may have forgotten it by now. Sometime maybe Well. maybe we can manage a quickie more on topic. I didn't die or get a shock or ... but if I'd done one I'd have probably done both :-) Acquired a plastic welder fropm an auction. 27 MHz ISM band. About 8 KV transformer at ?4 KVA? Very grunty. Found you could platic weld with a metal cigarette case as electrode pushed across surface with suitable "stick" - I was old enough to have made fairly sure it was non-conductiveish but RF is a tricky beast. Plastic will only take so much - bzzt, arc, splat. Metal cigarette case had nice large ragged hole in it in a trice. Plastic too. Fine lesson on the power levels involved. More care taken thererafter. Sold it to a yacht buildr I'm sad to say. In between it was used to great advantage to help a friend dissuade a neighbour from loudly playing records at 3am - problems with a lady friend having left I was told. I thinkj and he would get up in the early hours and play stereo loudly. Polite requests didn't seem to help. So. Manhandle RF welder into house. Set up under stairs by common wall. Tape 27 MHz 1/4 wave dipole to wall. Fire up filaments - leave HT off. 3am loud music- stagger down stairs - press HT button. Squawk, crackle bzzzzzzzzzzt etc. No music though. He got the idea very quyickly. I was told that the lady also returned shortly thereafter so all were happier. I still have a power transformer from a slightly larger one :-) One day ........ ______________ Now, about that headmaster ... naah - bedtime. Anyone doing Atkins "diet"/eating system? Comment offlist if you are to compare notes. regards . Russell McMahon _____________________________ >From other worlds - www.easttimor.com www.sudan.com What can one man* do? Help the hungry at no cost to yourself! at http://www.thehungersite.com/ (* - or woman, child or internet enabled intelligent entity :-)) -----Original Message----- From: Robert Rolf To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU Date: Thursday, 27 April 2000 18:10 Subject: Re: Fire in the Hole!!! [OT] >Brian Kraut wrote: >> >> Shame on you missing an OT. >> >> Reminds me of the time I was having fun charging various caps I had laying >> around with a 15,000 Volt neon sign transformer untill I held a ceramic disk cap >> between my thumb and forefinger. Unfortunately the ceramic case of the cap blew >> before the dielectric. Put a nice hole in each side of the cap and gave me a >> lesson I won't forget. Kids, don't try this at home. > >Reminds me of the time a friend an I were cutting rings of fluorescent >tubing using the arc from a 15KV neon sign transformer. >We'd strike an arc in air, then bring it down onto the dud tube. >As the glass got hot, it melted, and molten glass conducts electricity! >We'd work our way around the circumference, and then disconnect the >arc, and the glass ring would pop off from the thermal shock. > >Unfortunately one of those times the HV lead slipped into the >palm of my hand as I was laying it down, and for about 4/10ths of a >second I discovered what it's like to be 'defibrillated' by 15KV AC. > >Ever been stepped on by an elephant? It felt like I was stomped on >by several. Every single muscle fibre in my chest discharged, sending me >flying across the room. Fortunately I lived and learned a VERY healthy >respect for HV. > >Of course that didn't stop me from taking out the electrolytics from >old radios and plugging them into the power line. Who needs a dynamite >license when you have access to aluminum electrolytics and AC power? > >-- >Robert.Rolf-AT-UAlberta.ca >