Fusor Forums

Not exactly on topic, but finally got around to grabbing some pics of the new 2 ton shop hoist. Needed to get something in place so construction could start on the absurdly large multiplier. Transformer and capacitors were far too heavy to lift by hand into their new chassis. Should be fun

Wow! That will surely be able to supply a ton of current. What power hungry beast are you going to feed with that?

A very large multiplier that you will see soon enough

A pole pig is very easy to hook up in one's home. All you need to get started is a 240 volt range type or shop welder type outlet.

Deciding to use a pole pig is also filled with risk and danger. Hooked up backwards, in the style many Tesla coilers and and as Andrew plans on doing it, you bring the high tension overhead power lines with all their deadly potential into your living space. Doing this means you must have a committment and knowledge needed to work the beast in a safe and sensible manner.

I ran two 10kva pole pigs in my home to power up "Nemesis" from 1990 until about 1996 when I had a custom wound, single 5kva transformer wound for later magnifier work, selling the old pigs at one of my Teslathons.

A properly installed and breakered, 240 volt 60 amp outlet gives you over 13,000 watts of real power in your home without blowing any fuses. No fusor on earth or that has ever been created has any need of this input energy.

Properly controlled, a 600 lb pole pig is no more lethal or dangerous than a microwave oven transformer. It is not something you just plug in and turn on, however. I am sure Andrew knows that. I wish him luck on his project and hope he keeps safe while doing it.

I attach Nemesis in full swing, circa 1995. click image to enlarge.
You can see the two pole pigs in the lower right corner of the pix

Richard Hull

Thanks Richard. Here is a reply that speaks for itself (Insert Tim Allen grunt here)
Joking aside though, you are absolutely right. These are not toys. Thankfully I have 14 wonderful and safe years under my belt with this tranny. No second chances when working with this stuff. Right now, this is just "bringing the pig out of retirement". Still have not decided if I want to risk it. Lot of variables, lots of expensive equipment... Will be fun in the interim though.
Lot of memories with that picture you posted. Inspired me long ago to build my first pig driven coil. That's when I first contacted you originally over 14 years ago. Built the "Nemesis of Nemesis".

I'm assuming those caps are going to be used as voltage multiplier. How big are they? What are you going to use for rectifiers? That will be an awful lot of stored energy...

I can't wait to see what application you have in mind

I'll post some more updates on this hopefully early next year. The frame for the cap bank is requiring some new thinking and fun engineering solutions since those caps are dual bushing. I'm having to come up with a alternative non conductive solution to prevent a catastrophic internal failure. I'll explain more later if you're not electrically on the same page as me.

I'm impatiently waiting...I love power electronics, but I am just standing back watching in awe and jealousy to see what kind of beast you are going to feed with this! Just kidding, I can't wait to see what kind of power supply you are contemplating. Based on your other work I'm sure I won't be let down.

Thanks for the compliment. I'm pretty sure you wont be disappointed.

I guess I can give you a sneak peek

I feel like I have posted a few of these pics before, but I can't seem to find where. Hopefully I'm not double posting this stuff. If so I apologize mods. Here are some of the more CAD models for a few parts of the power controller and multiplier bank. As I mentioned above, this configuration is dead and will NOT work! We're redesigning the chassis for the cap bank due to it most likely catastrophically failing on first run haha. The concept will be similar, but not as streamlined and different materials. Also, tons of stuff still missing from this chassis too such as connections, xfmr, pneumatics, diode stack, insulator arrays, and a bunch of other smaller fun components. I just got bored one afternoon and decided to start playing around with chassis concepts. This was just the first basic idea that came out. Also included are some additional pics of the CAD for the power controller. Several parts are missing, but the first half is for control, second half is for inductive current limiting for the pig. Each chassis is designed to snap into 4 sets of rails inside a standard 19" rack.

Once again, I'm impressed! I can't wait to see what this magnificent lightning generator will do!

Images of Tesla sitting in front of one of his giant coils with beautiful arcs all around comes to my mind, except this is DC with a LOT of stored energy!!!

NICE WORK!!!