Really thick wire for Jacobs ladder

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martakz's picture
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Really thick wire for Jacobs ladder

I keep melting 240V wire with the huge currents...so I need something a bit more beefy. Any suggestions?

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Oops. Seems we had a short.

Oops. Seems we had a short. I wonder why the breakers did not go? Also the current is not that high...just the voltage.

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Re: Really thick wire for Jacobs ladder

I keep melting 240V wire with the huge currents...so I need something a bit more beefy. Any suggestions?

get some of the thick wire used for the electricity meters ... most hardware stores selling mains electrical components (sockets etc) should have it ... that stuff should handle abit more voltage/current than the standard 240v wire ...

TOM

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Whats a jacob's ladder?

Whats a jacob's ladder?

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Well, the kind he's making is

Well, the kind he's making is 2 tall wires that are about 2" apart about maybe a few feet tall. You run a charge through then and a large spart runs up between the wires to the top. another kind of jacobs ladder is a toy made of 5 wood blocks put together with ribbons. One more jacobs ladder is a carnival game, a ladder suspended by ropes that can flip over, the idea is to climb from the bottom to the top and grab the prize. Google them for pics. Now you know 3 kinds of Jacobs ladder, and i've wasted some of my life..... cool.

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Go to the High Voltage sectio

Go to the High Voltage section of epanorama.net .You'll find a lot of high volatile info there. Smile There's also a section for the old horror movies visual effects and in it you can find a lot of info on making jacobs ladders.

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Using a neon powersupply work

Using a neon powersupply works great. We were going to attempt to use microwave transformers, until we read the amount of amps they put out.

I'll let the physics boffs play with the ladder...I want to build a metal halide HID driver instead Biggrin

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Ladder

Back in high-school days (40yrs ago)
we built one of these in the lab using
an old high-voltage power supply and
some good old-fashioned coat-hangers!
The hanger wire held up just fine to
the current. No melting or sagging.
Maybe you can use this today?

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