[pianotech] Build a Zapper

[Jeff Deutschle]

OK, back to reality. I just realized there is an off the shelf tool
that produces heat with the shorted secondary of a transformer: a
pistol grip soldering gun. It probably has about the right wattage for
the job. I’ll play around with one and let you all know in a day or
three.

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 8:26 AM, Jeff Deutschle <oaronshoulder at gmail.com> wrote:
> Paul:
>
> After yesterday’s pie-in-the-sky engineering I got to thinking about
> how many amps might really be required. 120V or 12,000V doesn’t mean
> much unless the amperage is high. Nobody ever got electrocuted from a
> spark plug, and those are tens of thousands of volts. My thought was
> that a ballast already limits current, so why not use it, regardless
> of the voltage?
>
> Today I looked up the rated ampacity of 0.050 wire (about the size of
> a center pin) and it is around 6 amps! To heat the pin quickly it
> would probably take 15 to 20 amps. Yes, a low voltage is necessary.
> The ballast idea is unworkable.
>
> But then I got to thinking about the skin effect of RF current.
> Wouldn't it work better if only the outside surface of the pin were
> heated. So what if the procedure could only be done inside of a farady
> cage so as not to mess up everybodies cell phone? Minor
> inconvienience!
>

-- 
Regards,
Jeff Deutschle

Please address replies to the List. Do not E-mail me privately. Thank You.