My Home-made Jacob's Ladder

[freyyr]

Figured I'd put this here, as there is no high voltage projects category or a general purpose miscellaneous section.

Anyway, I built this today (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS_LwU4rF1Q). It's a very rough-and-ready Jacob's Ladder, put together from junk over the course of an hour or two today. It's also not safe, as it's grounded only with a thinly insulated piece of bell wire to an extension cord's GFI plugged into the wall. I do not want to be anywhere near the spark gap if that fails.

The core of the circuit's an old TV's flyback transformer putting out around 10-20 kV DC at some low amperage, so it shouldn't be fatal. Not that I want to find that out.

So, do I gain any geek cred for this?

[Brain]

wow, thats actually pretty nice, I love playing around with electricity and stuff.
good job, rep + for you buddy :), keep playin around with fun stuff like that

[Daniel]

You're kidding, Jacob's Ladder, i watched that on SciFi the other day and it was crap.

OTOH, good job with the website :)

[kor]

i think it's cool. i've seen this before but that was quite long time ago. i watched alot of other videos with jacobs ladder after i watched yours ^^ they're cool

[richk1693]

My god. Do you know what you're doing or just like playing with electricity?

[Yakman]

wow nice, i never knew those were called jacob's ladders

i thought a jacobs ladder was this thing.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob%27s_ladder_%28toy%29

your jacob's ladder is much cooler :D

[HyperSecret]

that is pretty sweet i do gotta say, i was in the same boat as yakman, i was like who would spend their time making a little kids toy

[Waddo]

i love playing with electricity i wish i was american so i could have a radioshack

i can only ever play around when things break

what are the danges in making one of these cos i think i might have a shot

[freyyr]

Hey, thanks for all the feedback. I've recently rebuilt this as a bug zapper. When I tested it out, the arc vaporized an ant, leaving a small wisp of smoke and a little charred black spot where it had been standing.

@Waddo: Don't worry, you're not missing much. RadioShack isn't the awesome electronics parts store it used to be. It mostly sells overpriced made-overseas merchandise and the staff looks at you funny if you utter the word "capacitor." If you want a guide for a simple jacob's ladder out of an old crt monitor or a TV, try: http://www.afrotechmods.com/reallycheap/Jacob/jacob.htm . For safety precautions, wear insulated work gloves and thick rubber soled shoes or boots to reduce the risk of shock. Ideally you'll want to make sure that the only thing grounded is your ground wire and especially not you. When working, try to use only one hand at a time and keep the other far away from anything grounded, so the electricity can't cut across your heart.

---

For my next project, I'm going to try to produce X-rays using this old Scientific American guide: http://www.noah.org/science/x-ray/stong/ . I'll try not to get cancer.

[Brain]

lol, yeah, try not to get cancer, have fun buddy

[Waddo]

if i biuld it and stick my finger between the to rods wud i die?

ive always wanted to biuld one but the voltage in them seems to high

(and b4 any ones say voltage doesnt kill current does your wrong current kills voltage hurts and burns enough vaolts can fry you and also kill you from pain but its amps that are the main problem)

[Timothegreat]

amps that are the main problem

true... amperage is what really is harmful

[R0b0t1]

Uhm... Its not how many volts actually, its something else like the... uh... amps that kills you?

Oh, and the average 'shock' from other people/car doors is over 10,000 volts. Volts do no harm. (Well, little anyway.)

Anyway, I'd work standing up also. If you get shocked and your heart stops, you'll fall down and you might start it up again :)

[Waddo]

lol anr aaaaarrrggggh what did i just say



and b4 any ones say voltage doesnt kill current does your wrong


if i put 0.0000001 amp thru ur body and 999999999999999999billion volts you would die humans dont dischard 10kv rofl that would hurt a hell of a lot more

an AA battery has an e.m.f of 1.5v that hurts going thu ur tongue

[palmpilot71]

That's awesome but I thought a Jacob's ladder was a kid's toy...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob%27s_ladder_%28toy%29
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Jacobs_Ladder_toy.JPG/180px-Jacobs_Ladder_toy.JPG

[jdisco]

Just so everyone gets it:
Volt - Measurement of the electric "force" in a circuit, can also be thought of as "pressure" in a circuit.
Ampere(Amp) - Measurement of current or amount of charge per second.

Anyways, very good. I've been wanting to try this for a while, but I lack safe enough equipment/conditions. I also wasn't sure that Jacob's Ladders could actually burn stuff like that in the arc, so thanks for getting that out of the way.

[Waddo]

hmm can you show some pics of bug zapper did you make a plastic housing for it or sumit?

i think you shud get something to touch it try killing bigger things etc snail
then a rat if it dont kill rat you could try it on so,ething bigger like a human =]

[BKNYKavkaz]

I knew this is called a Jacobs Ladder. Saw it in movies and thought it was pretty cool. I probably wont try this. However, if you bring this over to my house, I dont mind playing with it. :p

Oh, and defintly + nerd points.