Tesla Coil Damage

Criminal Damage caused by

John F Butters of

West Howe, Bournemouth, Aug 2009

Before

Afterwards

We all know that tesla coils have the ability to be anti-social in the wrong hands, so we are all hopefully thoughtful and considerate in their use.
For instance the night time would be a particularly bad period in built up areas, unless your neighbours are aware of the coil and, more importantly, tolerant of it. Even very short daytime runs can however have their problems, as I found out.

Unfortunately in an early evening run on 23rd August 2009 a resident to the rear of my property, Mr John Butters with whom I had not had any previous complaints or contact whatsoever, unexpectedly leapt over a fence and caused the following damage.
The 6 inch coil, which had only been run for a total maximum of 15 minutes over the last 6 hours that day, was running at around half power from a 12 Kv PDT. Despite the coil giving out 4 foot streamers when the incident started, this did not seem to deter Mr Butters. Fortunately for him I did however manage to turn down the power before he got within range of the streamers.
This though allowed him to get close enough to inflict the following damage:-

(Left:)
The plastic shield used to prevent primary strikes, ended up causing damage to the secondary, as it was pushed up the winding.

The damaged secondary winding that was beyond repair.

Above: The SRSG's rotor jammed and burnt the Variac out.

Right: The MMC used Acrylic sheets that also needed replacing.