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Comment by starpilot | Hacker News Reader

You can build one at home!

https://rimstar.org/sdprop/lifter/lifter1b/lifter1b.htm

It’s not as easy to get ahold of >20kV power supplies these days! Before, you could find them on the street corners and in your neighbors trash. There was always a CRT to sacrifice.

My lifter, probably like most, eventually caught fire.

Efficiency seems fairly poor [1], and from my experience, ozone is absolutely a problem.

1. https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.4890353

Microwave transformer maybe? Or does that not supply enough?

Ideally, for safety reasons, you'd use something like a neon transformer. They supply a very high voltage, but at the same time the output is current-limited, which decreases the chance you'll electrocute yourself.

Even a 10” neon tube needs enough amperage to cause a fatal electric shock.

Limited upside; high chance of self-immolation.

I'm in.

I've zapped myself on one of those. It contracted my muscles enough to send me across the room and almost knocked me out. I'm happy it wasn't across the chest. And yes, I was doing something incredibly dumb. My teen-age years had some regrettable moments.

Absolutely not. Microwave transformers are much too dangerous.

The flyback transformers from a TV (or neon sign) are fairly low power because they don't need all that much. The goal is high voltage for both. A microwave transformer is meant to pump a thousand of Watts into your high specific heat food and will very easily kill you. They should not be used for any sort of hobby work.

>It’s not as easy to get ahold of >20kV power supplies these days!

I found this company in the ad section of Boy's Life in the mid 90's, this power supply is adjustable 30kV-75kV

https://www.amazing1.com/products/high-voltage-power-supply-...?

They have lots of hard to find high voltage stuff.

$1,000 is kind of a lot to spend on a frivolous novelty.

For me it is, for someone with a 6-figure or higher income probably not though.

Hobbyist machinists, makers etc will spend several times that on a single machine.

Is there a good resource for learning the design principles/best practices. When I look at the design I’m immediately wondering why the thrusters aren’t longer, but I’m sure others have thought a lot about this and I’d like to read up. Or is most of this still primarily located in scientific journals?

would an ignition coil from a lawnmower work? I googled "F150 ignition coil" and it is rated at 40kV

Oh man, I remember that site! Used to be way different, though. I built a lot of those things, though not the lifter.

Back in high school I spent a lot of time on sites like scitoys.com, rimstar.org, Bill Beaty's site, etc. I really miss those days. Now similar content is all on YouTube with clickbaity thumbnails that start with "WHATS UP YOU GUYS".

I subscribed to a couple different channels that did some pretty neat experiments with ion generation, they both just went away, I can only imagine what happened to them.

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