# van de graaff



## machiavelli (Nov 26, 2008)

Has anyone ever made their own Van De Graaff generator? It looks dangerous, can you shock yourself really bad?


----------



## JeepHammer (Oct 10, 2008)

machiavelli said:


> Has anyone ever made their own Van De Graaff generator? It looks dangerous, can you shock yourself really bad?


I've made both Van deGraaf and Tesla generators.
Depends a lot on size of the generator.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_de_Graaff_generator

I built a one that was about six foot tall when in middle school for a science project and that thing would knock the snot out of you!
-----------------

You CAN get a good shock, just remember to keep your ground above your head or in front of you if you are off to the side of it.

The last one I made was for niece's science fair, and we used belt sander belts for the Van deGraaf. Worked pretty good!

If you want to 'Juice' things up, try rubbing one side of the belt with wool and the other side with rubber!
Talk about static production!


----------

