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Re: Tesla coil specs.



Hi Bert,

>
>My last coil was finished January '95.  Secondary is 16 inches in diameter,
>4 foot coil length, teflon insulated stranded wire, 22 gauge (about 3,000
>ft).  Primary is a 4 foot diameter flat spiral monster using 1+ inch
>diameter coax.  Toroid is 62 inch diameter, 7 inch chord. I got a very
>disappointing 6 foot discharge with a 15 kva pole pig, 14.4 kv.  I'm
>rewinding the secondary with 10 gauge enamel, and will try it again with
>better caps (last time I used some questionable pulse discharge caps which
>were very lossy at Tesla coil freqs).  Caps which are rated at 800 pulses
>per second just don't work well when you use them in a resonant circuit at
>approx. 100 khz or less!
>

Don't rewind that coil!  I have gotten 18 foot discharges from a coil wound 
with 22 gauge wire and a smaller transformer.  Going to thicker wire will 
just raise your resonant frequency which is something you don't want.

Don't use coax for your primary.  Switch to copper tubing.

Better caps are always a nice idea.

Zap,
Mark