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Transformers
Fellow coilers,
Thanks to everybodys' hints and advice, I'm hopelessly " hooked on coilin "
now. (I heard the warnings about it being addictive, just didn't think it'd
happen to me :o) Now it seems like every time I improve or add somethin', I
get bigger and better sparks! I can take away a few gaps, and fiddle with
the tune so I can draw 15" arcs to myself, or add gaps and crank up the
variac till the arcs come out 3-4 feet (haven't felt them yet ;o)
Anyway, my specs are:
four 9K 60ma neons-
four homemade caps total .066 mfd-(soon will get commercial cap)
eight static gaps at .028"-
pri. coil is 1/4" copper tube 13 turns saucer (best sparks at turn #6)
sec. coil is 6" dia. 28" winding on 1/8" plexi tube
torroid is 5" alum. duct, 26" diameter, 1" above top turn of secondary
average strikes to ground about 30" but a few longer ones to air, maybe 36"
What I want to know is, after running for about 10 minutes (really 1 or 2
min. maximum,with cooling off in between firings) one of the neons started
smoking pretty good with a tar smell (understandably). The case doesn't even
get warm, nor do the terminals, but the primary cord does heat up a little
(about 18 gauge power cord) So I'm afraid they will eventually fry. I
understand this is not unusual for neons to burn up after enough such abuse
:o) I just was wonderin' if there are other (better) xformers between neons
and pole pigs, that would be better for tesla coil use? I'm not too sure I'm
ready for pigs yet, but don't wanna keep buyin' neons either. Are there
smaller pole pig type xformers that can be used with 120v input? When I see
a pig that is 10KVA, that is 10,000 volts, but what kind of current rating
are they? I know my neons will work great at 1/2 or even 1/4 line
voltage...can I use a pole pig the same way? (lower input for lower output)
Any info will be much appreciated! Thanks!
Ken Cravens