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Initial run
After more than a year of slowly gathering parts and assembling (and
tearing down), my son and I fired up our first large coil today. We got
36" sparks with an input of 1.7 KVA. The coil has a secondary with a
diameter of 8" and is wound with 1000 turns of 20ga enameled copper
wire. Top capacitance is a 16"X4" spun aluminum toroid. The primary
has 10 turns of #4 ground wire in a saucer configuration spaced 1/2".
The capacitor is a 0.05 CP 20KV unit. Power comes from a 10 KVA 14,400
v pig with 240 volts input regulated with a Powerstat 1256D. Current
limiting is by a Century arc welder and 0.51 ohms of resistance in
series. We have a variable speed non-synchronous rotary gap with 12
tungsten electrodes. We also have 4 additional stationary gaps which we
did not use during the initial testing. Ground is made up of four 8'
ground rods 8' apart tied together with 6" strips of copper roofing
material. Only three were in use for this test (just couldn't wait any
longer)
Conditions were not great for outdoor coiling today - winds gusting to
over 20 mph and humidity very high. All in all things went very well
for the initial tests. We'll work on higher inputs, fiddle with tuning
and use some of the stationary gaps. The secondary may be a bit
over-coupled and we may have to raise it a bit - we are getting a few
hits from the primary to the secondary. No problems with interference
on TVs or with any damage to solid state devices due to the use of 200
amp line filters on each line in and out and with the use of a "double
ground" system.
Thanks to all on the list who have contributed to our education,
especially Richard Quick who gave many helpful hints and Richard Hull's
series of tapes. We'll be continuing to improve on our system's
performance. Hope to get some pictures and videos tomorrow. Will post
when ready.