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Re: Beginners Tesla Coils



Mike writes:

>There are a variety of reasons why few recipies exist on >the internet,
and I will attempt to explain some of them. >First of all, TC'ing
requires a certain amount of trial >and error, especially in the tuning
process-- so
>there is by no means ANY guarantee that 2 coils with >identical
schematics and even identical materials will >both be immediately
successful.

I do understand this.  I suspect that the real problem for the beginner
has to do with the transformer. This is an uncontrollable variable
because you go out to canvass an NST - you get what you get - and unless
you're luck enough to find a clearly rated, fully functional NST you must
be able to test its output (the question of expensive equipment again
rears its ugly head) and then answer the question of what rating/type of
capacitor you need and whether that has any effect on the design of your
primary and secondary coils. This is the major element that is missing
from every set of instructions I have, though some of the executable
programs seem like they try to address this - but they don't tell you the
why and how of it.

>Regarding your capacitor problem-- you might be better >off starting
with a saltwater capacitor, or a glass plate >capacitor, the former being
the easiest.  It is possible >to build polyethelyne capacitors without a
vacuum pump-- >flat plate poly caps don't have to be pumped down--

Thanks.  I know that a variety of capacitors are available. I brought up
the issue of a rolled poly cap since it was a good one for illustrating
the issue I was addressing, which were "recipes" that called for
unusual/expensive equipment (a vacuum pump) that the average beginning
coiler wouldn't have around the house.
 
Actually, I was thinking that an air capacitor might be the way to go for
my creation. I saw a picture of one on a web site and considered several
advantages; it might be possible to air cool the capacitor with a fan,
more plates could be added as neccessary, and one could vary the
capacitance by clipping the lead onto a different copper plate or
altering the distance between the plates. What I'm running into is the
obvious fact that so few people are using air caps.  Can anyone fill me
in on the disadvantages to this approach?
 
>I'm quite certain that there is sufficient information on >the internet
to build a Tesla coil, but I would resist >the formulaic approach, it
tends to be unfufilling, >frustrating, and usually extremely expensive. :
)

Agreed, one learns more if one has problems to fix questions to answer,
and things to learn before making a coil work.  

My post was more a wish list or even an attempt to set a standard in
terms of the quality of writing, safety, clarity and detail for what a
good, "recipe" would be like, (I think this needs a beginner's
perspective) because so many of them are badly worded, (or even bad
translations from other languages - I shudder at the safety issues with
that!!) dangerous, or just plain incomplete, and I have a high
frustration level with the assumptions being made about what kind of
equipment I have, how much I know, what kind of money I can spend, and
the level of detail I need, and that frustration level seemed to be
shared by the people who replied to the original post about a recipe.

Thanks


Alex  

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