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Re: My Primary Coil disaster



Original poster: "Barton B. Anderson by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <tesla123-at-pacbell-dot-net>

Hi Patrick,

Sorry to hear about your delema.

I never use a feed-through method when winding the primary for exactly the
mess your describing. My
first primary was tried this way and a similar mess occurred. I buy the
pre-rolled tubing, and lay it
down onto the primary runners which have pre-drilled ty-wrap feed-though
holes. I start from the inside
securing one ty-wrap at a time following the winding outward.

The ty-wrap is fed up from the bottom of the runner, around the primary
tubing, and back down through
the "same" hole, and finally secured at the bottom of the runner. I also
use a piece of plexiglass strip
which is inserted between the runners and primary (also with pre-drilled
holes). This is because my
primary is oak.

Here's a photo of my latest primary
http://www.classictesla-dot-com/photos/tgk/21.jpg

As far as rebending your tubing? No clue. Do the best you can. Keep in
mind, "a pretty primary is not
necessary" (but it sure does help when calculating turns and spacing if
used for tuning).

Take care,
Bart
--
Barton B. Anderson
http://www.classictesla-dot-com
Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Patrick Bloofon by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <transactoid-at-home-dot-com>
>
> Okay, this whole tesla coil thing has not been going my way. First, the wire
> breaks while winding the secondary (perhaps you've seen my post...). Now, my
> primary coil is all but an expensive hunk of copper.
>
> I cut out and drilled 5 really nice offsets. I mounted them onto a
surface, and
> began feeding 1/4" copper tube through it, starting from the outside.  After
> about 5 loops, the tubing was so bent, twisted, and demented out of shape I
> couldn't go any further.  Loops were overlapping and the tube was flexed in
> multiple planes (ie, bent side to side as well as up and down...). I'll
try to
> get some pictures up so you can see this mess.
>
> What I'd like to know is:
>
> -Are there any good ways to re-bend or straigten the copper tubing when it is
> in such a state? (ie, is this thing salvagable)
>
> -Seeing as my method of winding failed miserably, I'm guessing it's not how
> others do it. What is the "proper" way to wind it?
>
> PS. This copper tube is extremely expensive where I live. The cheapest I
found
> was $30 for 50 feet.  Home Depot doesn't even carry it around here.
>
> Thanks,
> "A very frustrated coiler",
> Patrick