RE: AC grill primary

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Lau, Gary" <gary.lau-at-hp-dot-com> 

Re. octagonal vs. circular:  If you enjoy challenges, you could try
winding it with one hand tied behind your back.  But there is certainly
no functional advantage to any non-circular shape, and quite likely
you'll have problems with corona off the corners, and certainly it will
be a lot more effort to make it look half-way decent.

Re. stranded wire - this is definitely a bad thing.  Unless you have
true Litz wire, losses in stranded wire are much higher than solid
conductors.  See my experimental results at
http://www.laushaus-dot-com/tesla/primary_resistance.htm.  Also, one wants
the primary conductor to be rigid so that the windings stay in place,
and a stranded conductor would tend to be a bit floppy.

A 14 or 12 gauge solid primary will work for a 15/60 NST.  The losses
would be lower if you used copper tubing, but I can't say exactly how
much that would affect performance.

Gary Lau
MA, USA


Original poster: "K Wilson" <teslamap-at-hotmail-dot-com>

You know, the primary doesn't *have* to be, ummm, circular...;)
Octagonal might be nice.
Dan K.

I was alreary thinking the same thing. Has anyone wound a primary with
12
or 14 AWG bare stranded copper? Do you think the corners would create
corona problems? Would the wire be able to handle the current (15, 60
NST)?

_