Re: first light

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: JBarrett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 


Don't give up Andy, I have been working on my coil on and off for over a 
year.
Jim B



"Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>

12/06/2004 09:33 AM
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Subject
first light




Original poster: "Andrew Genseal" <aggniu@xxxxxxxxxxx>

Well, last weekend I finally got my first coil fired up.  During this first
light, I made a temporary primary coil from 14G (tapped at turn 12 I
believe)wire just to make sure I would have enough turns before I went and
spent the time and money on copper tubing.
Anyways, the specs of my coil are as follows: Transformer: 12kV 30mA NST; 2
parallel rolled poly caps for a total of ~6.44nF; primary: 12T 14G copper
wire spaced ~1" between turns; static spark gap consisting of 2 1/4"
carriage bolts and a fan for quenching; 4.5" x 17.75" secondary wound with
22G magnet wire; flex torroid of 15" avg diameter by 5" section
diameter.  Oh yeah, Rf ground: 90lb anvil on a concrete floor with a wet
rag between them.
At any rate, I tuned the system as best I could and found that at best I
was seeing 9" strikes to a grounded conductor.  Even then, the sparks I was
getting were very dim and looked more like corona than lightening.  I
understand that this is not a high power system or one of ideal (or even
close to ideal) components but I was expecting a little bit more out of the
system.  The problem seems to boil down to the fact that being a college
student, my money is very thin and I am looking for the best improvement
for the dollar at this point. First step will be a 1/4" copper tube primary
spaced at 1/4" between turns.  After that, I don't know where the best
direction to go would be.  I would greatly appreciate any and all input on
suggestions that might improve the performance of my coil based on the vast
expertise of this list.

Thank you very much
-Andy G.