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Re: caps

Greetings,

I was looking over cshields' latest message and was thinking about 
transformer voltage.  I am using a bunch of neon sign transformers in parallel
and using a variac to adjust the voltage.  My question is: Does 
anyone know if variacs will "limit" the current that you can draw
through them?  It occurred to me that if the variac restricts the current
then I could have all the transformers in the world and only get a 
small amount of wattage out of the whole thing.  I am using a 1 KVA 
variac (10 amp) to power the thing.  
My spark gap is a series gap made of 8 3" pieces of 1" copper pipe 
in parallel: 
End view: OOOOOOOO
Top view: ||||||||

There is 0.018" between each piece. 

Here's another general toss up question:
If your secondary shorts out between two windings (as evidenced by arcing
between two windings) is the tuning kaput?  

Chip