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RE: TESLA COIL DESIGN



 * Carbons Sent to: Esondrmn-at-aol-dot-com


 > From: Esondrmn-at-aol-dot-com
 > To: tesla-at-grendel.objinc-dot-com
 > Subject: Re: TESLA COIL DESIGN


 ES> Thanks for the indepth discussion on coil design. 

I am trying to help. Not only you, but I am aware of at least
five other coils under construction at this time from members
in the group. I was flooded with mail (here and U.S. Postal)
this week. People are reading books, and building flops.

 ES> Fortunately, this design is still on paper. I have ordered   
 ES> John Couture's Tesla Coil Design Manual. Is this a good      
 ES> book?

Well... No. I had a letter in the mail today, and I quote:
 
   "I bought John Couture's software and one of his books and
   began to build. Well, it doesn't work. I am looking for help."

This quote came from a letter from a member of this group.
Couture's design method is based primarily on radio theory.
My advice is based on the construction of lots and lots of coil
systems, good tips from Richard Hull, and lots and lots more coil
systems.  

 ES> When I built my first and only Tesla coil about 25 years ago 
 ES> I did use tight windings on a 6.0" dia. acrylic coil form.   
 ES> It produced 13.0" discharges.  I did not know how to tune it 
 ES> then and used only one plate glass capacitor about 24 "      
 ES> square.  I also did not use any capacitors or RF chokes for  
 ES> filters, which probably explains why I lost one transformer. 
 ES> My next coil will be much better.

This was pretty good for 25 years ago. My first coil never
sparked, but it ate my homemade capacitors real well; that is
until I built a cap that would hold up, then the kickback ate
the neon. I was so frustrated that it was more than ten years
later before I went back (at a friends urging) to see if any-
thing that Tesla did was for real. My second coil sparked, but
it was weak, the third was a little better...

 ES> Re: Grounding

Ahh, one of my favorite subjects.

 ES> The copper pipe that comes in from my well is connected to   
 ES> all the other grounds in the house, including the circuit    
 ES> breaker box.  I will use a separate copper ground rod for    
 ES> the Tesla coil ground.

Sorry to hear that. Good Tesla grounds are usually sweated out
with a ladder, a big hammer, a shovel, and lots of time. 

 ES> Is it necessary to use a torroid form discharger?  

I would use a toriod. Spheres just do not cut it. Toroids are
not hard, or expensive to build. I use the flexible 4" poly-
propylene drain pipe. I form a ring and tape the ends. The ring
then gets covered with stretchy plastic tape to smooth out the
ridges, and then I cover the ring with strips of aluminum
plumbers tape. I next cut out a fitted center plate of plexi
or polyurethane soaked masonite, fit the center plate into the 
aluminized ring, coat the center plate with spray adhesive, and
cover the center plate in heavy duty aluminum foil. I finish up 
by securing the foil covered center plate into the ring with more
plumbers tape.

My first effort took four hours, about $20.00 in materials, and
resulted with a killer 40 inch diameter toroid that allowed me to
peak out my 10 inch diameter secondary coil. A commercial custom
toroid in this size was priced at over $1500.00 with a 6 week
delivery time. 

 ES> Someone should go into busisness building copper torroid     
 ES> dischargers. 

No money to be made when you can make them in four hours for $20.

 ES> Have you tried wound copper tubing on a spherical form -     
 ES> like we see in Tesla's old designs? 

I am not sure what you are referring to, but you grabbed my
interest. I thought I had seen just about every published Tesla
design and I don't recall this one. Tesla used a copper foil
covered wooden ball in Colorado Springs...

Richard Quick


... If all else fails... Throw another megavolt across it!
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12