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Fire in the hole!

Interesting events this week.

I've been running a medium size coil (4 ft sparks) out in my garage for 
several weeks.

Last weekend burglers kicked in my front door :(  and stole some stereo 
stuff, but fortunately they weren't interested in coiling stuff.

Anyway, I had to repair the front door, and I installed massive steel door 
jambs to prevent "kick-ins".  While I was at it, I decided to reinforce all 
my doors, including the one into the garage.

So what has my misfortune got to do with Tesla coils?  Bear with me.

My garage door has the old phosphor-bronze weather strip running across the 
top of the door and down both sides.  I have an aluminum sill across the 
bottom.  The aluminum sill touched ONE end of the bronze door strip; there 
was a quarter inch gap between the aluminum sill and the other end of the 
bronze strip.  What I have described here is a large single turn metal coil 
with the ends of the conductor separated with a small gap.  Whenever I was 
running my coil, this "antenna" was picking up the r.f. emissions and 
apparently a ferocious spark was jumping between the aluminum sill and the 
bronze strip.  How ferocious?  It had completely charred the whole corner of 
the door!  I am very lucky I did not have a full blown fire.

Moral?  Check any doors in the vicinity of your coils for bronze weather 
strips running around the door.  Look for any other conductors which can 
form large loops (guys, got any suggestions on what else to look for???)

Conductive loops make very good Tesla receivers and if you have gaps in the 
loop it can cause a fire.  I know, because I just sawed off the bottom of 
this door where it was burned.

Stay safe!

Bert