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Shelburne Mini-Teslathon
Hi All,
Yesterday (November 03rd) I took my first vanload of delicate electrical and test
equipment the 102 miles to my new lab and residence [note order of priorities : ) ].
The load included several of the smaller Tesla coils and the 12 x
48 inch topload for MTC. I learned a valuable lesson, I cannot
transport these large aluminum flex-duct toroids at 60 MPH on top of my van.
The hot glue fractured and fell apart from the below zero temperature and
buffeting wind, and the unit was badly damaged. I will take this
incident as a lesson learned and an opportunity to build a larger
toroid for MTC. _ Must_ have _more_ power_! I know now that I
_must_ build a wooden crate to safely transport my big toroid for the LTC
system.
I was joined a Shelburne by fellow coiler and list subscriber,
Jeffrey Wiggins. Also present were friend Al Lowry VE3AL, and a
friend of his from Buffalo by the name of Craig who is also a ham and an
enthusiast of large devices that operate at high air pressure at
hundreds of CFM's making _very loud_ sounds. Train horns are little
whistles to this guy. After we got the van unloaded into the shop
the four of us took the opportunity to Christen the new lab with some sparks
and ozone from my single 15KV-at-60MA neon powered coil.
We also dinked around with a remote free standing resonator. With all this shop
space such experiments are finally possible : ).
The remote resonator was a coil of close wound #26 AWG enamelled wire on a
4.25 inch diameter PVC form 36 inches long (45 mH). The bottom was grounded
and a 3 x 18 inch smooth aluminum commercial toroid was placed on top.
With the free resonator standing so that there was about 36-40
inches between the outer diameter of the toroid on the free resonator
and that of the driven coil, and only approximate resonance cluged by
placing different sized metal objects on top of the existing topload
of the driven coil and making appropriate primary tap changes to
compensate, we were amazed to achieve 36 inch streamers leaping off the free
resonator! The discharge length on the free resonator was equal to
the resonator length. With the free resonator this close to the driven coil,
the driven coil is loaded to the point where streamers stop coming
from itself. The streamer from the free resonator was swinging
around violently and would occasionally contact the energized driven
coil. From all appearances it really looked like the free resonator
was the powered coil, and that the driven unit was merely unplugged
and sitting there receiving the occasional strike.
We all thought this was way cool!
This meeting represents the first of what is anticipated to be frequent fun and
educational meetings and work sessions of both Ontario coilers as well as
welcomed guests from elsewhere at the new Shelburn coiling research and
conference centre.
A postal address, new e-mail address, phone and fax numbers, etc., will
be announced on the list shortly.
Robert W. Stephens