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Re: Hookup Wire
From: Skip Greiner[SMTP:sgreiner-at-wwnet-dot-com]
Reply To: sgreiner-at-wwnet-dot-com
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 1997 5:32 PM
To: Tesla List
Subject: Re: Hookup Wire
Tesla List wrote:
>
> From: ghunter-at-mail.enterprise-dot-net[SMTP:ghunter-at-mail.enterprise-dot-net]
> Sent: Monday, December 01, 1997 1:54 PM
> To: Tesla List
> Subject: Hookup Wire
>
> Hi All,
>
> Secondaries wound with plastic insulated hookup wire seem pretty rare.
> I've only seen one small coil on a coiler's web page that used
> plastic insulated wire on the secondary. One other subscriber has
> admitted to me that his "big coil" is wound with pvc jacketed hookup
> wire. My own little low-budget coil is wound with #22 stranded hookup
> wire. While my sparks don't knock down low-flying airplanes, I'm
> mostly satisfied with performance.
>
> I'm aware of some of the drawbacks of hookup wire on TC secondaries.
> For one thing, the turns-per-inch density is much lower than magnet
> wire. This leads to lower inductance and high operating frequency,
> which is not desirable. My 23" secondary only has 460 turns.
> Operating frequency, even with a top hat, is in the neighborhood of
> 500khz.
>
> Also, I've heard references to lossy pvc insulation. Since many
> coilers wind their small secondaries on pvc pipe forms, this seems
> like a pretty lame complaint.
>
> On the plus side, hookup wire is more readily available than magnet
> wire. It's less expensive than magnet wire. It also seems to me that
> the stranded conductor would have lower loss at RF than solid
> conductor. Jacketed wire is tough & resistant to kinking and
> breakage--good qualities during the winding operation.
>
> Comments, experiences (good or bad) with plastic insulated wire in TC
> use will be read with much interest.
>
> Greg
>
> East Anglia, UK
Hi Greg and All
I only use plastic coated hook up wire. I use either #14 or #16 ga
stranded machine tool wire. I do not find it necessary to coat the
finished secondary. My most recent coil is 24" high and 17.5" in
diameter. It contains 192 turns. Its operating frequency with a toroid
is around 260khz. It put out about 66" discharges with about 1400 watts
from the wall plug. I have previously built lower powered units with
similar outputs.
The number of turns in the secondary have very little meaning in TC
work. Inductance and Q are most important.
Good luck
Skip