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Re: Building magnifiers
At 10:41 PM 2/5/97 -0700, Kevin Nardelle wrote:
>Subscriber: knardell-at-mailhost.accesscom-dot-net Wed Feb 5 22:40:52 1997
>Date: Wed, 05 Feb 1997 22:25:24 -0600
>From: Kevin Nardelle <knardell-at-mailhost.accesscom-dot-net>
>To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>Subject: Re: First big magnifier run
>
>
>>We're running a 20,200 volt transformer, which is very loud on the rotary
>>gap. I had several neighbors standing in their yards watching the show. I
>>wish I had a large building to run this coil in, but unfortunately my yard
>>will have to do. I think I'm moving it all to the back patio for my next
>>test run to reduce the neighborhood interest. I figured on my first run if
>>I even got it to break out of the toroid, I'd be doing good. I didn't expect
>>90 inch sparks and didn't want to generate quite so much neighborhood
interest.
>>
>>Bert Pool
>>nikki-at-fastlane-dot-net
>>
>>
>Gee Bert, you might be in the same boat as I am with the neighbors. Just
>wait and see, let them talk a while and see what they start to say.
>something like "OH NOW I KNOW WHY MY TV...." hahaha ..
>Anyway, did you take a look at my coil (the second one) yet? Can you give me
>a basic idea on how to build a magnifier? I have a coil wound with 724 turns
>of #24 wire with a form diameter of 4.5 inches. Can I use this for a
>magnifier? OR am I just stupid? I have no clue how or why a magnifier works
>but I hear it is nothing but a second secondary coil tied to the top of a
>regular tesla coil.
>Let me know by private email.
>
>Thanks!!
>
> Regards,
> Kevin Nardelle
>
Kevin,
In its most simple terms, a magnifier can be thought of as a conventional
Tesla coil tuned to 1/8 wavelength instead of 1/4 wavelength, the output of
which then drives a resonator coil.
I'd suggest you contact Richard Hull and get his "magnifier primer" video
tape, which I highly recommend, BTW. It has some excellent graphics showing
how and why a magnifier differs from a two coil system, and what to think
about when designing a system. Small magnifiers are not particularly
difficult to make, indeed you can drive a resonator with a properly tuned
conventional coil, but for serious output you have to build the driver as a
totally different animal. As a matter of fact, the first thing I tried to
do with my newest magnifier driver was to put a top on the secondary and try
to run it as a conventional coil. It didn't work - the coupling between
primary and secondary was far too high, but when we ran a transmission line
from the top of the secondary to the third coil we immediately got 90+ inch
sparks.
Properly built magnifiers are really amazing; my first working magnifier
outperformed every conventional coil I've ever attempted, and it did so in
its maiden run! Of course I give big kudos to R. Hull and friends for their
help, because without Richard's guidance I'd still be dinking around with
600 watt coils and frying neons faster than McDonalds fries taters. Ed
Wingate was a blessing to me last year when he sold me some good caps. And
as I think about it there are several people on this list whose information
and help were invaluable, too. Hey guys, I really appreciate all your help!
Kevin, get the video(s) and apply the principles and you'll be making a good
magnifier before you know it. The two most important things: tight coupling
and really, really good spark gaps.
Heck, I'm already playing with a spreadsheet calculating what kind of
transformer, caps, toroid, driver and resonator I'll need for a 15,000 watt
system. I've found a local source for 25 foot length, 18 inch diameter
aluminum toroid material - you need BIG toroids for large magnifiers. I'm
not yet experienced enough to tackle a 15 kw coil, but that's where I'm
headed. I have the transformers, big variacs and caps for such a system. I
will need some additional wire and stuff, but the difficult to find things
are already stockpiled. Of course I'm not going to be able to run such a
thing in my yard; the neighbors are one limiting factor, but even yard space
becomes an issue.
Bert Pool
nikki-at-fastlane-dot-net