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Re: Question
Tesla List wrote:
>
> Subscriber: gweaver-at-earthlink-dot-net Fri Jan 3 22:14:46 1997
> Date: Sat, 04 Jan 1997 08:52:44 -0800
> From: Gary Weaver <gweaver-at-earthlink-dot-net>
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject: Question
>
> For 30 years I have been building Tesla Coils with the secondary attached to
> the inside turn of the primary. Never tryed connecting the secondary to
> ground until I heard about it here. I have built some Van DeGraffs and know
> that the cabnet that houses the motor and drive roller is metal and charges
> with a charge equal and opposite to the sphere. The TC secondary attached to
> ground acts like the cabnet of the Van DeGraff and also acts like half of the
> capacitor in the secondary LC circuit while the toroid is the other half of
> the capacitor in the secondary circuit. I have not tried this but it seems
> to me that if you were to build a TC with a metal cabnet for the power supply
> and connect the lower end of the secondary to the metal cabnet and not to
> earth ground and not to the primary it would serve the same purpose and works
> on the same principle. Probably a piece of sheet metal on the floor under
> the tesla coil would work and maybe better because the metal would build up a
> better charge than ground. The metal cabnet or metal plate on the floor
> would have to be capable of holding a charge equal to the toroid. Has anyone
> tryed a metal cabnet or metal plate?
>
> Gary Weaver
Gary,
Any large metal object will be a fine ground for a very small Tesla coil.
A large 5 foot filing cabinet works fine under 200 watts. By the way,
don't touch or lean on the cabinet while the coil is running. Bigger
coils require much large counterpoises.
Richard Hull, TCBOR