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Hello to all from a new coiler
From: Vince Cothran[SMTP:vince-at-techie-dot-com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 1997 10:50 AM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Hello to all from a new coiler
Hello to everyone on the list. I am working on my first coil too. I
joined the list about a month ago and have been enjoying reading the posts.
I'm 45, live in Columbia, South Carolina and also enjoy amateur radio, R/C
aircraft and sailing. I've been fascinated with high voltage and tesla
coils since boyhood and fondly remember reading articles about the subject
in Popular Science and Popular Electronics magazines. Several years ago
someone gave me a 15kv 60ma NST which I promptly made into a jacobs ladder.
Sadly it's primary function though has been door-stop and dust collector
but since finding this list and the wealth of info on the web, that will
soon change!
Here's the specs so far for my coil in progress:
Transformer - 15kv 60ma NST
Primary - 15 degree saucer of 1/4" refrigeration tubing, 10" ID 24" OD
about 14 turns spaced 1/4" apart
Cap - aluminum flashing and poly plate cap with two sections of .02 mfd
each, in one tank of acrylic-lined-plywood with an acrylic separator
between
the two sections. 35 6" x 8" plates vertically mounted in each section with
6 layers
of 6 mil poly between each plate, all four leads brought out through the
tank walls.
Secondary - 6.5" OD x 25" of 22AWG heavy enamel magnet wire coated with
acrylic spray
Gap - RQ style static maybe vacuum type
Chokes - still pondering as with the toroid
I acquired some 6.5" OD white PVC at the local building supply house but it
has a rather thick cellular core, about 1/4" I guess. The trade name for
it is Conex I believe. I prepared it by baking it in an oven at work at
about 130-140 degrees for 24 hours and sprayed it while it was still warm
with some mil-spec acrylic conformal coating called HumiSeal that I picked
up for a song several years ago at a hamfest. Well I started wondering
about the breakdown characteristics of this cellular core....the outer skin
of PVC is pretty thin....i guess 40 to 50 mils......a few days ago I ran
across some 6" green solid PVC so I bought a piece of it. Now it's down to
the wire and I'm ready to wind the secondary. Does anyone have any
thoughts
as to which material would be best? The wall thickness of the green PVC is
about 3/16" but I could reduce that fairly easily on a lathe at work if
losses are
an issue.
Thanks,
Vince Cothran, KK4NH
vince-at-techie-dot-com