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Initial New Coil Test
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From: Chuck Curran [SMTP:ccurran-at-execpc-dot-com]
Sent: Sunday, August 16, 1998 6:05 PM
To: Tesla List
Subject: Initial New Coil Test
Hello All:
This weekend I was able to set up my newest coil and actually put power to
it. The mechanical side of moving it into position and going from the
horizontal to vertical proved to work out quite well, even with the 240-270
pounds. My first technique of lifting the 78" toroid up to the top which is
around 12 feet up, turned out to need a methods change. That worked out and
15 minutes later I was able to resonate the secondary and go for the primary
tune point. The system resonated higher than I expected and this turned out
to be a clue for a pending problem.
I had not properly attached the outer flex duct to the center disc in all
areas. Just to keep the story short, during power on the inner disc would
arc to the outer flex duct and the resonance originally "detected" was way,
way off, as it effectively more than doubled the surface area (and
capacitance?) of the toroid. The results were 7-8 foot sparks at a similar
Kw input level, very weak and wimpy looking relative to my smaller coils
performance from last year. The good news was that it became very clear
immediately what had been done wrong, so now that the toroid has been
repaired and is electrically "a one piece assembly", it's time to retune and
try again. The low power testing went well for the new power cabinet and I
am at least pleased with the success of that part of the project.
I stood the coil up in the middle of the driveway on Saturday around noon
hour. All Saturday afternoon and evening as the occasional car went slowly
by, there must have been a number of interesting guesses as to what that big
round thing was. As always, Saturday night some of the neighbors came out
and are asking for video tapes of it! I think I'll give these away in order
to keep things on good terms with all! I'm close to having a web page
finished and I'll have some of the photo's of this coil on it. I'll give
out the URL when it's up and functional, in about 2 weeks.
Chuck Curran
Cedarburg, WI