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Secondary with thin wire
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From: Esondrmn-at-aol-dot-com [SMTP:Esondrmn-at-aol-dot-com]
Sent: Friday, February 20, 1998 12:27 PM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Secondary with thin wire
In a message dated 98-02-18 20:13:10 EST, you write:
<< I was looking what I have around to build a small capacitor-discharge
Tesla coil. I found a PVC tube with 8.8 cm (3.5") of diameter (more
than enough, about 2m) and many spools of 32 AWG magnet wire (relay
coils). By my initial calculations, I think that I can build an
acceptable secondary with this rather thin wire, with 1500 turns, what
results in a winding measuring 30 cm (I don't want sparks longer than
about this for awhile).
The inductance would be 20.8 mH, the self-capacitance 10.4 pF,
with resonance without top terminal at 305 kHz. Considering only the
DC resistance of the wire (223 Ohms), the Q reaches 435 (I didn't
compute the skin effect and other losses yet). I will have to use
five of the spools to complete the required wire length.
Some advice on how to make this work? Is the thin wire a so serious
problem? An it is really necessary to dry and coat the PVC tube with
polyurethane varnish before the winding? (saves a day).
Thanks,
Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz >>
Antonio,
It looks like you have given this some serious thought - however I would not
try to build even a small coil with #32 AWG. It will be very difficult to
wind flat and even and will probably break several times. It would be much
easier to buy one continuous roll of say #24 - 26 AWG. I think you can
probably get 12" sparks with the #32 wire. Let us know if you try it.
If I was going to use a pvc form (which I did on my 6" coil), I would dry it
and coat it. Costs a day now, provides many happy days later.
Ed Sonderman