Re: drying coil forms

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: drying coil forms
From: "Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz" <acmq-at-compuland-dot-com.br> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)
Date: Wed, 08 Dec 1999 06:12:30 -0700
Approved: twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net
Delivered-To: fixup-tesla-at-pupman-dot-com-at-fixme

Ed wrote:

>         I have read repeatedly of the necessity of "sealing" the surface of
> PVC.  While I've never made a TC with PVC pipe for the form, I have made
> a number of Van de Graaf generators with PVC for the columns, and have
> never observed any analogous effects.  I have a rather small machine
> here on my desk which starts and runs just fine even when it's very
> humid or raining outside.  Any thoughts?

I have also used PVC tubes as insulators for electrostatic devices.
In some cases I varnished the tubes with polyurethane varnish, and
in other cases I didn't. No significant differences were noticed.
In a Tesla coil, it may be important to remove the humidity because
the water may absorb energy from the RF fields, but is the amount
of water in PVC enough for a significant effect? A simple test:
Operate a coil with a wet secondary and see what happens...

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz