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T.C. goals
Hi all,
I got into electronics when I was 14 (20 years ago). I always had a special
place in my heart for high voltage so I went to the library and found an old
book with electrical experiments in it. When I saw the Tesla coil it was
love at first sight.
I pulled an old step down transformer apart and used the hair thin primary
wire to wind my secondary on a paper towel tube. I used old doorknob caps
salvaged out of old T.V. high voltage circuits and a burned out OBIT(still
had a little 'juice' left in it). I managed to eek an inch out of it, and
then burned out the OBIT the rest of the way.
10 years later, the TCBA provided more inspiration for my evil mind. I wound
a beautiful secondary on 4.5" PVC
pipe with 30 AWG wire. I wound till I ran out of wire and finally ended up
with a length of 14". I didn't know where to get an NST, so I used an old DC
supply out of a discarded copier to slow charge a cap that I got out of a
discarded high voltage power supply at work (.01 uf -at- 30kv). Once every
second I got a 7" spark. Later I aquired a 15/30 NST and made a glass plate
cap, but still did not build a proper gap and didn't know how to easily tune
the primary it just seemed like I had to keep adding wire forever to get a
bigger output.
I promised Mom that my goal was to get a one foot spark. I put the Tesla
coil on the back burner for a few years to persue Amateur radio and other
interests.
Two years ago I met someone(Tony Deangelis) who interduced me to Richard
Hulls tapes, and at the same time I had to learn how to use a computer for
work, and decided to surf the web for info on Tesla coils. I decided to dust
off the old secondary. With the 15/30 NST, an easily tunable primary made
with RG-59, some new caps that Tony provided, and a variation of the RQ gap
(sort of a shortened Terry Fritz version) I had overshot my goal of 1 foot
by 8".
But then after visiting Ed Wingates Teslathon, I started asking myself
questions such as: 'what would happen if I were to modify the gap a little?,
What if I use a space wound copper tube primary, What if I were to throw a
few more NSTs into the equation, and purchase some Maxwells?
To make a long story short, in response to those above asked questions, my
spark length grew to 33". To this day I am still using that secondary I
wound 10 years ago. Instead of being horrified, my Mom is proud, and is
promising to build one of her own someday!
My goal now is to wind a bigger secondary of similar inductance so that I
can get rid of the strike rail. I don't have the room for bigger sparks at
this time. It would be nice if I could keep the sparks the same length and
make 'em a little fatter though.
Sorry for the long post but I find all of the other ones written on this
subjuct very interesting, and decided to throw in my own. I also found it as
a wonderful opportunity to mention a few of my Gurus.
Thanks to every one of you!
S.G.