Re: MOT's for sale, or advise for a MOT

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: MOT's for sale, or advise for a MOT
From: Mike Nolley <mnolley-at-mail.slc.edu> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 19:46:18 -0600
Approved: twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net
Delivered-To: fixup-tesla-at-pupman-dot-com-at-fixme

>  All I did was hook up one side of the gap to my coil and the
> other side of my coil to the capacitor (the way I had my old coil set up, but
> new
> stuff) and i didn't even get one spark, not even 1/4, nuthin!

    Your problems are twofold:  first of all, the MOT is a 2000 volt, high
current transformer, not the usual low amperage 6-20 kv of most tesla
coils.  As
a result, your primary would need a large amount of inductance (I think) which
you don't have in your current setup.  Second, your capacitor is much, much too
large to establish the high frequencies needed in the Tesla coil circuit--
third,
and I think foremost the combination of high current and low voltage makes your
quenching next to nil.  I tried this setup once, back when I knew relatively
nothing about Tesla coils.  Needless to say, it didn't work.  There are
ways you
can use MOT's in Tesla coil service, but usually the easiest way to begin
is with
neon sign transformers, which have their own current limiting built in.  MOT's
aren't current limited, and so are fiendishly difficult (impossible) to use as
stand-alone transformers.
            --Mike