Sad news, and repair question

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Sad news, and repair question
From: "Andy Cleary" <gemware2-at-dreamscape-dot-com> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 1999 08:22:26 -0600
Approved: twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net
Delivered-To: fixup-tesla-at-pupman-dot-com-at-fixme

	On the night of Oct. 1, I decided to run my small Tesla coil.  I must say
that it was performing perhaps the best ever.  I'll explain what then
happened, in sequence. I ran the coil about 6 times, with perfect results.
I started to run the coil again, when I noticed arcing on the primary (16
awg insulated wire) to the tap wire, which was laying on top of the primary.
I secured the tap wire so it was not touching the primary, and ran the coil
again.  At this time, the coil worked well, but there was corona coming from
the tap wire where it had been crimped, that never had happened before.  I
looked at it, and ran the coil again.  The same thing happened.  I started
to run the coil again, without adjustment, and for some reason my secondary
coil had arcs racing up and down it.  I quickly shut it off, raised the
secondary, and tried it again.  Still more arcing.  I then lowered the
secondary, and still more arcing.  I then put the secondary where it was
originally, and ran the coil.   The tank circuit fires OK, but I get a very
weak discharge, if anything.  I do see some burn marks on the secondary, and
my question(s) is(are):  Did one of the wires break in my secondary coil?
If so, is it worth fixing?  Will it work if I try to fix it?  How do you fix
it properly?  And, why did my coil start acting abnormally?  Thank you in
advance,

-Andy

P.S. I was able to take a couple of pictures before it died, they can be
seen at
http://www.geocities-dot-com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/2082/other/tesla.htm
Unfortunately my friend was using an unfamiliar camera, so they did not turn
out great...

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