First light...Sort of

• To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
• Subject: First light...Sort of
• From: Aric_C_Rothman-at-email.whirlpool-dot-com (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)
• Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 18:05:09 -0600
• Approved: twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net
• Delivered-To: fixup-tesla-at-pupman-dot-com-at-fixme

     I started up my complete coil for the first time, with disappointing 
     results.  Vital specs (from memory) are:
     
     Power Supply:      15 kV NST
     Tank Cap:          0.01 uF styrene
                         (0.04 uF 40mil dielectric x 4 in series)
     Primary:           18 turns, 30 degree inverted cone
                        1/4" soft copper tubing, 1/4" spacing
     Secondary:         4.125" dia. x 51" long secondary
     Top Load:          4" x 32" toroid
     Spark Gap:         RQ style, 1/2" Cu tubing, 0.02" gaps, 10 gaps       
     
     First off, I know the secondary is way too long.  It was the first 
     part of the project I assembled and I didn't know what I was doing 
     (not that I do now ;)
     
     I tried several different tap locations on the primary, and managed to 
     get a few anemic purple sparks from the top load to the ceiling (about 
     1 foot).
     
     The PVC tubing around the RQ gap buckled, causing most of the gaps to 
     short out, once this happened, no further sparks from the top load 
     were produced.
     
     I'm going to build up a new gap, probably consisting of a series of Cu 
     tube section glued to a sheet of phenolic.
     
     As a first attempt to improve performance, should I slice out a 20" 
     section of the secondary and use that?
     
     Aric

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