Solid state tesla coils- very confused and ready to see coils take flight(in a phsical since)

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "offset" <offset-at-firstlight-dot-net> 

Hi, 
I new to list, so I would like to say Hello to all my fellow tesla
coilers out there.
just reacently I have started to tinker with the idea of 
SST's and have not had much lock, in fact I have only to date been able
to get no more than 10000 volts from 
my SST(however I did get that using classic primary energy storage, but
I trying to get away from the spark gap, excessive DC voltage,,,etc!), I
have read pages of theory on the internet
and kinda of get the idea, but don't quite understand it enough.
most of the information that i have encountered on the net for
electrical enginerrs and is based on using "F.ire E.mmiting
T.ransistors" which we all know are very fragile
and require lots of care and enginerring attention not to mention Money
this spells $$T :-(. I salvage most of my parts from the local repair
shop's dumpster which leaves me with buckets of bipolar trnasistors and
a handfull of burnt fet's and the occational good one that wouldn't work
anyway because of its values, not to mention lots of other parts that
fill my room from floor to celling I have in the past, few years ago
when I was 16 I built a 1KW TC Clasic with average arcs of about 15" not
bad for the scavange/repaired parts i had, and with the help of my
vocational schools machine shop, for the spark gap disks, however I
still got most everything else, by scavanging parts I had to go take my
CT'ed-NST off the building my self with the sign companys appovavl and
an invation to ride along in there lift equimpmet during the cource of
one of there jobs, it seems that when they repair signs they uasly just
leave the bad neon hanging there, what a shame !! so many buildings so
little authorition ,well that was when i lived in rochester, NY now I
live in BF egypt and have no more such operitunities to dismantel and
soak them in gasoline and match the seconday windings, Yuck!!!
anyway back to the subject..
I'm looking for a way to power an SST with bipolar transistors, I have 
lots of ferite Xformers ( I have profected a way to dissasembel potted
ones, simple, expand the core with "even heating!!!!" to break the
eopxy, and sometimes accompined with striking the transformer on a
rounded surface  in alingment with the windings while its still at 50c
to 70c often frees it with out damaging the core or the bobbin) so
output trnasformers are no problem. however I think my begest problem is
understanding the phisical relationships between the primary and
secondary windings and how to get adiquite feedback loops. I tried
setting up a coil that was 10"h X 3"w with #27 wire(from tv yokes) ,
this yelded a coil that had a Q of 125, ind of 6.9 mh and a freq of
probly around 600 khz, I figure that the frequincy might be a tad bit
high, but I should get at least something if I end feed this coil, or
use an output trnasformer capible of 1mhz and 600+ volts to a primary
with a trnasistor fed by a feed back loop titly wound on the low end of
the secondary, but my reasults sucked, the output primary scheem didn't 
resonate to prcduce the 600v and the end feed scheem with a secondary
feedback didn't resonate to produce the hv either,

Why won't the feed back coil work? I know there has to be energy in
there to produce a feed back but there should be a short dc paulse from
the out put trnasformer b4 is saturates right? whitch in turn would send
the feed back signal and start the flip flop of the 2 transistors
I using (does the feed back need a pre-amp, stage?) the driver curcit is
the basicaly a 2 transistor flyback driver circuit with emitters tied to
ground, I think that we have all seen the circuit.

I know that the feed has to be the same freq. that the secondary natraly
resonates at thus the feedback coil, however it has to have plenty of
wattage, ( I can draw a 3/4 inch arc from my 600 volt output
transformer, and much longer with an ionization medium"NaCl , NaCO3,
rosin) so I know I have at least 160 rf watts(considering estimated
losses of 100 watts, low gain in transistors, transmitiom lossess etc, I
don't have most of the math, or the proper masuring equipment) with 2 15
amp trnasistors using a 24 v 2x33ah gel cells 

I farily stumped, i know the driver cuicit works because I can get the
output transformer to self resonate but I get nothing from the secondary
feedback loop, and I know the transistors are not turning on from the
seconday feed back, I have also tried(low impedance) using a tap of the
primary as feedback and gotten 100-500 volts from the secondary with 12v
input I have also tried this with vearious primarys

a few things that I would like to know in genreal
1. what is the Q threshold for sst's to low? to high?
2. what are the P/S inductance thresholds (if special for sst's)
3. what is the K value and how do I calculate it - I have never quite   
gotten this down

If someone could point me to the required sst specfic math, and
macanical construction details or maybe a proven bipolor desigh I would
become greatly happy, but I can settle for some well placed tips

thankz ahead, for so many questions and such a long read
Ocean I House