Re: Secondary wire q / Ozzie 2nd hand-NSTs?

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

Original poster: Pyrotrons-at-aol-dot-com 

Hi Simon and All.....

About soldering wires together on a secondary coil: it works great. If you 
don't have enough wire to go all the way, you can easily solder on some more 
until you have the required amount on the coil.

Me and Aron's coil is done this way. The wire could only be purchased on 
three spools, so we had to solder on some more wire whenever a spool ran out.

Just make it a good solder joint. Really good. Has to be bright and shiny, 
with no imperfections. You'll have to scrape the insulation off the ends 
(just the ends) of the wires with a sharp hobby knife to get down to the bare 
copper. Tin each wire piece, leaving on a little extra solder. Then when 
you're ready, put them together and heat them up until the solder wicks 
together. Then let it air cool, holding everything very steady. Using a flux 
paste will make a better joint, but make sure you clean it off well when 
you're finished. 

It is your choice on how the wires are positioned together. Either directly 
on top of each other, or side-by-side. I don't think it matters either way 
(explained below), but it's personal preference as to which one looks better.

There are two solder joints on our coil, and on both of them, the solder 
itself actually sticks out from the side......and comes to a sharp point. We 
figured the coil would break out from these points, so we left it that way to 
see what would happen. Well there was no breakout, nothing at all. Not even 
corona...so we left it ; ) One joint is 1/3 the way up, the other is roughly 
2/3 the way up. Plenty high enough to have voltage on them.

Anyhow, I speak on the standpoint of a fairly large (12" secondary running 
+10kVA) coil system. Exposed solder joints might pose problems with a smaller 
coil system.

A side note: If anyone is planning on purchasing magnet wire from any other 
place than the MANUFACTURER, be careful. The manufacturer sells it in 
beautifully wound spools, very smooth with no kinks at all. Other places (ex. 
motor rewind shops) might take it off the original spool, and scramble wind 
the specified amount onto their own spool. This puts a load of bends and 
kinks in the wire.....and makes your secondary look like crap if you don't 
smooth each and every bend out as you go. There are hundreds of bends, 
literally. It's been my experience that Mouser Electronics Corporation 
(www.mouser-dot-com) sells some really pretty wire. Their rates are okay, keeping 
in mind they are a huge corporation. I got 5000 feet of #24 for $63.00. Of 
course, if you search you can find some killer deals (motor shops!!), but I 
was a beginner at the time and wanted a hassle-free company to deal me a 
spool of hassle-free magnet wire. You get what you pay for.

Take care everyone,

Justin Hays
KC5PNP
Email: pyrotrons-at-aol-dot-com
Webpage: www.hvguy-dot-com