First decent light with small disruptive TC

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Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <Hhchicken1-at-aol-dot-com>

Hi list! 
Thanks to everyone who's helped me with answers to all the stupids questions 
I could think of :) Last night I had first proper light with my first TC!  
The secondary is 3.2 inches wide and wound 14 inches with .315mm magnet wire 
(about 900 turns I think).  It isn't coated at all.  The topload is a large 
brass bedknob, about 3.5 inches in diameter.  Power is a pair of MOTs with 
voltage doublers (probably a bit OTT but I can't seem to get an NST in 
England), and the SG is a single static gap of about 1/6 of an inch.  After a 
few minutes running the SG begins to power-arc and the diodes in the voltage 
doubler get hot, but nothing's blown yet. 
The capacitor was originally four wine bottle SW caps, wrapped in Al. foil, 
which gave about .5 inch arcs.  Now Mike Tucknott had given me some very 
cheap MMC capacitors and with 3 strings of 12 for a .017uF LTR (each cap is 
.068uF, 1.6kV), I can get 7 inch arcs to a grounded rod, but no breakout 
without a nail on top. 
This is all with it way out of tune, the trouble is the primary is way too 
close being a cylindrical primary wrapped around a bit of drainpipe that 
slides over the secondary with about 1/2 of an inch to spare.  If I tune it 
any more, arcs form from 1/4 way up the secondary, over 7 inches of PVC 
drainpipe to the primary.  Even with it way out of tune, there is massive 
corona going through this thick-walled pipe.  I have some more copper pipe 
available so I'm going to make a flat primary over the weekend.  Luckily the 
primary-secondary strikes leave the secondary completely unharmed - perhaps 
as a result of not coating it? 
Still, it makes a 13-year old first time coiler pretty happy for a first try 
:) 
Thanks everybody, 
Henry Hallam