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Nathan's Problems Continue...

Hello, all

It's been a bleak day in Nathan's existence...

But a bit better than before, relatively speaking.

I FINALLY got the sync rotary to work.  I was running the 15/60 on only 10nF 
capacitance, and got poor output, and so I stopped.  Then I realized how 
stupid that was. (not to stop, but to run it with that setup!)  I then put 
one of my rebuilt 15/30s on it, and got ok output, (still only 9", but ok 
for my coil, I guess). Gosh, I wish that would be terrible output for my 
coil.

Anyway, it ran pretty smoothly for about 10 seconds, and then blew out one 
of my NST secondaries.  Poop.

It probably served me right though, because I didn't have a protection 
circuit on the transformer.  I intend to build one soon, but a 1kOhm 250W 
resistor costs $15 plus 2.50 shipping from the east coast, because according 
to Norvac Electronics in Salem OR, resistors that big don't really exist 
over here in the pacific northwest...

And, furthermore, contrary to popular belief, I wasn't running on a 
one-poster NST before today. :) Thanks for asking, though. (It is a 
one-poster now, however...)

I don't really mean to get so cynical here, but I am getting rather 
discouraged.

I think one thing that will help is putting more turns on my secondary.  
Performance seems to increase linearly the more turns I tap on the primary.

For those of you who don't know, my present specs are: 15kV/30mA input, 10nF 
capacitance, 15 turn primary at 35.5 degrees with the inner turn at 10.5" 
diameter, 7" secondary with 712 turns of 20AWG wire.  Toroid is 7" drier 
duct in a 22" dia circle covered with foil tape.  Max sparks so far are 
about 8-9" to a grounded rod.  No air breakout yet, even with a needle stuck 
in the toroid.  Also, I have an RQSG and an SRSG, either, or both of which I 
can use.

One possible problem is that I measure about a kilo-ohm of resistance from 
the places on the toroid to the ground.  I have a good ground rod, and am 
using several lengths of 3/16" copper wire to connect to it.  It's 8 feet 
galvanized, and is connected also to a large chain link fence next door.  
Heh heh heh!  So i think I have a good ground.

What can I do, though, to get a better ground continuity to the toroid? I 
think the problem may be in the resistance from the glue backing of the foil 
tape.

Any more help from you guys is greatly appreciated.  I am really jealous of 
you people who run a 12/30 or 12/60 and get 25-60" of sparks!

AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHGHGHGH!

Thank you all very much for your input.

Best Regards,

Nathan Ball
         Tesla Coil      Grounded Rod
               \____    /      Me
               (____)-<|      /
                 II    |     O -"DARN! only 9 inches!!"
                 II    |    \|
               __II__  |     |
_______________|____|__|____/|_____
You Folks
          \
           O    O -"This is exactly what to do to get 45" of output!"
          \|/  \|/
           |    |
          / \  / \

   By Nathan :)

P.S. (You have all been so cheerfully helpful! What do I do next?? My 
problems now are a bit too specific to check the archives, I think.)

"I have no signature as of now."

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