RE: Strike Rail Yes? No?

["Richard Barton" <richardbarton-at-caving5.freeserve.co.uk> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

Hi there
	I have used a similar system with success in the past.
I also inserted a thin-walled acrylic tube over the secondary when
it began to develop hot-spots halfway down, with white sparks,
and a big corona band going across to the primary. Very occasionally
it would arc across. It was a very tightly coupled coil, with a close-
proximity between Primary and Secondary. This helped a bit to dampen
down the leakage. I later improved it further by wrapping a rubber car
mat around the secondary (it went round two and a bit times), securing
it tightly with plastic loom ties. This stopped all arcing and corona
between
the secondary windings and the primary..... looked ugly though.
						Richard Barton

-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Saturday, July 29, 2000 7:16 PM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Strike Rail Yes? No?


Original poster: "D&M's High Voltage" <dmshv.davmckin-at-gte-dot-net>

Greg, List:

Although I never have recommended using a strike rail, I
have had EXTREMELY good success using an acrylic sheet
that covers the entire primary.  This serves two purposes.
First, it keeps the arcs from hitting the primary to begin with.
When the arcs hit the acrylic, they just spread out in a circle.
Really interesting effect (same effect lightning has during a
ground stroke when it branches out).  Second, and the
main benefit altogether, is that the sparks quit seeing the
primary as a ground plane altogether.  The sparks just
randomly travel around into the air or arc to the actual
ground around the unit itself (not the primary).  Using the
acrylic sheet over the primary has also allowed me to easily
hit spark lengths of 3 1/2 times the secondary length (along
with several acrylic disks down the middle of the secondary),
since the primary actually attracts the sparks (and limits
their length) before the acrylic sheet is put  on.  We have
some pictures of our coils on our website in both the
Florida mini-Teslathon and the large coil pictures section.
You can even see the acrylic sheet covering the primary on
the pictures of our small T.C. shown in the T.C. kit pictures
section.
To see them go to any of the coil pictures sections at:
http://home-dot-netcom-dot-com/~davmckin/DMsIndex.htm
Hope this helps.

David L. McKinnon
D&M's High Voltage


> Original poster: "Gregory R. Hunter" <ghunter-at-accucomm-dot-net>
>
> Fellow Coilers,
>
> What's the latest wisdom on strike rails?  Are they needed or not?  I'm
> asking because I have just begun work on my all new 6" x 30" Tesla coil,
> and I'm trying to decide if I need a strike rail or not.  I remember some
> postings awhile back suggesting that strike rails were old hat and no
> longer required.  This will be a "generic" coil of conventional design for
> use with various power supplies ranging from 1600VA of NSTs on up to 4 or
> 5KVA of pole xfmer input.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Greg Hunter
> www.angelfire-dot-com/ga3/tesla