Re: PVC Wire for a secondary?

["Edward Wingate" <ewing7-at-rochester.rr-dot-com> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

"John H. Couture" wrote:
> 
> Ed -
> 
> You have me wondering about your coils. If it isn't the magnet wire
> insulation that makes your coils perform better than average then you must
> be holding out on us coilers. What is your secret that produces those great
> coils? I know one of them is superior craftsmanship. What are the other
> secrets?
> 
> John C.

John,

It's Pixy dust!

There is no one secret that will suddenly increase the output of a coil
by a factor two or three or any amount, for that matter. It is a
synergism or working together of ALL the separate components of a system
that separates the so-so coils from the butt-kicking ones, and any
experienced coil builder knows this. If I've said this once, I've said
it a dozen times, the only way to become an experienced coil builder
with this grasp of synergism is to actually build coils with real
hardware! You can't do it sitting at a keyboard working only with models
of Tesla coils. This is not to take anything away from the guys out
there who do BOTH the actual building and the computer modeling! If you
do both, all the better! I feel that this is the way to gain real insite
into the complex internal interactions of the simple looking device we
call the Tesla Coil.

I recommend reading pages A-22 and A-23 in Richard Hull's excellent book
"The Tesla Coil Builder's Guide to the Colorado Springs Notes of Nikola
Tesla" concerning "Synergism-Harmony" in the building of Tesla coils.
Richard says it much more elequently than I ever could and is right on
the mark with his statements.

Ed Wingate RATCB


> > Original Poster: "John H. Couture" <couturejh-at-worldnet.att-dot-net>
> >
> > Ed, Malcolm, All -
> >
> > My remarks were in regards to the typical magnet wire with 1 mil ordinary
> > enamel insulation that is normally used by coilers for small coils. I
> > understand that you and Hull used the more expensive magnet wire with
> > thicker enamel insulation of higher quality. This magnet wire would have
> > less losses similar to PVC.
> >
> > When I was developing the JHCTES Ver 2.3 TC computer program I realized
> that
> > a parameter that would indicate the voltage stress between the secondary
> > wire turns would be valuable information to the designer and would remove
> > some of the randomness and error of the Tesla coil design. There are
> several
> > ways this stress can be represented in a computer program and I choose a
> > "volts per turn" parameter.
> >
> > To my knowledge no one has ever given a recommended secondary wire
> > "insulation requirements" for a certain design of Tesla coil except as
> shown
> > by the JHCTES program. The usual wire tables do not give this type of
> > information for a particular Tesla coil because this parameter is
> dependent
> > on many variables that a computer program would have to coordinate.
> 
> John,
> 
> Richard Hull used any magnet wire he had on hand to wind secondary coils
> and none of it that I'm aware of was anything special!
> 
> I also buy anything that's readily available in the way of magnet wire.
> I don't hunt around for anything special.
> 
> The magnet wire I am currently using on my magnifier extra coil measures
> .043" with the enamel and .040" bare which gives a total insulation
> thickness of .0015". If, as you say, "normal" magnet wire enamel
> insulation thickness (I have never heard of this) is 1 mil or .001" then
> I'm not so sure the extra .0005" (5 TEN THOUSANTHS) of an inch of
> insulation is what's preventing my extra coil from self destructing by
> insulation breakdown. This extra coil has a total run time of 15 hours
> on it! "Less losses, similar to PVC", from an extra .0005" of insulation
> doesn't really seem logical to me either.
> 
> Ed Wingate RATCB