Re: PVC Wire for a secondary?

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

Tesla List wrote:

> Original Poster: "John H. Couture" <couturejh-at-worldnet.att-dot-net>

John,

Would you please explain the wire insulation requirements? How large is a large
coil?

Richard Hull used tightwound magnet wire on the secondary of his Nemesis coil
and it produced 16 foot arcs. My current magnifier extra coil uses #18 magnet
wire tightwound on a 15" diameter X 35" long form and will produce 14 foot
arcs. To my knowledge, Nemesis never experienced turn to turn insulation
failure and I know for a fact that my magnifier extra coil never has
experienced turn to turn insulation failure.

I have also used both PVC insulated wire and magnet wire on both small and
large coils, with a large number of turns and a small number of turns with no
turn to turn insulation breakdown, IF the systems were tuned properly, and I
never spacewind magnet wire!

Safe coiling,

Ed Wingate RATCB

>
>
> All -
>
> I believe this coil was so successful in spite of the low number of
> secondary turns was because of the superior PVC insulation (thickness)
> compared to the usual magnet wire. The output(spark)  of a Tesla coil is
> equal to the input minus the losses. The losses of the PVC were obviously
> low compared to the usual magnet wire.
>
> The JHCTES Ver 2.3 program pointed this out by showing a recommended
> insulation thickness in the outputs based on the estimated secondary volts.
> The practice for coilers has been to use magnet wire and a lot of secondary
> turns. This works for small coils where the voltages are relatively low.
> However, for large coils the secondary voltages are much higher which
> requires more insulation.
>
> John C.

> ----------------------------
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tesla List [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
> Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2000 9:34 PM
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject: Re: PVC Wire for a secondary?
>
> Original Poster: "D&M's High Voltage" <dmshv.davmckin-at-gte-dot-net>
>
> David,
>
> I've used 3 KV PVC insulated wire for a secondary for a big coil
> that I built about 10 years ago.  It was a 20" dia. x 45" winding
> length (about 50" for the overall form).  It was 14 Ga. stranded
> and had a total of 262 turns.  This may break all the rules (very
> high Q, few turns, high primary currents, and a 7/8" thick very
> heavy secondary form that was PAINTED BLACK) but it
> produced solid 12 foot sparks.  It had 5 acrylic disks down
>
> ---------------  snip