Re: NO VARIAC USE FOR TUNING?

• To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
• Subject: Re: NO VARIAC USE FOR TUNING?
• From: "Jim Lux" <jimlux-at-jpl.nasa.gov> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)
• Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2000 11:02:12 -0700
• Approved: twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net
• Delivered-To: fixup-tesla-at-pupman-dot-com-at-fixme

> Hi Matt,
> 
> 	Tunning Tesla coils without a variac can be done but it is kind of risky
> and nerve rattling.  If something goes wrong, the full power can damage
> stuff.  Although, a 9/30 coil is not as bad as larger coils.

I'll second the notion of nerve wracking.. But, with a bit of care, nothing
disastrous will happen.

> 
> Perhaps you could put a 200 watt lightbulb in series with the AC input to
> sort of act like a ballast to reduce the power during tuning.  I have
never
> done this, but it may work unless the other list members know something I
> don't.

The lightbulb in series works just fine... What I do is mount a regular old
porcelain socket, and have a supply of bulbs starting at 25 W on up to
100W.  If it doesn't work at 100W, there is no point in going to the
trouble of getting a 200W bulb (you could also run bulbs in parallel). 
Perhaps one of those bathroom fixtures with multiple sockets might be
handy.

The only real problem is the difference between hot and cold resistance, so
what I do is put a small load on the line side of a switch between the
"light bulb current limiter"  and the transformer..  This helps get the
filaments at least warm (I go for a barely visible orange), before you
"throw the switch"..

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