Re: Grounding a NST

["Albert Hassick" <uncadoc-at-xxxxxxxx> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-xxxxxxxxxx>)]

Hi Stan.   It is best to have the system properly grounded.  It will
protect you and your house wiring in the event of a fault/short to
ground.  'Disclaimer. This is what I use but I am claiming no
responsibility for harm or calamity to any others that do this.'    
O.K.., now, the main 120volt AC feed is a 10-3 SO cable, feed by a 30 amp
dedicated 120 volt A.C. line.  The black hot wire goes directly to a
'horn gap' which is then connected to the cable ground. This dumps any
catastrophic current failure back to your panelboard earth ground through
the green ground return wire. The 30 amp emf filters(two in parallel) are
reverse wired and also attached to the line ground.  The neons get only
the hot(black) and neutral(white) from the line cable.   The black hot
wire also goes through a reactor wound with 18ga. teflon coated wire, and
consists of four separate windings layered upon a 2"cpvc pipe form 8"
long before it gets attached to the neon supply terminal.  Most times, I
jumper out the reactor for max spark, but it serves well to power up a
new system slowly.  The neon cases, or if unpotted as I have, then the
laminations are connected to a #10 green coated stranded wire with heavy
crimp lugs which then attach to the base of the secondary coil and to the
base of the two bottle caps that are used to dump any damaging high
frequency 'dirt' from the tank circuit to earth to protect the neon
windings. The neon cases and the secondary base and its protective caps
are then routed to a separate dedicated 'Tesla' ground, which in my case
is a length of 1/4" refrigeration copper tube that is routed outdoors
into the backyard away from the house main electrical ground and is
attached to a 10' piece of 1/2" type 'k' hard copper tube which was
driven into the ground near a natural year-round flowing spring. Your
cable size can be smaller, say 14ga. and a 15 amp grounded house line
will be more than adequate for your NST.  Also, I ran my first small
coils with the 'Tesla' grounds attached to the cold water pipe where it
enters the house (before the meter) and it worked very well.  Hope this
helps.  AL.

On Fri, 10 Nov 2000 17:28:57 -0700 "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
writes:
> Original poster: stanmoore-at-mindspring-dot-com 
> 
> I have started rounding up parts for a small tesla coil. I have 
> obtained a
> 15,000v/30ma Allanson NST.  Should the 110VAC primary have a ground? 
>  In other
> words, do I connect with two wires, or three with the third grounded 
> to the NST
> case?
>  
> Thanks,
>  
> Stan
> 
> 
>