Sync gap test

[Esondrmn-at-xxxxxxx (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-xxxxxxxxxx>)]

Well, I fired up my new sync rotary gap last night on my 3.0" coil.  I did 
change the electrode gap spacing to .025".  It took me 20 to 30 minutes of 
trial and error to get the motor phase angle set correctly.  I basically set 
a safety gap to about .20" and connected it directly across the rotary.  Then 
adjusted the motor phase angle to find the highest setting on the variac 
(voltage to the neon transformers) without firing the safety gap.  This was 
also the place where the sync rotary fired the smoothest.  Then I opened up 
the safety gap to about .30" and am able to run at full power with only 
occasional firing of the safety gap.  The coil now makes much more noise than 
it did before with the static gap.  Very musical and steady.  This is the 
first sync rotary I have ever heard in operation.  My wife says "very grating 
on my nerves, your are driving me crazy".  This is me in the basement and her 
upstairs.

The overall performance of the coil, measured by maximum spark length, has 
not improved.  It was 26" before and last night I measured 25".  I did 
re-arrange some primary wiring and it might need to be re tuned.  I thought 
the performance might improve but was not sure.  This new sync gap is running 
4 electrodes at 3600 rpm for a break rate of 240 bps.  The coil is powered by 
two 12 kv 30 ma transformers in parallel.  26" spark length seems to be quite 
poor performance compared to other results I have read about on this list.  I 
do have a 3,000 ohm resistor in series with each transformer leg to protect 
the transformers.  I know I am giving up some performance there.  Tonight I 
will try increasing the primary tank capacitance from .0086 ufd to .0128 ufd 
which should put me right close to the resonance point for the 60 hz primary.

Ed Sonderman