Re: NEW IDEAS FOR A PRIMARY

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Nathan Morris by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <themfam-at-home-dot-com>

All,
Just a quick note on the copper ribbon.  I was in Chicago a couple months
ago and got to visit their museum of science.  Had a small Tesla Coil
(Secondary had a diameter of about 2 feet and the whole thing stood about
7.5 feet tall.) made by Tesla himself.  The first thing I noticed about it
was that the primary was made out copper ribbon.  The way it was
wound\rolled was even more interesting.  The spacing between turns looked
perfect.  Some type of flexible insulating material was rolled up with the
copper ribbon.  I assume the whole primary was wound\ rolled up on a large
form this way.  The primary tap and cable were ran under the primary and it
was difficult to view from the outside of the museum's glass box.

Still waiting on my unused Russian Military HV caps to arrive.  I informed
the seller in Lithuania that they had not made it yet and that I was running
out of patients.  He refunded my money and double shipped the caps.  I still
have to wait two weeks which is gonna suck because the weather is getting
nice and soon it will be very hot in my garrage.

--Nate
----- Original Message -----
From: Tesla list <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2001 7:18 PM
Subject: Re: NEW IDEAS FOR A PRIMARY


> Original poster: "BunnyKiller by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>"
<bigfoo39-at-telocity-dot-com>
>
> Tesla list wrote:
>
> > Original poster: "Lau, Gary by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>"
> <Gary.Lau-at-compaq-dot-com>
> >
> > Primaries would with copper ribbon are uncommon but not unheard-of.  The
> > main problem is in finding the copper ribbon.  Be sure that the material
> > you saw at your steel shop (?) is in fact copper, and not brass, bronze,
> > or brass-plated steel.  If you do in fact have a source for 1.5" wide
> > copper ribbon, please share it with the list as there are many others
> > that would be interested in this.  But I can't believe that copper
> > ribbon can be cheaper than 1/4" copper tubing.
> >
> > Calculating the inductance of a ribbon primary is no different than if a
> > normal wire of the same diameter as the ribbon-thickness was wound in a
> > flat spiral.  Wintesla will do a fine job.
> >
> > Gary Lau
> > Waltham, MA USA
> >
>
> snipperzz...
>
> I found a way to make ( actually designed and built ) a tube masher that
> converts 1/2 Cu tubing
> into .85" wide Cu ribbon. It worked rather well for most of the length of
> the tubing. There was
> some trial and error ( getting used to how I fed it into the masher) to
> produce a flat ribbon that
> didnt curve in either direction.
>
> It consists of 2 rollers ( 1 stainless steel the other Al. ) which are
1.5"
> dia set into a block
> of aluminum ( each roller is geared to roll at the same rate) the S.S.
> roller has a width of
> material removed from it to keep the tubing "in place" as it is being
> mashed. Ribbon thickness
> ends up being about .09" thick.
>
> Ill put pictures on my web site in a couple of days...
>
> now i need to find some lexan to mount the ribbon in ... plexiglass is
> toooo brittle to hold this
> stuff. there seems to be some "work hardening " of the Cu which creates a
> springyness to the Cu.
>
> more later
>
>
> Scot D
>
>
>
>
>