I could cry......

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

Original poster: "Christopher Boden by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <chrisboden-at-hotmail-dot-com>

During one of my brain dead moments I caused the largest Tesla related 
equipment damage in the Group's history this evening.

I was tinkering on that "Let's try it with no topload" thread (I know, I 
already said it was horsehockey, but I had to tinker, you know how it is) 
and fired the coil for LESS THAN 2 SECONDS and caused an immediate FIRECE 
(like a spark-gap type arc) from the inner primary turn to a point about 4" 
up the secondary.

Toast.

Autopsy reveals a pinhole sized black dot on the inside of the coilform, no 
interior carbon tracking (though there may be some under the windings on the 
outside).

Fortunately, I have 2 other secondaries, the downside is my bipolar coil 
setup just went out the window. The coil I killed was half of a matched set 
(EXACTLY matched, down to the fraction of a turn as they were wound on the 
same pipe at the same time from 2 coils). Time to start winding again, I 
need a 12" bipolar setup.

I immediately mounted the 6"X39" secondary, popped the bike wheel (32X3") 
toroid on, and got 3' (measured)whispy arcs to the ceiling with a 12/120 
supply.

What is the max I can expect for arc length with a 12/120? I got a feeling 
I'm TERRIBLY inefficiant right now.

Ok, total coil specs for tonights setup:
6X24, then a 6X39" secondary closewound with 22AWG and 12 coats of 
oven-dried shellac on a well prepped, baked and sanded form of green s/d 
PVC.

3 element static gap (Pics tomorrow on the site :) )
Dual 12/60 paralell NSTs
um....poo...Mark, what is one bank of the MMC rated at? I was using one of 
the small ones.
Our standard old control panel ('bout time to make a new one...hmmmm)
primary is .25 spaced at .25" and something like 15 turns I believe (though 
it's tapping REALLY short, like 4 or 5 turns (we used to be out at like 8 or 
9 with the SW caps).

Might be time to burn some buckets soon, hmmmm I haven't played with the 
bucket caps in MONTHS :) I wonder if they survived all the moves from 
storage and such.

Ok guys, here are the options for the secondary.

1, unwind it to the burn, trim it down, and pop a couple coats on. Use it as 
a shorter, fatter secondary, about 6X18".

2. COMPLETELY encase it in an epoxy hexagonal block (after unwinding it 
down) and try it out. I always wanted to try this, just for kicks. 
INCREDIBLY lossy, but it'd look cool.

3. It'd make a killer lamp for my office. Run a length of cunduit down the 
inside, make a cute fake primary base and a neon topload :)

Actually, I like that idea, lol....hmmmmm

btw, theoretically what would the optimum sized toroid be for this setup 
with the 39" coil?



Christopher A. Boden Geek#1
President / C.E.O. / Alpha Geek
The Geek Group
www.thegeekgroup-dot-org
Because the Geek shall inherit the Earth!




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