Re: well sounds good but where do i start.

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

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

>Original poster: "suck Duck by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" 
><sick_ace-at-hotmail-dot-com>

Not sure how I should take that one.......(my nickname is Duck).
Try using your real name, everyone else here does.

>
>well.... here is the deal i got realy intrested in tesla coils.

You're in good company then. People here range from casual tinkerers that 
don't touch their coils for months at a time, through the spectrum to 
fanatics that literally build most of their parts from scratch (like the 
power supply transformer, caps, motors, etc). Some of these parts require 
immence patience and considerable skill to create. To the very few people in 
the world who make their living as professional coilers. They are all here, 
to teach and learn.

Myself, I head a science and technology education Group called The Geek 
Group. Many members of the Group are also members of this list 
(http://www.thegeekgroup-dot-org/members.htm) including it's moderator. When you 
choose your caps it is quite likely that if you go the Saltwater route you 
would use the Group's design. And if you choose the MMC route (a more 
powerful, efficent, but expensive solution) you will find the Group to be 
the world's leading supplier of caps. :) There are a few hundred people here 
who have forgotten more about capacitor design that you and I will ever 
know, so believe them, even if some of the things they say sound incredibly 
complicated or don't make any kind of sense. In time, things will click 
together. It took me years of asking incredibly dumb questions to get to 
where I am today. And I know about .00001% of what I need to know about 
coiling.

>but unfortunatly most of the articals and web sites i put may hands on.
>are way to professional.

www.hot-streamer-dot-com
www.thegeekgroup-dot-org
Both are good starting points. The Group's website is written primarily by 
me so I stay as non-technical as possible. You won't find complicated 
formulae there, because I'm not that smart. :)


>i can't understand half of the stuff written

I've been doing this for several years now, I have 8 coils sitting in the 
lab, and neither do I. Just read EVERYTHING and you'll learn what you need 
to. There are sooooo many different aspects of coiling that it will take you 
a lifetime to master them all. People like Jim Lux can write pages and pages 
on how the fields between and around a pair of electrodes will affect a 
spark jumping between them. Terry has spent countless evenings absorbed into 
minute details of measureing (and destroying :) ) capacitors to study how 
they will work in MMC use. The Pupman list is here to bring these people 
together to share that so that we can all learn.


plus
>i never had plans to building a simple tesla coil.

Well, it's kind of a "What do you WANT" thing. Plans exist, there are 
listees who have written books on them. Most people set a basic goal, like 
they want 12" arcs (or 12' arcs), or they want a coil that can run on 120V 
at 20A (so they can use it in the house) etc. A coil is a huge assortment of 
simple machines that ALL have to work in a delicate balance. The size of one 
component will dictate the abilities and sizing of several others. I started 
with a goal of arc length (5') and ended up with a 6" secondary based coil. 
That coil reached (and WELL surpassed) it's goal and I have gone on to 
bigger and better ones. While the Group currently already has several coils 
ranging from 4" tabletops up to the mammoth 15" Haruka coil (with a 
secondary that weighs over 200Lbs alone!), we are currently well into 
construction of coils as large as 23"dia and have future plans for a pair of 
coils that will tower over 100' tall (The Avalon Coil, currently a thought 
experiment). BTW, the largest coils to date are the 13M, ( a disruptive AC 
Mag coil) and Electrum ( a DC coil built as sculpture). Both have websites 
with notes and pics.


so i had to scavenge.
>and here is what i need.
>
>i built a 13" secondary coil and about 7" primary coil.

What is the Dia of the secondary? I'm guessing about 4"?

>now how do i know what suplyer what capasitor to use.

For beginning, make a simple Geek Group Bucket Cap 
(http://www.thegeekgroup-dot-org/how%20to/bucket%20caps.html) it's cheap, 
reliable and easy to build. In the future you will want an MMC.

>and how to build a suitabul spark gap.

Well..get a pair of jumper cables and hold your fingers about 3/4" 
apart......

The current state of the art in Gaps is easily the MEM Triggered Gap. It's 
simple to construct, rock reliable, and not prone to violent, catastrophic, 
schrapnel-throwing self destruction (like rotary gaps can be). Notes, pics, 
and construction details are abundant in the archives.


>i would love if any body answers my email.

I would love it if you use a different name....... ;)



duck




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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