Secondary Coil Problems

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

Original poster: "Terrence A. Moore by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <tmoore-at-erie-dot-net>

    Hello this is Nolan I have been working in 3 new tesla coils, a 6.65in
coil and a 4.5in coil.  I just finished my Mini coil the specs are Secondary
diameter 2.375 in by 12.75in wound with Awg 28 caped on each end and it was
baked, Primary flat coil made from solid Awg 6 ground wire 7.75 turns inside
diameter 4in spaced 0.25in apart, Toroid length is 9.5in and 3.375 height
made from flexible Al tubing wrapped 3 times in Al tape, Cap is 0.03uf rated
at 35kv,  Spark single static gap set at 0.17in, power supply is a 7.5Kv
60ma Franceformer.  Well my problem is that I was trying to find out were to
tap the primary and I thought that I had it taped at 5.34 turns and I was
getting multi streamer of the toroid about 3in long. I was getting some arc
over between the primary and secondary, so I made sure the cap was
discharged and the toroid, I began to unscrew the secondary to adjust the
coupling when I got nipped 3 or 4 times by energy left in the windings on
the secondary coil. It felt a little harder than when you run your hand over
a TV screen.  Then I decided tap the primary one whole turn, and the
streamers went from 3in to about 10in but I was still getting a little arc
over.  So I went to adjust the coupling and I kept getting nipped by the
secondary, so what I want to know is how to stop getting shocked by the
secondary coil? and how can I prevent arc over? and how do you figure out
the turns on a coil, do you count the first turn as one whole turn around or
what? What is the max spark length I should get out of this system? Also
were should I tap it at and any tips or suggestions that would help are
greatly appreciated.  Thank you very much!

Sincerely,
Nolan Moore