drill press and RSG

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

Original poster: "Chris by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <chris-at-atomic-pc-dot-com>

hi all,

i've made my first RSG and just wanted to say that if you have the extra
money, get a drill press.
even a bench top model.  you won't regret it.  they are so great for
building the components of a
tesla coil or just about any other project you might make.  my RSG is made
of mostly wood, with 2
brass #8-32 machine screws as the rotary electrodes, epoxy glued to the hub
of a sunon 92 mm computer
fan. these are connected via a piece of bare copper wire twisted around
their bases.  the stationary
electrodes are made of carriage bolts.  i tried it tonight on my 3.5" dia.
coil and wow what a
difference.  it works very smoothly.

the fan is powered by 12 volts dc.  i vary the speed a little bit w/ a
25-ohm var. resistor.  i think
i'm getting about 3000 rpm, and therefore about 100 breaks per second w/ 2
electrodes.  that's just an
estimate of course.

i took one brass sphere off a cheap pair of fireplace andirons and used it
as my topload.  i tried
different tap points on my inverse conical primary.  the sweet spot was
within 1/4 turn either way.
we got the secondary to throw seething, swarming violet streamers 4" long
into the air off the brass
sphere, and with something grounded brought near the thing, we actually got
8" sparks! (exciting for
me, at this point!!)  we are using an OBIT to power the coil.  i have to
make a safety gap and some
rfc's next because i think i might be damaging the OBIT.

-Chris

a picture of the RSG is on its way, will let you know when it's ready.