Ryan's Coil is Working. :)

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

Original poster: "Ryan Ries by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <spud-at-wf-dot-net>

	Well finally all the hard work is starting to pay off.  I'm using four
MOTs in series/parallel to draw about 20 amps at 240 volts to the pig.  It
works almost flawlessly, and I can't see any of the typical "bucking" that
many people witness while using strictly inductive ballast.  The only
problem is that the MOTs get VERY hot after just a very short run.  Each
(1200w) MOT should only see about 10 amps in their current configuration,
but they're still smoking after 20 seconds.  I'm sure it has something to
do with them all not being the exact same power level. :-)  Two of them are
1200w, and the other two are 1000w and 1440w respectively, so those two in
series equal about the same as the two 1200's, so it all evens out.  The
funny thing is, that the 1000w unit is not the one that is getting the
hottest; it's the 1200w ones.
	Anyway, I got some pretty massive sparks at 4.8kW.  It seems that pole pig
power is much more sensitive to tuning than NST power.  I went from getting
4" sparks from the TC to getting 4' sparks just by moving the primary tap 1
TURN! :)  Anyway, after all the tuning was done, I got about 6 foot
discharges to grounded objects, and several strikes to the primary.  Not
quite as long of discharges as we would have hoped for that power level,
but I think it's pretty good considering the circumstances.  (poor
capacitors, poor spark gap, etc. )  I'll have to do something about that...
	We were using an alligator clip as the adjustable tap from the capacitor
bank to the primary coil.  The pole pig incenerated the clip after a couple
runs.  I'll have to find something else for that too.
	Here's the thing that bakes my noodle all the time: Our capacitors.  These
are the MMC capacitors we got off of someone on this very list; 100 pieces
for $20.  They are .21µf -at- 600 VAC.  We have 3 strings of 18 capacitors. 
Think about that...  The MMC is severely underrated, and with pole pig
power in Tesla coil service!!!  These babies never even get warm!  That
boggles my mind, considering that these are probably some mediocre
polyester caps anyway.  We've been using them in that configuration for a
few months now, and not a single cap has even blown.  Lucky us. :)  
	What's a good way to stop the arcing to the primary?

	-- Ryan Ries

PS - Much thanks to Scot D for helping me out big time with the inductive
ballasting!