Re: first coil help

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

Original poster: "Hans Scholze by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <hanscs-at-eagle.ptialaska-dot-net>

Having been throught the same kind of frusteration with my coils, I can
sympathize.

> Original poster: "James Mathisrud by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jrmathis-at-pressenter-dot-com>
>
>
> ok, well my coil is getting more powerful, but im still not getting
> breakout, here are my coil specs
>
> Tank circuit
> power    1- 15kv 30ma nst
> gap         1 gap 2 1.5in brass electrodes quenched with 30psi set at 3/8
> in wide
> cap         7 saltwater beer bottle caps filled with about 10 oz. ea
> s gap      3 1/4in carrage bolts
> chokes   2  2in pvc pipes wound with #28 wire about 7 in long ea.

I think these chokes could be a problem.  The concensus now seem to be that
chokes are bad - use RC filters.  Seven inchs of #28 wire wound on 2" pipe
far more that normally used on chokes (I belive)  Lots of resistance and
inductance, which could be hurting performance.

> primary   16 turn helical primary 1/4 in dia. spaced 1/4 in ea. inner turn
8 in
>                 at 45deg angle tapped at 12th turn
> secondary-4.5 in pvc pipe wound with #22 about 21.5 in.long roughly 800
turns
> discharge terminal- tennis ball covered in Al duct tape

You probably need a bigger topload.  For less that $10 you can get some 4"
Al duct and two pie pans to make a quite nice one.

> ground 2-4foot copper clad rods
> im also using a 600 watt dimmer to run the transformer

Have you tried running without the dimmer? Maybe it is causing problems.  I
have never used and kind of power control other than a switch on my coils,
so you should be fine as long as you keep your safety gap properly adjusted.

> so far im able to draw off about 2-3 in sparks, but im not getting any
> breakout. im starting to think that
> maybe i need more nst's because my system might be too big for the one i
> have also, i hope this isn't the

I think your NST should be sufficient.  My coil is about the same size and
uses two OBITs in parallel, 10kV at 23mA each.  I get about 2-3" of sparks
even though its all "temporarily" wired together with alligatior clips and
has a really poor spark gap.

> problem, but maybe my primary it at too great of an angle. hope this helps
>
> thanks for everyones contributions, you have all been very helpful so far
> and i look forward to getting
> this thing working one of these days.
> Ryan
>

Hans