Re: Coil Frustration

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

Original poster: "Gregory Hunter by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <ghunter31014-at-yahoo-dot-com>

I've got some ideas on this.  I think your capacitor
is too big.  Try .01uF and see what happens.  Of
course, you'll need more primary turns to tune the
smaller cap.  Also, I think your secondary is too big
for your power supply.  10KV at 46ma simply can't
excite such a big resonator.  I've noticed the same
effect when using NSTs to fire my 6" x 30" coil--the
sparks are kind of feeble, and the 4" x 24" coil
actually makes longer sparks with the same NST supply.
 To get big sparks out of my 6" system, I must use
more power.  Ditto with your toroid.  I think your
power supply is too weak to charge a big top load.  If
a top load is too big for a given power supply, spark
length suffers and it will have trouble breaking out.

What about your spark gap?  Are you blowing any air
through that thing?  Forced air gaps work about 10
times better than unimproved gaps.  Try a leaf blower
or the outlet hole of a shop vac and blow some air
thru your gap.  If the sparks get longer, it needs
some forced air to help it quench.

3/4" copper tube for the primary?  What's up with
that?  1/4" or 3/8" would be adequate up into the low
kilowatt range, and would allow you to fit more turns
in the same space.

A 9" x 26" secondary wound with 22AWG puts your Tesla
coil in the pole pig class.  If you had a raft of
NSTs, or a stack of 4 or 6 MOTs, or a pole pig, I bet
that thing would be a real spark monster.

Greg
http://hot-streamer-dot-com/greg

--- Tesla list <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com> wrote:
> Original poster: "CJ Moore by way of Terry Fritz
> <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <wizard1234-at-home-dot-com>
> 
> I am somewhat of an amateur builder. I have made 2
> coils. 1) was horribly
> pathetic and I won't even discuss it 
> however, the second was in my opinion a decent small
> coil.
>  
> Powersupply - 2x Ignition transformers 10 kv 23 ma
> (in parallel_
> Spark gap - series 4 bolts total gap of about .5
> inches
> Capacitor - 2x .02 uf 1500 kv
> Primary - 7 turns of 3/4 inch copper refrigerator
> tubing (rising pancake form)
> Secondary - 26 inches high 9 inch diameter wound
> with 22 gauge wire
> Toriod - Ventilation Duct (didn't work at all) just
> went with a copper
> terminal.
> 2 RF Chokes which were just pieces of pipe with
> about 200 turns of 22 gauge
> wire on them. 
>  
> With this system running, I would get a faint
> (really really faint) corona
> around the terminal, and if I put a grounded wire
> near it, maybe a 4 inch arc. 
>  
> I have seen other coilers pages and pictures and
> some people have built coils
> very similar to mine, but with much much better
> results, please tell me what I
> am doing wrong!
>  
> Here's a link to some pictures of my coil.
> I have made some modifications (but don't have
> pictures) This is my first spark
> gap, not the one I use now. Don't think the
> transformers are hooked up
> correctly. 
> Just for a general idea. 
>
<http://members.home-dot-net/fredmoore/>http://members.home-dot-net/fredmoore/
> 
> 
> 


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