Coil Frustration - Clarify

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

Original poster: "CJ Moore by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <wizard1234-at-home-dot-com>

Okay, I had a great deal of feedback from my original post, and it seems that
most everyone needed more information to make better suggestions. When I built
this I did it all in 2 nights (science project deadline) and so I didn't really
follow design programs or make plans. Some of the things I need to clarify:
 
Capacitors - 15 kv not 15000 kv (as stated) they are in series not parallel.
I got them for free, and I agree that they probably aren't very good for tesla
coil operation. 
 
Spark Gap - the one in the picture is not the one I use now, my current one is
just two scews pointed at each other, with a gap of about 1/4 of an inch. It is
not air cooled or vacumn pumped or anything else fancy. 
 
RF Chokes - I had read somewhere that they protected the input line as well as
the transformers, and when operating my first coil, some weird things would
happen in my house. ie: garage door open/close, lights turning off,
refrigerator stop working, etc. So with that in mind I made the chokes for this
coil and I haven't had any of my previous problems using them in this coil. 
 
Primary Coil - the tubing is spaced at 3/4 inch, and it actually is 3/4 inch
thick. I don't know why it doesn't look that way in the picture. I don't
actually have the top part of the coil (the primary) so I can't measure the
degree at which it rises, but its somewhere in the 20 degree range (i think)
 
Secondary Coil - I got the pipe for free from the water district (irigation
pipe), and I thought that everyone said wider was better. (Would it be better
to use a smaller diameter coil becuase of my miniscule power supply?)
 
Transformers - They were in parallel, however one of them shortcircuted or
something and now is internally arcing. (no longer works) So now my power
supply has been limited to 23 ma 10 kv.
 
I hope this clears some things up, and sorry for the lack of information in the
first email, it was late....
 
Thanks again . 
 
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