RE: building primaries

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

Original poster: "Peter Lawrence by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Peter.Lawrence-at-Sun-dot-com>

Ted,
    your big mistake was nailing your HDPE forms onto the base before 
threading the copper through them.

1. bend the copper tubing into the spiral shape first, then
2. thread the HDPE spacers onto the spiral, then
3. mount the HDPE spacers onto the base board.

I've made about 10 primaries this way with everything from #14 wire to 1/4"
tubing. This method works.


-Peter Lawrence.



>
>Original poster: "Ted Rosenberg by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" 
<Ted.Rosenberg-at-radioshack-dot-com>
>
>Hi RQ:
>Of all the operations I did in constructing my 900W coil (using a 15/60 NST)
>the worst was making the primary. I reviewed many techniques.
>Those techniqes basically came down to those who drill holes in HDPE and
>thread the copper tubing through or thoses who make holes/slots in the HDPE
>and insert the loops from above then secure the loops using anything from
>nylon tie downs to nylon machine screws and such.
>I found the threading to be more esthetically pleasing and so I brought the
>precut strips of HDPE I cut at home to the office where I used the company's
>drill press to make the 5/16 diam holes (always slightly larger) in the
>correct sequence (available from a post from last year). Then I took them
>home and mounted the strips radially on my "primary platform using nylon
>screws."
>
>My primary was to be about 16 turns of 1/4 regrig tubing going from 7.5 inch
>diam out to about 21 inch.
>
>I began threading from the outside to the inside which I was told is
>preferred.
>
>The first 4-5 loops were easy.
>The 6th was slightly more difficult. By the 8th turn I was sweating like a
>mop and cursing like a sailor in a Popeye cartoon.
>By the 15th loop I had 2 blisters.
>But I finished.
>
>The photo of early in the process can be seen aat:
>
>http://www.flash-dot-net/~ford29/tesla/primary.jpg
>
>
>This is the one part of building another coil which has me hesitating.
>
>I hope my comments haven't scared you away. I'm still glad I opted to
>thread.
>And the coil works great!
>
>Safety First
>
>Ted
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
>Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2001 10:15 PM
>To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>Subject: building primaries
>
>
>Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
><RQBauzon-at-aol-dot-com>
>
>when trying to make a primary coil, i find it very hard to manipulate the 
>copper tubing into the perfect flat primaries that some other coilers have 
>without denting it or without having some akward spiral as the result.   how
>
>do you guys do that??!
>
>
>
>