Re: Airtight Coil form

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <FutureT-at-aol-dot-com>

In a message dated 3/14/01 12:58:46 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:

> Hi all,
>  
>  My name is Mark and I'm beginning to get started into coiling.  I've been
>  reading lots from this list, and there is A LOT to read, and I've been
>  reading at tons of TC websites.  I haven't been able to find an answer to
>  the question of why does the coil form need to be airtight.  I thought it
>  might be due to internal arcing, but that didn't make sense since arcs can
>  still happen in a vacuum.  I figured this would be the best place to get an
>  answer from, since a majority of you are what I would consider experts.
>  Thanks!


Some folks have been plagued by internal arcs in the coil.  I have
never had this problem.  I leave the top and bottom of the form
open to the air.  You can look right down through the form and see
out the bottom.   I've pushed these forms to give sparks 2.6 X the
coil length at 120 bps, still no internal arcs, although I was starting to 
get racing sparks on the outside of the form at this point.

John Freau