Re: primary tap construction

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

Original poster: "albert hassick by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <uncadoc-at-juno-dot-com>

Hi Bill,  I use an alligator clip to tune my 3/8" primary tank.  A 18ga.
copper stranded wire is used as the connection medium, it is a 40kv max.
white jacketed silicone coated cable and is very supple and easy to work
with.  I got this wire from Surplus Sales of Nebraska.  This works great
for my triple modified 15/60 neon bank.  The alligator clip was taken
from a heavy duty test clip that I got from Radio Shack  I brought a bag
of their best prewired test clip wire sets for about $7.00 and sacrificed
one of the six leads in the bag to get a useable primary clip.  These
test leads do not look like an ordinary straight alligator clip, they are
rather wider and have an offset jaw that will clamp beautifully around a
copper tube primary without fear of the clip slipping away from the
tubing.  They look more like the jaw of a T-Rex!  With all the teeth up
front. Al.

On Fri, 11 May 2001 08:05:41 -0600 "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
writes:
> Original poster: "Bill Vanyo by way of Terry Fritz 
> <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <vanyo-at-echoes-dot-net>
> 
> I can't seem to figure out a way to build a good solid primary tap
> connection that isn't so bulky as to nearly short the 1/4" gap 
> between
> turns.  How heavy does the tap need to be?  It seems silly (to my
> limited intuition - this is my first coil) to have some skimpy clip
> device on such a heavy coil (1/4" tubing).  Also, how heavy should 
> the
> wire that leads to the tap be?  If possible, would it be OK to just 
> use
> 1/4" copper tubing for the whole circuit, i.e. primary to cap, cap 
> to
> spark gap, and spark gap to primary tap, all the same 1/4" tubing?
> 
> 
>         Thanks,
>         Bill
> 
> 
> 
> 
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