RE: First light for an old coiler

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

Original poster: "Stolz, Mark by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Mark.Stolz-at-st-systems-dot-com>

Dave, All,

>Original poster: "Dave Kyle by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" 
><dave-at-kyleusa-dot-com>
>

<snip>

>As I mentioned I had planned for a smaller coil and had already purchased
>1600 feet of 24 gauge wire so I figured it would be good practice to wind a
>"bring up" secondary to test the winding jig I built and allow for some low
>power testing. The winder worked great but regrettably the 24 gauge wire
>only yielded a 16 inch high, 6 inch secondary (I am now thinking I was
>shorted on that wire order) which is way too short for anything but very 
>low
>power testing.
>

Not true.  I drove my 2.5" x 12" secondary with 15/120 worth of NST no
problem.  It didn't die until I started driving it with a 12/300+
transformer.  That was a bit much for the 32 AWG wire.


>My brother just finished machining the G3 SRSG disk for me and it is "in 
>the
>mail" so at the moment I an operating with a simple static gap. I also have
>a temporary Earth ground driven about 4 feet in very wet ground (I am built
>on bedrock so my ground rod will have to be driven horizontally) and tested
>to be within about 3 ohms of the house ground.
>
>Having carefully wired everything up for this test configuration I was
>delighted to see 10 to 12 inch power arcs to a grounded object at just over
>half power on my Variac. In the absence of a nearby grounded object to
>strike I experience numerous hits to the strike ring and even on occasion
>the primary. There was also considerable corona and arcing across the
>surface of the secondary. As I indicated I expected some issues with such a
>short coil. Still it was cool that with no tuning and at very low power the
>components seem up to the challenge.
>

Racing arcs like this are usually a sign of over coupling.  Raise the
secondary a little at a time until they stop.

>I expect the new larger 36 inch secondary will be completed by next weekend
>along with the SRSG. This will undoubtedly take things to a new level of
>power and I will be sure to get some pictures on my website for you. I am
>hopeful with the larger secondary many of these issues will resolve
>themselves. Your comments regarding potential control of the secondary
>arcing would be most welcome.
>
>Regards,
>Dave
>
>Note: I did find my garage door controller to be completely locked up after
>testing. Fortunately when I cycled power it came back to life. I suspect 
>the
>proximity to the discharges were not to its liking. In future I intend to
>unplug it while testing.
>

Had this problem too.  Unplugging it before running the coil stopped this
problem.

>
>
>=========================================
>Dave Kyle
>Austin, TX USA
>Email: dave-at-kyleusa-dot-com
>

Mark Stolz
G-2 #1049
Houston, TX