Secondary preparation and capping

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

Original poster: "Patrick Bloofon by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <transactoid-at-home-dot-com>

I am currently in the process of building my first coil. What I'm wonder is
how necessary is it to sand down the secondary before winding it? My PVC has
been sitting in my basement for a few years, so it's good and dry.  If I
just cover it in a layer of polyurathane, do I *really* need to sand out
every little bump, and the letters (which are red, not black)? This just
seems like a lot of extra work, and I don't see how it would make that much
of a difference.

Secondly, does it make any difference where the caps (as in the plugs) for
the secondary are placed? I don't have access to the tools necessary to make
nice round circles to plug the ends with, so would just sticking PVC endcaps
on be acceptable?

Thanks,
"Steadily getting more excited about completing his first coil"
Patrick.