Re: My Primary Coil disaster

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

Original poster: "Steve White by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <slwhite-at-zeus.ia-dot-net>

I used this method to make my very first primary and it came out perfect. My
primary is rather large (12" ID and about 36" OD) and it uses 3/8" copper
tubing.

Steve

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Saturday, November 24, 2001 8:05 PM
Subject: Re: My Primary Coil disaster


> Original poster: "S & J Young by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<youngs-at-konnections-dot-net>
>
> Patrick,
>
> One secret to making nice primaries is to avoid feeding the tubing through
> holes in the first place.  I recommend you remove your tubing from your
> supports.  Then carefully saw off the tops of your supports, cutting
through
> the top part of your holes.  The idea is to end up with partial holes with
> the top part opening just slightly more narrow than your tubing diameter.
> Then one simply snaps the tubing into the partial holes - no muss, no fuss
&
> no cuss!
>
> Some just lay the tubing on their insulating supports and secure the
tubing
> in place with lots of tie-wraps.  See the recently posted picture of
Bart's
> coil primary for example.
>
> Your tubing may now be partially work hardened and will be difficult to
> salvage.  You can straighten it again by clamping one end in a very secure
> vise and pulling the other end with a come-along or some sort of long
lever
> to just slightly stretch the tubing.  It will straighten nicely, but it
will
> be less flexible.  But perhaps you could still get it to snap into your
> primary supports OK.
>
> Or, chalk up the first try to lessons learned & buy a new roll of tubing.
> --Steve
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> Sent: Saturday, November 24, 2001 11:54 AM
> Subject: My Primary Coil disaster
>
>
> > Original poster: "Patrick Bloofon by way of Terry Fritz
> <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <transactoid-at-home-dot-com>
> >
> > Okay, this whole tesla coil thing has not been going my way. First, the
> wire
> > breaks while winding the secondary (perhaps you've seen my post...).
Now,
> my
> > primary coil is all but an expensive hunk of copper.
> >
> > I cut out and drilled 5 really nice offsets. I mounted them onto a
> surface, and
> > began feeding 1/4" copper tube through it, starting from the outside.
> After
> > about 5 loops, the tubing was so bent, twisted, and demented out of
shape
> I
> > couldn't go any further.  Loops were overlapping and the tube was flexed
> in
> > multiple planes (ie, bent side to side as well as up and down...). I'll
> try to
> > get some pictures up so you can see this mess.
> >
> > What I'd like to know is:
> >
> > -Are there any good ways to re-bend or straigten the copper tubing when
it
> is
> > in such a state? (ie, is this thing salvagable)
> >
> > -Seeing as my method of winding failed miserably, I'm guessing it's not
> how
> > others do it. What is the "proper" way to wind it?
> >
> > PS. This copper tube is extremely expensive where I live. The cheapest I
> found
> > was $30 for 50 feet.  Home Depot doesn't even carry it around here.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > "A very frustrated coiler",
> > Patrick
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>