Re: 1st Tesla Coil

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

Original poster: "cd by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <vbprg1-at-hotmail-dot-com>

Build a sucker gap
it is fairly simple and Ive gotten good results from mine...
thats if you call 2-3 foot bolts from 12000v60ma and salt water caps good
some pictures of mine are at
http://home.earthlink-dot-net/~cdowdy2/

It seems a decent solution. Much better than a static gap, not as nice as a
rotary gap. The only potential problem I believe is what the experts call
over-quenching. Ill try to explain.
The spark gap acts as a Very fast switch... switching the currents diretion
back and forth through the primary. That may be occuring to rapidly with my
setup...but to rapidly is much better than not at all. The quick switching
of current back and forth in the primary is what generates the magnetic
field. The secondary then converts the field back to electricity and pow zot
sparks. During operation my spark gap appears to be a constant spark similar
to the out put of an arc welder, It is just osscilating so fast that to a
person it appears constant..-dot-compared to a 120 bps motor that would probably
be drastic overqueching. :)

Someone else can provide you with a more scientific explanation
but I hope that helps a bit
Chris Dowdy

"Ill get some pictures and a movie of operation posted soon, the last run
was great 2 or 3 constant breakouts of 2-3 foot streamers. "





----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Sunday, August 11, 2002 11:32 AM
Subject: Re: 1st Tesla Coil


> Original poster: "Chris Roberts by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <quezacotl_14000000000000-at-yahoo-dot-com>
>
>
> Hi again,
>
>            Thanks for the advice so far. I built a new, smaller toroid
today  (
> a couple of people mentioned that to me) which now measures about 11"
diameter
> and has a 3" thickness except so far I haven't had any larger sparks. I
have
> tried re-tuning it and adding-subtracting bottles so I don't think that's
the
> problem. I think the main problem might be that my existing spark gap is
pretty
> simple right now ( 6 - .0625" gaps )  and I think I need to start moving
some
> air through it. So if anyone knows how I could modify my existing one ( I
don't
> want to have to build an asynchronous rotary spark gap yet) please tell
me. If
> you have any questions, advice, or want some really poor quality photos of
my
> coil please email me at
>
<mailto:quezacotl_14000000000000-at-yahoo-dot-com>quezacotl_14000000000000-at-yahoo.co
m
>
> Thanks,
>
>         Chris
>
>
>
>
>