Florida Teslathon

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

Original poster: "James by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <mustang3-at-cox-dot-net>

Hi group,
    Just wanted to say the Florida Teslathon was a success. We had 4 SG coils
(only 3 were set up) and my 2 toob coils. However, due to Murphy's law the
plate xmfr in the vertical coil died on Thursday. The vert coil was making 3
foot + arcs and looked and sounded MEAN. But the horizontal coil buzzed away
happily and looked cool. The horiz coil was making 27 inch sparks. The field
from the horiz coil is much smaller than the vertical coil. I was sad that we
couldn't have a bunch of ppl hold florescent lamps and make a big chain. Dave's
1st try was ok, (12 inch dia secondary wound with #12 wire, only a couple of
hundred turns)(tuning is critical; big difference in performance by moving pri
tap 2"). Next day(Sunday morning) Dave put the secondary wound with #16 wire to
the test. OH MY GOD....The arcs hitting the floor about 3 feet from my nose
were impressive. For those brave souls, we had a Faraday cage to lurk in.
    Randy's SG coil was also rockin'. We kinda pass over the smaller coils when
the big ones are around. This is always a mistake. Randy's coil had a 6 inch
dia sec(not sure on wire size)about 27 inches tall, a
<mailto:9KV-at-120mA>9KV-at-120mA neon xmfr, sucker gap, and a nice looking MMC.
After
a little tuning, it was producing 3-4 foot sparks. Standing close, I could feel
the electron breeze when it was operating. This was so cool. I'm going to have
to make another neon powered coil. It's fun to have a coil that doesn't need
<mailto:240V-at-80A>240V-at-80A like my pole xmfr powered one. Plus, a shock off the
little one is just a bite.
    My SG coil has a secondary 12 in dia wound to 63 in. 3 different wire dia
are used; 9 in #14, 45 in #18, and 9 in #22. Bottom turn of secondary is 5 in
above primary. Pri is 10 1/2 turns of 5/8 od soft copper tubing, cap is 75
<mailto:nF-at-40KV>nF-at-40KV, ARSG driven by a DC motor off a treadmill. I run the
rpm just a bit faster than power arcing occurs. Normal power draw is 80A(240
volts). The ballast is 2 parallel #10's (500 ' each)wound on a square form with
a core of 1 1/2 thin walled PVC filled with varnished 1/16 welding rods. The
core can be locked wherever necessary to control the current. This is a copy of
the bombarder(sp) controller that was on the list a few months back.
    So, thanks to everyone who showed, I enjoyed having you over. Next year we
will make more noise and help to replenish the ozone layer.
                                                                           
                                                        Later,
                                                                           
                                                            James