RE: Coming close to finishing

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

Original poster: "Lau, Gary by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Gary.Lau-at-hp-dot-com>

For the power level that you'll be working at, 1/4" copper tubing is 
probably the best primary conductor.  I've made some AC resistance 
measurements of several different conductors and the tubing fared very 
well.  Considering it's availability, low cost, ease of tapping, and ease 
of winding, that's what I would recommend.  See 
http://www.laushaus-dot-com/tesla/primary_resistance.htm for all the gory details.

The wiring between tank components ideally should be beefy, but if you're 
only talking about lengths under a foot, it probably won't affect 
performance one way or another regardless of what you use.  Personally I 
like to use copper strap or #6 - #8 stranded wire, but truthfully, it 
probably wouldn't matter if I had used short lengths of #14.

The radial distance from the innermost primary turn to the lowermost 
secondary turn should be about an inch.  The choice of how to connect the 
secondary base depends on the rest of your geometry.  The pri-sec vertical 
distance must be adjustable, and it should permit the lowermost secondary 
turn to be anywhere between 1" below to 2" (all rough numbers) above the 
plane of the (presumably flat) primary.

For connecting salt water caps together, the losses in these caps is so 
high that I'm sure it won't matter what you use.  Short lengths of #14-#18 
wire will be fine and much easier to use than tubing.

Regards, Gary Lau
MA, USA

-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 24, 2002 11:17 AM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Coming close to finishing


Original poster: "Alan by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" 
<centauri010-at-attbi-dot-com>

I'm coming closer each day to the final assembly of my first coil. It's
powered by a 15kv/60ma nst and has a 25"(23" wound) secondary. I have some
questions on minor things. First, I've read that copper tubing is better to
use for the primary than solid copper wire, is this true and if so, does
the size of the copper tubing matter? Also, what sort of wire needs to be
used for all the connections(i.e. tank circuit connections and so on).
Third, what is the ideal spacing between the first wind of the primary and
the base of the secondary? Can I use a pvc pipe flange to connect the
secondary to a piece of wood? Last, I began building a geek group saltwater
bottle cap and I ran out of my 6awg copper wire. Could I use some spare
copper tubing I have laying around as a substitute for connecting the bottles?

Thanks for all the help, I couldn't find very much info on these things on
the net.

Alan