Re: new little coil

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Esondrmn-at-aol-dot-com>

In a message dated 2/13/02 4:28:34 PM Pacific Standard Time, tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
writes:


>
> Hello everyone....
>
> This is my first posting here, but I have been reading this list for a few
> months now.
>
> I recently finished building a new coil, and took a couple of pics of my
> makeshift setup to share with everyone! heres the link: 
>
> http://www.85merk-dot-com/members/daves/tssm.jpg
>
> Its powered by a 12/30 NST, a single static gap, and three wine bottle
> capacitors.
> the secondary is 1.5" x 12" tall with 30 gauge wire, the primary is 15
> turns of 12 gauge solid wire.
>
> so far my sparks have been a healthy 6-7".
>
> It is weird though, this little coil only seem to run good with that tiny
> solid cast iron ball on top (or nothing at all). As soon as I add a bigger
> topload (copper toilet bowl float) my sparks almost completely vanish, even




Dave,

Adding the copper float ball on top will certainly reduce the resonant
frequency of the secondary.  Your secondary only has 4 to 5 pf of self
capacitance.  The copper ball probably at least doubles that.  You should do
the math and see if it is even possible to tune the coil at this frequency -
i.e. see if you have enough primary turns to get back in tune.  You might add
another wine bottle and try re-tuning.  For any given size coil and power
input, you can make the toroid so large that it will not break out.  Will it
break out if you tape a sharp object (screw or piece of wire) on the float
ball?

Ed Sonderman