First light?

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

Original poster: "Bob Bozarth by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jbdetails-at-prodigy-dot-net>

    Well, I've never built a Tesla coil before so this is kind of a big deal to
me. Using a tesla coil, I made sparks for the first time! Even though they were
faint and only 3" long, I feel pretty good about it. Nowhere to go but up I
guess. I suppose a little tuning is in order.
    
    Just in case anyone is interested... I started of with a 15K 30ma NST. A
spark gap that came from a plasma torch (unknown material). A six pack of
rootbeer SWcaps still in six pack carrier. Then onto 13 turns of flat primary
8ga stranded well pump wire that I stripped clean of all plastic to make tuning
a little simpler. I set all this up on my 4'x5' steel welding table. NST
sitting on a piece of glass, primary mounted to a piece of 1/4" thick
hardiboard, then the secondary sitting on the same piece centered on the
primary. The windings on the secondary started about 1/2" or so higher than the
primary. I drilled a 3/16" hole in the center of the board to allow the lower
wire from the secondary to slip through and rest on the table top. 
 
    Any pointers? Anyone? Anyone?
 
   Bob Bozarth