Re: 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>

    First  thing..... I'll move it off the table. I guess I need to build a
stand for it.

    I was hooked first time I got a bang out of a HV capacitor!

    My secondary has about 900 turns of 26ga wire that I salvaged from an
old motor (it's only got about 6 splices in it). Which puts it at about 14"
of windings. I left 3/4" at the bottom, and about 1-1/4" at the top. So
total height of secondary is 16"
    Question: Where is the secondary located generally compared to the
primary? Should the secondary windings start under the primary? Above, or
possibly equal to?

    I did make a sphere out of a balloon and some Al tape, about 5" dia.
Didn't help, made it worse actually. I'll get some stuff moved around and
try again though.

    So far I haven't spent any money on this project. I'd like to keep it
that way as long as I can. The wife seems to let me stay up longer working
on projects that I don't have to give a pile of receipts for (she does all
the bookwork). I'm not tuned well I think. I need another 6 pack right? I'll
pick me up more rootbeer this afternoon. I would like to try MMC's soon
however. The moisture in the garage really does a number on the foil around
my sw caps.

    Thanks for the help, this is really exciting for me. I look so smart now
when I explain to my family what I'm building! Not that I didn't
before.........

    Bob Bozarth
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2002 9:17 AM
Subject: Re: First light?


> Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<Esondrmn-at-aol-dot-com>
>
> In a message dated 1/17/02 7:22:09 AM Pacific Standard Time,
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> writes:
>
>
> >
> > >
> >
> >    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
>
>
>
> Bob,
>
> Congratulations.  First sparks, now you are hooked.  What is the diameter
and
> winding length of your secondary?  You don't want your primary sitting too
> close to the steel table.  I would raise it up at least 18" or more.  It
will
> rob lots of power from the primary.  For suggestions:  first make sure it
is in
> tune, have you done the math to make sure it is possible with the set up
that
> you have?  Do you have a toroid for the secondary?  If not, make a small
one at
> least.  Make a multiple copper tube style spark gap.  Buy some Geek Group
caps
> and make an MMC capacitor.
>
> Have fun,
>
> Ed Sonderman
>
>
>