What Next?

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

Original poster: "cd by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <vbprg1-at-hotmail-dot-com>

Hey guys I seriously need a bit of advice...
first let me report my data so you can effectivly evaluate my situation

I have sucessfully ran a full power test...
i have 2x  12000v 30ma neons in parrallel for 12000v 60ma
I am useing a 14.92 nf salwater cap bank or 0.01492 uf  composed of 2 bucket
caps measure just under 7.5 each I realize the cap is over resonant freq...
resonance is  0.013262911922592832uf
The rest is
a 23 inch tall 4inch diameter secondary wraped with about 1200 to 1300 turns
of 26 awg magnet wire The wraping starts about 1 and 1/2 inch above the
primary.which is made from 1/4 inch copper tubing and has a 5 to 10 degree
concave shape.  the inside diameter of primary is about 9 inches the entire
primary is 20 turns. I feel foolish for making it this big, now that  It is
currently taped at 6.5 turns...
I have a single gap sucker gap that ive run
spaced from .0025 to about 1/4 inch
opened wide up gives me good sparks but a bit of discharge off the top of
the coil. reducing the gap by a couple hairs almost but does not quite
eliminate the tiny streamers from the very top turn of the secondary...
I can get confirmed 12inch bolts off the top of an aluminum can
strikes to a florescent bulb placed aproximately 12 inches away with a setup
consiting of
1 neon and 1 bucket cap and with 2 neons and 2 bucket cap...
I was greatly supprised that increasing the amps from 30ma to 60ma  and
increasing the cap from 7.4nf to 14.9nf did almost nothing to spark length
but it did influence tuneing drastically. droping from the 9th turn to the
6.5th turn.
I could not get sparks from a torid....
I used a 15 inch 4 inch torus and a 12 inch 3 inch torus.
At all times the spark gap fired and the florescent bulb lit up but
no break out on the torus...
I havent tried a nail or other break out point and really dont want to
to have to use a break out point just to get discharge seems like
cheating...

Im happy I got it to work, but Id like to use a torus for topload
instead of my awe inspiring Orange soda can...
One note on the soda can, I cut off drinking part with a can opener and
covered the lid over with aluminum tape. When placed upside down on the
secondary nearly all of the Discharge goes striaght up. A possibly
desiarable effect?

I added an extra coating of sealant up near the top of coil to hold down the
top loose wire and help possibly with tiny streamer discharge. Though I have
yet to find any burn or scorch marks on secondary. I have not detected any
noticable signs of heating on Any of the parts even after 10 mins running at
100 percent power. The safety gap has never fired except during isolated
testing and then only at 98 to 100 percent varaic.

Oh yeah Im not useing chokes.

I really could use some advice on further testing and getting the torus to
work
I thought adding the second NST would do it, I was wrong...Ive missed
something?
Why didnt my spark length increase? Much more intense but no longer.

What Next???
Chris Dowdy

    p.s. I think I approached something close to resonance my last few runs,
It made a slightly different sound and the bolts seemed to oscilate or flash
much faster around the top of the can.