Re: Secondary breakout -is it necessary to rewind?

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

Original poster: "Ben McMillen by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <spoonman534-at-yahoo-dot-com>

Varnishing of your secondary is a highly recomended
practice.. I wound a new 4 x 25" secondary on the 4th and
just finished applying the 6th coat of varnish tonight... 

While letting it dry, I noticed something very intersting..
The coil seems to be 'wicking' the varnish down between the
windings and leaving little 'valleys' between turns.. even
though I'm on my 6th coat.. I spent some time removing bugs
and did some light sanding to try and smooth things out for
the next coat, but it still does it.. only less than
before.. Has anyone else had this problem? Might this be a
cause for breakout from the secondary in undwanted places?
(i.e. racing sparks)

Just a thought.. 

Coiling in Pittsburgh
Ben McMillen

--- Tesla list <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com> wrote:
> Original poster: "Jolyon Vater Cox by way of Terry Fritz
> <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jolyon-at-vatercox.freeserve.co.uk>
> 
> 
> This Tuesday afternoon my 3" x 10 7/8" inch, 880 turn
> secondary suffered an
> intermittant breakout to the grounded end of the primary.
> 
> The secondary was being run from my ignition-coil HVDC
> supply in conjunction
> with with six parallel pop-bottle saltwater caps, with
> the primary tapped at 8
> 1/4 turns.
> 
> Will I have to rewind the secondary? I have examined the
> area from which the
> arc emerged with a magnifying glass and cannot see any
> evidence of cracked
> insulation or burning.
> 
> This appears to be an intermittent fault that (as yet)
> only appears to arise
> occasionally when the coil is made to produce large
> sparks i.e.>5 inches.
> Before the "incident" it was my intention to coat the
> secondary in Tuffkote
> epoxy varnish -in view of the present circumstance should
> I be contemplating
> this and is varnishing at all likely to prevent the
> re-occurance of  an
> "occasional" problem of this type?
> 
> 
>