Re: Best Material for Primary Coil Supports

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

Original poster: "Steve White by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <slwhite-at-zeus.ia-dot-net>

Here is an interesting anecdote. At my company's surplus store I bought a
sheet of some kind of plastic with fibers in it. The sheet was about 3' x 1'
and 1/2" thick and was extremely heavy. I did not know what material it was,
but I assumed it was probably a good insulator. I payed $2 for the whole
sheet. I made my primary supports from this. I later found out that this
material was pure teflon with embedded fibers for strength and cost
something like $2 per square inch! It makes a great primary support, but had
I known this material was so expensive I probably would have used something
else and saved the teflon for something demanding its unique properties.

Steve: Coiling in Iowa

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 10, 2002 6:01 PM
Subject: Re: Best Material for Primary Coil Supports


> Original poster: "Justin Hays by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<pyrotrons2000-at-yahoo-dot-com>
>
> Hi Dan and All,
>
> > I'm looking for a material to use for my pancake primary coil
> > supports.   In your experience what works best, in that its easy to
>
> > machine and work with, and has good dielectric properties:
> >
> > So far I was looking at:
> >
> > PVC
> > High Dense Polyethylene
>
> * PVC
> * HDPE (white plastic...cutting boards from Wal-Mart work great)
> * LDPE
> * Grade G10 or grade G3 fiberglass, high quality stuff
> * Wood (microwave it for several minutes, then seal with epoxy or
>   varnish)
> * Plexiglass
> * Lexan
> * Acrylic
>
> Sometimes you can find scraps at a local hardware store...when noone
> is looking, grab a handful out of the trash can in the
> plastic-cutting area... Most of the time you'll find small, thin
> pieces (which are still very useful), but not always! I've gotten
> pieces as big as 1/4" thick 2' x 2' scraps. If it's lexan you're
> really lucky.
>
> If you are going the copper tube route with your primary, try to make
> the supports as thick and solid as possible, as your coil will turn
> out much prettier because you won't have to worry about
> bending/breaking the supports.
>
> I like using 1/2" thick material, and bolting each support to its
> base with nylon hardware from the local HW store. Can't go wrong.
>
> 2-part cheap "Devcon" epoxy from Walmart works GREAT on lexan...you
> could epoxy the supports to the base. Epoxy will NOT work with
> plexiglass or acrylic.
>
> Superglue does wonders...as you push the copper down on the supports,
> tack them in place with the CyA. You'll notice that about 2 hours
> after you're finished, a white fog will form all over your primary
> from the fumes. Sand this off with fine sandpaper, it's worth it.
>
> Later,
>
> Justin Hays
> KC5PNP
> Email: justin-at-hvguy-dot-com
> Website: www.hvguy-dot-com
>
> _
>
>
>