Re: Wire for Tesla Coil Tank Circuit

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

Original poster: "Scott Hanson by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <huil888-at-surfside-dot-net>

Dan -

An important point is to position the spark gap and tank cap in the best
possible locations to keep the connections as short and direct as possible.
As there is no need for flexibility after installation, I use 1/4" copper
tubing wherever possible on larger coils. Use a hand tubing bender to get
nice clean bends, flatten the ends of the tubing and drill through for 1/4"
brass bolts (or whatever size screw you are using at the connection points).
This creates a nice, low-loss conductor that has a large enough radius to
(generally) prevent corona. Insulation is (generally) not needed if you
route the conductor properly. If you absolutely need insulation, heavy-wall
3/8" dia clear vinyl tubing can be slipped over the conductor. If you need
to use flexible insulated wire, I'd use the #6 instead of the #14. The 40kV
insulation doesn't do anything for you if you route the conductors away from
anything they might arc to.

All this is probably only necessary for 6" dia and larger secondaries; small
coils will work perfectly with #10 or #12 solid copper wire (PVC insulated
or varnished magnet wire) in the primary circuit.

Scott

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2002 10:38 AM
Subject: Wire for Tesla Coil Tank Circuit


> Original poster: "Mccauley, Daniel H by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <daniel.h.mccauley-at-lmco-dot-com>
>
>
>
> I'm in the process of choosing my wire for use in hooking up components in
> my primary tank circuit.
>
> For a small coil (15kv/60ma) my current choices are:
>
> 1.  60kV, 14AWG High Voltage wire
>
> 2.  6 AWG Welding Cable
>
> I'd rather use the 60kV, 14AWG High Voltage wire as most of my components
> already have the proper terminals
> to use for this, as the 6 AWG requires much larger terminals which i would
> need to refit.
>
> However, I realize the low-inductance 6 AWG may better fit the bill.  But,
> if both wires will do the job adequately in the small coil like mine, i'll
> go with the high voltage wire.
>
> What are your thoughts???
>
> Thanks
>
> Dan
>
>
>
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>
>

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