hello all

["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>

hello first let me say I'm new to list
I have recently completed construction of a small coil, but am patiently
waiting on a ebay
variac to arrive before I begin testing.
please tell me what you think of my untested setup...
my setup is from the wall out
120 v in 0-140out 10 amp variac soon to arrive(crosses fingers)
to
12000v 30ma NST (I have a twin but think Ill go trade it for a 12x90ma
corner Neon shop)
to
a pounded and shaped copper pipe safety gap screwed down on 3 plexi pieces
and held togther by epoxy and 2 rubber vice golf club grippers
to
a 2 electrode vacum sucker gap (replaceable electrode tips cut from pipe
make it ajustable to about 0 - 3 inches+ current electrodes 0-3/4 inch.)
one side of sucker gap runs to
the center tap on a 100 foot 1/4 copper tube primary with 20 turns slightly
inclined but inclination is adjustable in my setup :). (pieces joined
togther by a piece of copper pipe hammered down and placed in center of pipe
and then sodered and sanded very smooth)
the other side of sucker gap runs to
a 7.4nf  saltwater capacitor (I used a large pe4 bucket and 4 large 1.5
liter wine bottles- both the bucket and the bottles are filled with
saturated salt water and toped off with mineral oil an x of 8 guage bare
copper wire links the 4 bottles and a center wire runs up to top, another 8
guage wire drops down from side of bucket hole drilled just to small for
tight fit on side)
from the top tap on the cap it runs to the tuning wire and clamp for the
primary
the secondary is about 1300 feet of 26 guage wire on a 4 inch od clear plexi
glass tube
about 20 inches about a foot per wrap so just under 1300 wraps
on one end i attached the ground wire by cutting a circle of aluminum then
hammering the 26 guage flat. Then I taped the flatened 26awg onto the
aluminum circle with aluminum tape, I then taped (aluminum tape) the
aluminum circle onto the bottom of the coil form with aluminum. The other
end of the connecting ground is a piece of 10 guage wire hammered very flat
bent over and run through a center hole in the primary decking down to where
it clips on a grounding unit.
(I hope this is an acceptable ground)
The torus is a aluminum ducting piece wraped around an aluminum pan and then
covered by aluminum tape. about 4" and 17" diameters
for a ground I took
a pipe about 5 feet long and hammered all but 6 inches in the ground ( I
must have got lucky and missed all the rocks down there....)I then hammered
about 4 inches of 10awg very flat then taped it to the pipe with aluminum
tape. then covered the pipe and wire in duct tape.
about 17 feet of the 10 awg then run to a piece of 8 inch tall  4"od pvc
that I drilled 3/8 inch holes into then pushed a piece of 3/8 copper pipe
then hammered flush with pvc and wraped the section in duct tape. the ground
wire is run up into the pvc through a hole and is attached to a copper HV
spring clip and clipped onto the pipe. I can then use hv copper clips to
clip other iteams into the ground.
oh yeah
I have a strike rail of 3/8 copper tubing

The cap is .8nf above resonace with NST
the secondary has a bit more wire than an average 4"od coil
the primary is hudge...
Think it will work????
Advice Opinions Always welcome
Chris

ps built a Jacobs ladder tonight to test NST's  the ladder is about 3 feet
tall except... but if I adjust the close points to be close enough to jump
every time I turn it on then I cant get the spark to travel all the way up.
only about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way. I think it may be due to the humidity
here??? You guys would know, Im sick of adjusting the thing ... obviously
the nst works :)