New Toroid

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

Original poster: "Shaun R. Phelps by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <shaun-at-visorloop-dot-com>

Hi.

I've just completed construction of a new toroid for my coil and am having
some problems.  Maybe someone can shed a bit of light.

Input: 9KV 60mA
Secondary: 23" * 4.5"
Toroid: 4.5" flexible aluminum duct.  19" outside diameter, wrapped in
aluminum foil.
Cap: 12beer bottle  + 1 wine bottle SWC
Primary: 1/4" copper tube, 1/2" spacing, tapped turn ~12.

Previously I used two 12" salad bowls as the toroid and achieved 12" sparks.
When I replace that toroid with the new one, I achieve no sparks.  If I use
a breakpoint on the new toroid, I seem to get 4" sparks from that
breakpoint.  I assume that there is simply not enough voltage present to
break sparks from this new toroid and that is my problem.  However, I have
read numerous posts specifying that 'you can never have too much topload.'
I thought I would be advancing my coil by adding this new toroid and might
see better sparks, but I see this is not the case.  I'm wondering if I
should try and increase the input voltage or current to get the sparks I
desire, and if I do so, can I expect better sparks from the new toroid
compared to the salad bowls?  In other words, after increasing the input,
might I expect bigger sparks using the new toroid or the old?  Any other
suggestions?

Thanks for any advice.

Shaun.