Yet Another Lo-Budget MOT Experiment

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

Original poster: "Gregory Hunter by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <ghunter31014-at-yahoo-dot-com>

Dear List,

I just tried the low-voltage high-current approach
again using only two series MOTs for ~4kvac, no
doublers, no RF filter, and no ballast. Power was
provided by a 240vac/20A window A/C outlet:

http://hot-streamer-dot-com/greg/madness7.jpg

The Tesla coil was my new & improved junk box coil
with a new primary, 4" sch 40 PVC wound for 24" with
28AWG. Top load was 4" x 20" dryer duct toroid. Tank
cap was 128nf (81nF of beer bottles in parallel with
47nF MMC). Spark gap was inside-out sucker gap
quenched with a vacuum cleaner motor (air blown single
static).

Performance was pretty good--better than I expected
anyway. The gap setting proved to be hyper-critical. A
micron too wide, and firing was sporadic. An angstrom
too narrow, and it quickly decayed to power arc. Once
I got it set just right, I could run a couple of
minutes or more before I felt compelled to switch off
the MOTs so the gap could cool awhile.

Sparks were thick, intense, and frantic. I got plenty
of strikes out to 5 feet or so, which sort of
surprised me. I might have to try this again with a
water or oil cooled gap. I also noticed my motor oil
immersed MOT twins got very hot. I cracked the lid of
the ammo can and a puff of oil smoke came out! Maybe a
bigger oil bath is in order!

I'm still not satisfied with the utility of this
setup. Going up to 8kvac with 4 series MOTs solves so
many problems and makes things more stable and
predictable. Still, I intend to do some more 4kv
experimenting--just for grins.

Regards,

=====
Gregory R. Hunter

http://hot-streamer-dot-com/greg

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