Many questions

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

Original poster: "Jeremy Neuringer by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jneuringer-at-hotmail-dot-com>


I m a new coiler and have done a great deal of research to design the coil I m
currently implementing.  I ll give all the specs and then ask the questions. 
(please keep in mind the only part actually built is the primary, the rest can
possibly be changed by recommendation) The coil transformer is a 15kV 450VA
30mA 60hz output neon light transformer. The capacitor is a 25kV .3uF box
capacitor I bought off ebay.  The primary is 7 diameter 6 gauge copper wire
wound in a helix with 4.17 turns and approx 1.2 space between windings.  The
secondary is 21AWG enameled magnet wire 1395ft wound on a 4.25 diameter pvc
pipe 39 tall.  It is tuned to approximately 177kHz. The top load is a 30 x6.25
toroid.  The spark gap is a collection of 10-½ copper pipes (1.5 in length)
screwed to a piece of plexiglass with around .025 gap between each and a fan
blown over the top.  I got all these calculations by playing with the TC java
tesla designer. However I m not sure if this is going to work correctly.  The
low amount of turns on the primary seems odd to me (I know if I use the
recommended .066uF capacitor (by another java designer) it says to wind 18
turns).

 

Questions:

 

Do you feel this should work?

What wire should I use to connect it all together and what type of connectors?
I bought high voltage wire but it doesn t handle much current.

Is the spark gap appropriate?

What type of safety gap should I use?

How can I discharge the capacitor so I can work on the coil safely? I think
shorting it would damage it. What can I use for a resistor to discharge it more
slowly?

How and where should I ground it?

Should I put a piece of Styrofoam in the inner part of the toroid and cover it
with aluminum tape?

How should I connect the toroid to the top of the coil and should I leave some
blank pvc before the toroid?

What do you recommend I use to coat the secondary?

If you could change something on this coil, what would you change?

 

Thanks for all your help,

 

Matthew Morrissette

MIT frat boy Sophomore in Comp Sci and EE looking for fun with a tesla coil