Re: Metal Screws and Salt Water Caps

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

Original poster: "Sean Taylor by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <taylorss-at-rose-hulman.edu>

 >
 > IF anyone knows why the primary core or coil is generating enough
potential
 > to form an arc through at least 600v of insulation, please let me know!  I
 > do not have any protection but a safety gap.  Maybe i need an RC type
filter?
 >
 > Steve Ward.

Hi Steve,

I don't KNOW :-) but I'll venture a guess . . .

You're primary of the NST is at ground level (well, or at +/-169 V max from
the AC line voltage).  Depending on what you have grounded where, you're
coil MAY be pulling the ground potential far away from that.  If the core of
the NST is ground to AC line ground, ie earth ground, then you may be
dumping considerable power into that ground, pulling its potential up
relatively high, wrt the AC hot/neutral, and blowing through the insulation.
Also, if this is true, you may have your safety gap tied to the earth
ground.  If so, every time the safety fires, your sinking a lot of energy
into that ground, probably pulling the potential quite high (of that
ground), again, blowing the insulation between the primary and core.

If the core is tied to RF ground, then that maybe be floating above/below
the earth ground, and AC reference, causing a large differential, and
blowing the insulation.

I hope that actually made sense :-)  Any one else have any ideas about what
I said? or do my thoughts only make sense to me?

Sean Taylor