Re: HDPE vs Wood Primary Coil Supports

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <dhmccauley-at-spacecatlighting-dot-com>


I would strongly recommend against using wood.  HDPE should be very easy to
work with, especially when only making straight cuts and grooves.
You can get 0.5" x 1.5" x long lengths of HDPE from www.mcmaster-dot-com for
only a few dollars per foot.  This makes excellent primary supports.  Just
mark your
groove points, drill say 1/4" holes (for 1/4" tubing), and then using a
scroll saw or bandsaw cut two lines into the drill hole you just made to
make a groove.
Very easy.

The Captain


 > Hi everyone!
 >
 > I'm building my second Tesla coil, about 7" secondary
 > diameter.
 >
 > My first coil used HDPE (cutting board) as the primary
 > coil support, and it was a pain in the butt to cut
 > that stuff accurately and cleanly. I understand that
 > it has great RF and high voltage insulation
 > properties, making it an ideal dielectric for
 > everything from caps to primary mountings, but it
 > is expensive and difficult to work with.
 >
 > I have a more complicated primary coil design for
 > my next coil, and I was wondering if anyone here has
 > built their primary supports out of wood? I am much
 > better at working wood than I am at working plastic,
 > but I'm not so sure that wood is a good idea, given
 > that all wood contains a certain percentage of water
 > and tends to 'kindle' at high temperatures.
 >
 > I figure that if use some polyethylene varish on the
 > wood before mounting the primary into it that it would
 > mitigate the water effect. (Assuming that the wood is
 > porous enough to absorb the PE)
 >
 > TIA
 >
 > Jeremy
 >
 >
 >
 >
 >
 >