MOT-powered coil questions

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

Original poster: "Dwight Harm by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <dwighth-at-traxsoft-dot-com>

Hi all,
My son & I are close to starting our first TC.  It will be MOT-powered
(these have been easy & free/cheap to scavenge).  We're thinking 2 MOTs to
start with, then maybe a 4-MOT supply later.  We're planning on using the MO
caps for secondary current limiting, and a static gap (maybe RQ-type) for
now.  Some questions...

1: Can we determine our approximate "coil wattage" by shorting the secondary
(thru the caps) and measuring either primary or secondary current?

2: I've seen 1000-1200 turns recommended on the secondary, at least for NST
coils.  Is that true for MOT TCs, too?

3: How do we pick either the diameter of the secondary or the secondary wire
gauge?  (Determining either will give an approximate value of the other,
assuming a given number of turns, say 1000, and picking an aspect ratio of,
say, 5:1.)  It'd be nice to wind a single secondary that'd work for either a
2- or 4-MOT supply, if that's reasonable.

I found this comment on Gary Weaver's site: "A 3" diameter coil is good up
to about 1000 watts and a 4" coil is good up to about 1500 watts."
Obviously higher wattage TCs use larger secondaries, but I haven't seen any
other "rules of thumb" for what's appropriate.

Thanks for any & all suggestions!
Dwight.