primary base construction questions

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

Original poster: Adam Britt <beans45601-at-sbcglobal-dot-net> 

I am in the process of building a final primary base for my 8" PT coil 
(right now, i am just using a bunch of wood scraps, with a horrible 
primary, etc etc). Now, what have all of you discovered is a good material 
to build it out of? I was thinking of some plastic that i could buy from mc 
master. Does it effect the performance if you have the primary right next 
to the ground? Does it need to be elevated? Whats an easy way to make the 
primary supports? Also, the main one. How do you make your base to where 
the secondary will move up and down, easily? I need some way to adjust 
coupling, without using cd's cases (not the look i want). And, last but not 
least, i have always heard people making their base so that the secondary 
will just sit in a little...cradle, and thats where it makes the 
secondary-ground connection. But, i have never seen it, or seen it 
described how they accomplished this.
Thanks
Adam
KD5WIT