Re: Pictures of static spark gap and COIL STATUS UPDATE

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

Original poster: JOSEPH CACCIATORE <jocatch-at-us.ibm-dot-com> 


Someone gave me a whole box of 5/16" carriage bolts so I should be set for 
a long time!

BTW, I fired up my TC for the first time last night. I started working on 
my TC web page and some pictures and a short video can be found there =

http://www.joecool-dot-org/joes_tesla_coil.htm

I found a few things out during the 30 mins I had to play with it:
1. the height of the primary coil in relationship to the secondary makes a 
BIG difference. Initially the primary was laying flat on the board, about 
3" below the bottom of the secondary and I got very little spark. Moving it 
up so it is about even with the secondary bottom made a huge difference, 
giving me 18" sparks.
2. haven't seen too much difference with the spark gap distance except if I 
go really wide, like 1/2", I start getting "break outs" on the bottom part 
of the stand where the NST, spark gap and caps are located. Can't pin point 
it exactly.
3. adding a piece of wire to the toroid concentrates all the spark into one 
spot. Without it I get 4" or 6" sparks all around the toroid.
4. aluminium lawn chairs with plastic on them hold a charge! If you look at 
the video on my web site you'll see one of the chairs. I had one next to 
the coil. A few minutes after the coil was turned off I went to move the 
chair and zap! I got a shock!

I don't' think 1.5' streamers is the max that this coil can make so tonight 
I will start tuning the primary and see what effect that has on spark 
length. Also, the toroid is rather high above the top of the secondary, I 
think I need to lower it. Lastly, I have NOT grounded the secondary to 
earth ground. It is grounded right now only to the NST case. Here in NY the 
ground is frozen but from what I have read  just attaching a long wire to 
the NST case almost acts like a ground plane and providing an artificial 
ground.

JC



INTERNET: jocatch-at-us.ibm-dot-com, (845) 892-0569, FAX EXT 0607
Procurement Supply Chain Integration,  Dept G1KA, Building 321, Zip 93A, 
Fishkill, NY 12533


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02/23/2004 08:06 PM
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Re: Pictures of static spark gap with carriage bolts?




Original poster: "Dr. Resonance" <resonance-at-jvlnet-dot-com>


At low power your carriage bolts will work just fine.  You may have to
replace them more often but they will work and they're cheap.

Dr. Resonance

 >
 > Because my TC is so simple (360w) I am using a simple spark gap using two
 > 5/16" carriage bolts mounted on right angle brackets. The initial gap is
 > right now set to about 1/4" but of course I will probably have to adjust
it
 > the first time.
 >
 > I was wondering what other's carriage bolt spark gaps look like (so I can
 > compare with mine)? I have seen a ton of pipe gaps, multi-gaps, etc but
 > really no good pictures of a simple gap using carriage bolts. Any out
 > there? BTW, I have taken picture of my TC during the construction phase
and
 > will post pictures as well as video to my web site (www.joecool-dot-org) as
 > soon as I get it working.
 >
 > JC