RE: Wire worries......do I need HV wire, or will 600V hardware store wire do?

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

Original poster: "Lau, Gary" <gary.lau-at-hp-dot-com> 

Bear in mind that the wire inside the NST is thinner than a human hair, so 
connecting an 8AWG wire to the NST terminal is pointless.  The only place 
that high currents flow is in the loop consisting of the cap, gap, and 
primary winding.  Between the NST and the gap, you can use 
anything.  Sadly, bragging points do seem to be too frequently used.

No, the insulation won't spontaneously burn off no matter what you use; 
just keep the connections short and direct and don't allow anything 
conductive near them within arcing distance.

I like the sucker gap, but then I'm biased ;-)

Regards, Gary Lau
MA, USA


Original poster: Phlunktfysics101-at-aol-dot-com

Hello all!

I'm a new coiler, and I'm at the point where I have just about everything
here to assemble my coil, except perhaps suitable wire.  I bought some 8
AWG copper multistranded wire from the hardware store.  It is thick, and
seems heavy duty, but it is only rated at 600V.  Just about all the wire at
the hardware store is 600V max.  I would be using this to make my
connections from my 15,000V 30mA NST and 45kV Maxwell Caps.  My question is
will the insulation burn off or something?  Do I need to shell out the big
bucks for HV wire?  Or are most people using the same low voltage wire?  I
looked on all the popular sites, but wire voltage rating is rarely
mentioned.  And when it is, it's always HV wire like 30kV or something and
I cant tell if it's just for bragging purposes.

Also, I built a "vacuum sucker gap" modeled after the one on Gary Lau's
website.  It seemed to be a good easy to make alternative until I can rig
up an RSG.  Has anyone else used one of these, and do they work well?

I appreciate any advice.
Jack