ASRSG Smaller Sparks????

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

Original poster: "Randy & Lori" <rburney6-at-comcast-dot-net> 

My name is Randy.  I'm in Savannah GA.  I have been reading the list "in
the shadows" for a good while now, and currently am running a 6.25"
coil.  I have moved up from the 4" coil; I've been through the surplus
mil caps to the Geek Group's; I've modified a 15/30, and I've run a
center tapped set of big MOTs W/level shifter.  I've been from the
static gap to a nice sucker gap, and I'm trying an ASRSG now but I'm
having problems with it.

I used my bench grinder (use what you got) and attempted to modify it
for SRSG operation.  Just by listening to it, I knew it wasn't right.
It would do this wa wa sound like it was unable to lock in.  I figured I
would just set it up as an ASRSG.  I figure it runs so close to 3600
RPM, I would just use that number for my math. I put 4 electrodes on the
disk (240 BPS?), and then I added another set of stationary electrodes
offset to now give me 480 BPS.  The thing seems to work fine except that
my sparks are less than 2' now.  When the safety gap goes off I get some
real nice sparks, and the ammeter hardly moves??  It would seem that I'm
not getting a full discharge (except when the SG goes off).  I have
tried cutting my tank cap in half (did help a little).  The MOTs (with
100 ohms on each leg) and the modified 15K NST act about the same.  The
Tank cap is now .015uf, my disk is 9" across and the electrodes are
7.75" across.  Is it possible that my caps are not fully discharging
with this ASRSG?  Do I have to go back to my sucker gap to get back my
big sparks?  Thanks in advance for your help, and a bigger thanks for
all of the posted stuff on this list and your personal web sites!!

Randy