Re: 1st Tesla Coil WONT LIGHT HELP PLEASE!

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

Original poster: DRIEBEN-at-midsouth.rr-dot-com 

Ravi,

It sounds to me a lot like you have a short somewhere. It would just
about have to either be somewhere in the primary circuit wiring or the
capacitor. I would double check the primary circuit wiring and make
sure that everything is wired properly and then check the soda bottle
capacitor and make sure that the terminals aren't in some way touching.
Take the bottle capacitor out of the circuit and just connect high voltage
to it and see if it holds a charge or if it's open circuit or shorted.
Also, make sure that the spark gap electrodes' gap is set properly and
that the electrodes are in fact not touching each other (shorted toge-
ther) or are set so far apart that the available voltage can't jump the
gap.

David Rieben

----- Original Message -----
From: Tesla list <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Date: Friday, January 23, 2004 7:02 am
Subject: Re: 1st Tesla Coil WONT LIGHT HELP PLEASE!

 > Original poster: "Nightmare" <nightmare-at-bak.rr-dot-com>
 >
 >
 >
 > Hi, this is ravi, i just made my first TC and it wont light, i
 > wired
 > everything up right but it still wont light! It was grounded and
 > everything. I plug it in and nothing happens. I tested the
 > transformer by
 > plugging it in and the terminals arc to each other like a jacobs
 > ladder and
 > it works, but nothing happens when i plug it in! All i hear is the
 > humming
 > of the transformer Please help. I  ve experimented and done all i
 > can . I
 > need this done by next Friday for science fair so please help. The
 > spark
 > gap doesnt fire either, ive tried 2 different transformers and the
 > same
 > thing. Please email me off group for picctures since it doesnt
 > support
 > attatchments. Here are my coil specs:
 > Secondary: 22inx3in 18in windings
 > Primary: ~7-8 turns of 1/4in copper tubing with various adjusted
 > taps with
 > clip.
 > Caps: 4 soda bottles covered in foil wrapped in elec. tape. filled
 > with
 > salt water. all connected with ring terminals
 > Spark gap: 2 1.25in dia copper pipes 3.25in long
 > Transformer: 1st is 7.5kV 30mA 60Hz 2nd one i tried is 4.0-4.5kV
 > 30mA 50/60Hz
 > Toroid, 3in air cond duct with 2 pie plates like this >--< in
 > center to
 > hold in place 9 in inner dia 15 in outer dia.
 > Everything is conected with ring terminals and 600V hardware wire,
 > and
 > gator clips for primary.
 > I used the schematics on deepfriedneon-dot-com exept with diff. gap
 > and bottle
 > caps instead of MMC's. Please help me I've done all i can. Again,
 > if you
 > need pics please email me seperately and i will send them. Thank A
 > LOT!!!!
 >
 > A desperate 8th Grader,
 >
 > Ravi
 >
 >
 >  Thanks A LOT for the help.            Thanks A LOT again
 >
 > Ravi
 >
 >
 >
 >