RE: 1st Tesla Coil WONT LIGHT HELP PLEASE!

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

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

There are a couple possibilities:

1) Your cap is shorted, possibly from a construction error.   Do you
have an Ohm meter?  Testing only the cap, it should read open circuit.
What kind of soda bottles did you use?  Plastic ones don't work well;
the plastic is lossy and will heat up and short.
2) The gap is too wide.  You didn't say how far apart the pipes were.
For a 4kV NST, the gap should be about .05"
3) The gap could be shorted.

Does the NST hum more loudly when hooked up to the circuit than with
nothing attached?  That would indicate that either the gap or cap is
shorted.


Regards, Gary Lau
MA, USA



 >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
    >
    >
    >
  >
  >