Re: 1st Tesla Coil WONT LIGHT HELP PLEASE!

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

Original poster: John <fireba8104-at-yahoo-dot-com> 

Info on bottle caps,aka Hawg Capacitor,  can be found at 
<http://www.altair-dot-org/tesla.htm>http://www.altair-dot-org/tesla.htm
Cheers,
John
N.J.

Tesla list <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com> wrote:
Original poster: BunnyKiller

Hi Ravi...

to start.. your number of caps are way to minimal for the turns of the
primary...

either triple the number of turns of the primary or 4X ( quadruple the
number) the number of bottles to increase the capacitance...
come to think about it both items mentioned above should be done....
dont remember exactly how much capacitance bottle caps have ( but i think
its rather small per bottle .001uF someone please correct me..) requires
more primary turns... RULE OF THUMB smaller caps need bigger
turns...... seems to me off the top of my thinking ... you need .05uf
with 15 turns on the primary... this is ust a guess tho ...

Scot D


Im running .1uf at 11 turns of 3/8th Cu tube on my BIGPIG coil....

maybe someone outhere knows the avg capacitance of a! bottle cap per unit....

Tesla list wrote:

 >Original poster: "Nightmare"
 >
 >
 >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
 >
 >