Re: 1st Tesla Coil WONT LIGHT HELP PLEASE!

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

Original poster: Gregory Hunter <ghunter31014-at-yahoo-dot-com> 


 >  > Original poster: "Nightmare"
 > <nightmare-at-bak.rr-dot-com>
 >  >
 >  > NOO, i dunno whats wrong, i emptiesd the caps,
 > refilled them with salt
 >  > water,and a layer of motor oil, wrapped in foil,
 > put in foiled pan, and when
 >  > i fired the coil, the gap fired, and there was
 > also a REALLY REALLY BRIGHT
 >  > AND LOUD spark on one of the terminals of the
 > caps, then after a second it
 >  > stopped getting loud and the spark on the caps
 > just stayed there, i
 >  > unplugged it. This happened twice, can someone
 > tell me what the -at-!#$ just
 >  > happened? how do i fix it, i still only got 1
 > inch spark max when i touched
 >  > a rod to the topload, otherwise no spark! Please
 > help

Are you using glass bottles or plastic? If you are
using plastic, switch to glass, preferably beer
bottles. Beer bottles are thin (to cut down on weight
and cost) yet strong and uniform (to withstand the
pressure of fizz). They will yield about 750-900pF per
bottle. A 6-pack will give you 5nF, a 12-pack 10nF.
Beer bottle caps are bulky & heavy, but nearly
indestructible. I've been using the same set of foiled
"Miller Genuine Draft" bottles for many years with
zero failures.

Cheers,


=====
Gregory R. Hunter

http://hot-streamer-dot-com/greg