Re: Secondary failure modes

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

Original poster: "Mark W. Stolz" <mark_w_stolz-at-hotmail-dot-com> 

Peter,

There is also the rare failure mode of pushing excessive power through a 
secondary that won't handle it.  For instance when my friend Justin and I 
pushed ~4kVA through a 2.5" secondary wound with 32 AWG magnet wire the 
method of failure was the wire melting. :-)

Of course this is not a desired effect even though it is rather exciting in 
appearance.

Mark Stolz
Pearland, TX
http://teslacoils4christ-dot-org/


>Original poster: "Peter Terren" <pterren1-at-iinet-dot-net.au>
>
>I am interested to know other peoples experiences of failure of the
>secondary.  My own experience is that local breakdown between turns occurs
>as a local interturn problem or secondary to a racing arc initiaing
>breakdown on one wire which then places the adjacent turn under stress. This
>appears to result from coupling that is too high such as in my 4 inch coil
>with inverted conical primary.   I have not had any problem with breakdown
>on the inside of the PVC former.
>
>I have a few ideas for a secondary with better performance to allow higher
>secondary to sparklength ratios. I hope to begin construction soon after I
>have dealt with my other 22 high priority projects. Details when (and IF) I
>get results.
>
>Cheers
>Peter (Tesla Downunder)
>http://members.iinet-dot-net.au/~pterren