RE: Am I "OFF"

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

Original poster: "Rich" <rdjmgmt-at-socket-dot-net> 

I have a small muffin fan with the neck of a 2L Pepsi bottle on it to
direct air on the gap, if this is not enough I could set up a solenoid
to blast air on the gap when my dead man switch is pushed. I don't leave
the coil on long enough to get them red hot now, just for few seconds at
a time. The power is higher with the fan on so I know it helps.
My system starts to work at about 90v in and no great improvement up to
140v.

Rich  KD0ZZ

Subject: Re: Am I "OFF"

Original poster: "Dr. Resonance" <resonance-at-jvlnet-dot-com>


The 3/16 inch tungsten might have localized heating the ends of the rods
red
hot.  Once they get this hot effective quenching does not occur.  Try
blasting some compressed air thru the gap (center gap) and see if the
sec
spark grows a bit.  If it does, this indicates you may need more
effective
quenching (shutoff) of your pri sparkgap.  Failure to shutoff, or
quench,
causes the energy the surge back into the primary circuit, hence a loss
of
energy.

If this works, and your are budget conscious, you could use some 3/4
inch
dia. carriage bolt heads (large surface area aids quenching via more
effective heat dissipation).

Dr. Resonance

  >
  > I went out to the shed and checked and my numbers are a little off
from
  > where I started.  As of today.
  > Torrid is 4" dia alum dryer duct, alum tape at joint only, mounted on
  > sheet of .032 alum ,  C/L of torrid is 6" above top of sec winding ,
  > Sec is 20.75 long, wire is enamel covered, .022 dia (what I had)
  > Pri is .187 tube, .437 spacing = .25 gap
  > Spark Gap is .370, 3/16 Tungsten rods with air.
  > S/W caps checked 6.5 nF.
  >
  > I first built a RQ type gap out 7/8 dia Ti tubes but was told to go
to
  > single gap with the 30 mil trans
  >
  > I am trying to get the feel of this before I build one with my
  > 13Kv,.150ma xformer ,(non-NST)
  >
  > Rich
  >
  >
  > Original poster: Dsurfr-at-aol-dot-com
  >
  > Hi Rich,
  > I assume you mean 12" long streamers when you wrote:
  >
  > "My first try with a 15kv 30ma coil produces about 12 sparks with
only a
  > "pop""
  >
  > We'll need a little more information on your coil to be of help. What
  > gauge
  > wire did you use on your Secondary coil and is 19" the actual winding
  > length? Would you describe your Primary coil's construction?
  > My first guess from what you said would be that your toroid is too
  > large.
  > My twin coils are 3"x18" of 24AWG and I currently use a 3"x14"
toroid.
  > This
  > gives about 22" of streamer when run as a single coil off a 15Kv 30mA
  > xfrmr. with a 7.5 nf cap & is quite "noisy".
  > Jim
  >
  >
  >