Re: bummed

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "david baehr" <dfb25@xxxxxxxxxxx>


Dave! , this is dave in Loveland.,, that coil worked well with a .01/ 
.015mfd cap ( approx ) , I got 24" ++ sparks from that coil...........

>From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
>To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: Re: bummed
>Date: Sun, 10 Apr 2005 10:39:09 -0600
>
>Original poster: Davetracer@xxxxxxx
>
>Dear Steven,
>
>     I'm sitting here looking at my Tesla Coil. I'm tempted to take
>a picture of it to send you to as a monument to duct tape and
>kludging. Let's see, right now I have a coil, a primary, caps built
>out of plastic and tinfoil, a 12Kv/60ma transformer, and a whole
>lotta duct tape. Frankly, I've been fiddling with it, and the best
>sparks I have gotten are, well, before I started fiddling with it.
>
>     But that's okay with me.
>
>     Both in my Tesla Coiling as a teen and now (I'm 46), and in a
>career in computing, I've developed a saying: "What's it gonna do,
>fail?"
>
>     It's a bit fatalistic but it takes into account the fantastic
>number of problems that can come up either in a TC or in a computer.
>Some truly are unsolvable. Some are solvable with an insane amount
>of work. And then there's the day to day ones.
>
>     So, it isn't working? What's the problem? (What's it gonna do,
>fail?) TC's have failed on me for 30 years! Congratulations, welcome
>to the group! And believe me, some of the failures are going to
>totally suck! Congratulations! Wait until you blow a pair of 811A
>tubes and have to go wash and wax the wings of your Dad's airplane
>to get more! (Oh, man, talk about square yards!) Wait until you try
>a many-bottle-capacitor and hear it arc over! BANG! Wait until you
>blow a laptop by having it within yards of a TC! Whoops!
>
>     What I'm trying to tell you is this is the way it goes,
>sometimes. Then there are other days when the darned thing pops into
>tune and runs like mad.
>
>     I don't always hold with designing the thing perfectly.
>Sometimes its fun to kludge it.  And sometimes you learn a lot that
>way. There really is a place for playing around and having fun with
>it.
>
>     Of course, be awfully careful of the thing. It'll zot you but
>good if you give it a chance, and you only get one chance. But I
>managed to survive being 16 with one or six of these things.
>
>     Let me drop a hint: disconnect your capacitor for a moment and
>make sure the gap is firing. Now connect the cap. (Of course do all
>that connect/disconnect with poweroff). Does the gap take on a
>strident tone, sort of like that teacher we all remember from
>school? Snarly? Hey, you're getting there. If not, you're not close
>on the capacitance. I'm running 4 plates of plastic (hey, that is
>what Home Depot had) with 14 x 14 tinfoil on each side. Sure, it's
>imperfect. But it costs a heck of a lot less than caps.
>
>     Good luck and rest assured you are not alone!
>
>     Thanks,
>
>     Dave Small
>
>p.s. Where's my darn duct tape? And why was the epoxy tubes thingo
>left open? Who's running this operation?
>
>
>
>