RE: Who all has built OLTCs?

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Terry Fritz <teslalist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi,

At 04:00 AM 4/22/2005, you wrote:
> >Part of delay is getting
> >my test and assembly "infrastructure" ready
>
> That's easy, I just clear the dishes off the kitchen table ;-) Terry uses
> the floor in his spare room by the looks of it.

Yep!  I went to pick up the corona ring for my magnifier yesterday and it 
was all wet.  A clogged rain gutter was filling up the window well.  Shop 
vac and a fan got it dried up quick though.  I need to start a project to 
clean those rooms out of junk.  Seems like hobbies just "fill" every room 
no matter what the size.



> >I got my semi-auto coil winding machine finally completed
> >and debugged
>
> Gah! I could do with one of those. I tried winding my DRSSTC secondary by
> hand and it was a disaster!
>
> Straight after winding- looks nice
> http://scopeboy.com/tesla/drsstc/nicewinding.jpg
>
> The next morning- a mess due to differential expansion of the copper wire
> and HDPE former (or something)
> http://scopeboy.com/tesla/drsstc/wonkywinding.jpg
>
> I'm going to rewind it and varnish immediately after winding this time.

My Small Coil secondary just fell apart today too (it was 7 years 
old).  All the windings slide on the form and smashed at the ends.  The 
glue and varnish never stuck to the PVC pipe.  I think the windings need to 
be tacked down every few inches or something to keep them in place.  Drying 
the form helps to shrink it so it should only get tighter.  The varnished 
secondary fell off in funny sections like this:

http://hot-streamer.com/temp/CoilSections.JPG

I re-sanded the form with very rough sand paper this time so maybe the 
rough surface will help hold it too.  Have to see if I have enough wire 
around here to rewind still.

I always wind pretty tight.  My first coil windings fell and collapsed like 
yours.  So I try to really wind the wire very tight so it "springs" just a 
little bit and will not fall loose.  So far it seems to work.  I am not 
using varnish on any of my new coils.  I just wind the wire very tight and 
use shrink wrap to cover them.



> Anyway, whether you decide to build a DRSSTC, an OLTC or even some new kind
> of XYZSSTC we've never heard of, I wish you the very best of luck!

I also look forward to seeing what Dave comes up with!!!

Cheers,

        Terry



> Steve Conner