Re: status report

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Just Justin <rocketfuel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>


It lives!!!

I finally got to give it a go today and it's working!  Such a great feeling
after all of this research and fabrication.

It's not working perfectly of course, and these are some of the issues
I'm having:

-Primary to Secondary arcing.  I was able to stop this by raising the secondary
 but I'm afraid it's maybe too high for proper coupling.  The primary inner
 radius is about 1/2"-3/4" wider than the secondary (which is 2" 
radius, 4" diameter).
 The secondary starts about 2" above the primary now, although there are a few
 widely spaced turns that reach down to about 1" above the primary.

-Tuning.  I was noticing that it really wanted to arc primary to 
secondary at about
 5-6 turns, but didn't have the problem with less or more turns, so 
intuitively this
 seemed like it might be close to the tuning point.  I'm going to 
try using WinTesla
 or another program to find out where I should be, given my components.

-Spark gap. I'm not sure about the widths on the segments of my fan 
blown spark gap.
 Safety gap is set correctly and does fire occasionally when the 
variac is 100%.

-Toroid.  I used Al tape to connect the Al dryer ducting (4" 
diameter) to a 15" pizza
 pan.  I can see sparking around the tape when the sparks break out 
to a grounded rod,
 so it seems that the tape is not conducting terribly well.

-RF ground.  I'm running in a warehouse with a concrete floor 
currently, so the ground
 is just a piece of copper lying on the floor.  Haven't looked for 
sparks there yet.


Specs:

PSU: 12kV 60mA NST
Spark gap: 6 segment 1" diameter x 6" length copper tubes, fan cooled/quenched
Cap: 30nF Maxwell pulse cap
Pri: 11 turns 1/4" copper tubing.  Inner diameter: 5-6"
Sec: 18" of 24 guage magnet wire
Toroid: approd 4" minor diameter, 17" major diameter


Woohoo!

Justin




>  > >Original poster: Just Justin <rocketfuel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>  > >
>  > >Greetings,
>  > >
>  > >After a long period of research, I've finally started building my
>  > >first coil.  I must say, I was inspired by Malcolm's speed and so
>  > >I've set my sights on having something to show my friends on New
>  > >Year's Eve.  It will go well with the fireworks and flamethrowers.
>  > >
>  > >Anyway, my first source of good information was Richie Burnett's
>  > >wonderful site, which made me want to go straight for a DC
>  > >resonant system right away.
>