Re: Advice on Secondary

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Mike" <mike.marcum@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

i'd keep the 30" length and go for a 6" dia. secondary. with 22" you're 
prob gonna get alot of arcs to the strike rail, tho maybe not with a glass 
cap, which is gonna be lossy (due to corona and dielectric heating) and 
quite heavy. I once tried a gallon-sized pickle jar that worked fine for 
storing charges from a small vdg, but shattered when running after awhile 
in a 15/60 tc. Not sure if it was heat (glass was quite warm when i was 
picking up the shards or punch-through).

Mike
----- Original Message ----- From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 8:45 PM
Subject: Advice on Secondary


> Original poster: "Medina, Benjamin Alejandro (UMR-Student)" <bamxbb@xxxxxxx>
>
> Hello,
>
> I am currently building a medium size Tesla Coil. Here are some of the
> specs:
>
> NST - 15kV/30ma
>
> Capacitor- 5.37 nF made from glass plates with heavy duty aluminum foil
> on the inside and outside faces
>
> Primary- 0.25" of flexible copper tubing
>
> Secondary- 22 AWG enamel magnetic wire on 4" diameter PVC. Height- ???
>
> I am thinking on 30". I've read that for a medium size Tesla Coil an
> aspect ratio of 4.5:1 up to 5:1 is recommended. But then again, there
> are no hard/fast rules.
>
> According to WinTesla, 4"x30" with 22A WG wire yields 1090.53 turns but
> the Aspect Ratio is 30/4 = 7.5. Would this be a problem?? At first we
> were going to go with 22" or 23" in height (22/4 = 5.5) (23/4 = 5.75)
> giving us around 800 turns, but I read that 1000-1400 turns tends to
> produce better performance than lesser turns.  The difference might be
> 10-20% spark length.
>
> What do you recommend? Please advice. Your comments and suggestions will
> be appreciated. Thank you.
>
> Sincerely,
> Ben Medina