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Re: Hot! MOTs and enamelled wire



Original poster: Steve Conner <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxx>


Wire with red insulation on
it is low quality.

I beg to differ, I think you can get poor quality enamelled wire in any colour you like ;) The wire I get from Maplin or RS is, I think, the stuff that Malcolm would consider low quality. It comes in a light gold or red colour. You can also get it in green and blue if you look around.


When I was building the OLTC II I went to Hi-Wire and asked for high quality wire. They gave me the high temperature rated stuff (200 deg.C iirc) which was a dark reddish brown colour.

It doesn't seem to make much difference though. I have never seen inter-turn insulation breakdown in any of my Tesla coils, whether made with cheap wire or premium stuff, and I have driven them plenty hard enough. Even when a Tesla coil is maxed out, the voltage between turns must still be less than 1kV.

As for MOTs, I have sitting on my desk a MOT with "Class 200" on the label. I assume that means 200 deg.C and hence it is made with the "premium" high temperature wire. The wire on my MOT certainly looks the same colour as the good stuff I bought.

Steve Conner