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Re: Help with my First Coil

Original poster: "David Rieben" <drieben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Victor,

My comments interspersed below:

Hi Victor,

At 06:15 PM 10/2/2005, you wrote: 
To anybody that can HELP!!

I have been a High Voltage nut for many, many years! And Finely I am going to build my first coil! 

:-)))


Here is what I have so far to build it with.

1) One 10kva 14.4kv Pig

Wow! Starting BIG!! Be real careful!! 


I must agree with Terry, you're starting really BIG!
It looks like you have a good collection of the basic
stuff that's needed for a high powered Tesla coil system
that should give sparks in excess of 10 ft. but this is
a pretty aggressive project for a beginner. One foolish
mishap could land you in the "Shady Rest Cemetery" ;^O
Many coilers start with smaller NST or OBIT driven
systems as a part of their "learning curve". If you get zapped
by a small NST, it'll shock the crap out of you but you will
live to do it another day. However, if you get zapped by a
pole pig, it'll shock the LIFE out of you and you'll never see
another day to coil!

2) Four 1256 Powerstats, I am going to parallel two for voltage control and parallel the other two and run them in series with the output of the first stack for current control (will this work)? I also have two paralleling chokes that came with the stack.

Great!! The current control may need some help. Others on the list here will know much more than 'me' about that. 


Many "pole pig" coilers opt for the old style 200 amp+ arc welders
in series with the input to the pig for inductive current limiting. The
output welding leads are normally shorted. Some also use resistive
ballasting to smooth up the output but a lot of power is wasted in the
form of heat in this fashion. Some coilers have successfully used
the extra variacs that you propose as a ballast but this method often
requires cutting the variac core, which is no small task. "I" use the
welder method and it works great for me.

3) Three 0.04uf 100kv Maxwell Pulse Discharge caps.
4) Four 0.03uf 35kv Maxwell Pulse Discharge caps. ( I will probably sell these for cheep)

"DC" Pulse discharge caps tend not to like high current AC. But they should work if you are careful. Beware that sometimes they dramatically "come apart" though.

5) Five 92mf 535VAC Oil Filled Caps for PFC
6) Twenty 7.5piv 1.5a diodes for a DC bridge if I go that route. 

Probably don't want too...

7) One Crompton Integra 2000 Power Measurement Display
8) Two Instrumentation High Precision 100A to 5A current transformers.
9) One 1/3 hp Dayton Motor part #6K570A for a RSG if it will work for it. 

http://hot-streamer.com/TeslaCoils/Misc/syncmot.zip

10) Four Emission Control LTD. HL30 EMI Filters rated at 30A @ 600vac.
11) Misc. contactors High current SSR, Switches etc. To complete the control. 

Sounds like an excellent collection ;-))


Can anybody supply me with the remaining components to finish my toy? Any help on designing the rest of it including the pri. and sec. or even supplying a completed sec. would be great. I hope to get 12' to 15' thick arcs from this baby! I would be happy with 10' to 12' arcs but the more the better!!! 

You will need to make some type of large toroid top terminal
to fully utilitze the power of this coil. Also you'll need a secondary
winding form around 12" to 14" in diamteter and probably at least
45" to 50" long. You'll probably need someting like #18AWG
magnet wire for the secondary winding. You can take a look
at my webpage for more ideas at: http://dawntreader.net/hvgroup/david/gm.html
but I strongly urge you to read this http://www.pupman.com/safety.htm
first!!

You should get "familiar" with this program:

http://www.classictesla.com/java/javatc.html 


It might seem confusing, but at least get the "idea" right now.

Cheers,

Terry 

Thanks in advance!
Victor



David Rieben