Re: RE: SMALL SPARKS: PLENTY OF POWER- NO TIME

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: DRIEBEN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

Ralph, all,

I too used helical primaries in the early days of my
coiling (nearly 20 years ago). I used like #4 insulated
cable and this too worked well without racing sparks
once properly coupled. The insulation made it more
difficult to tune though. I don't think there's really
a question of IF a helical primary can work but it's
more of a question what works best and is more practical.


David Rieben

----- Original Message -----
From: Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wednesday, October 26, 2005 0:05 am
Subject: RE: SMALL SPARKS: PLENTY OF POWER- NO TIME

> Original poster: "Ralph Zekelman" <gridleak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Gary,
>
> I regularly use helical coils with the half-wave twins and bi-
> polars.  I
> wind 1/4-inch Cu tubing to allow around 2-inch spacing to a 3 or 4-
> inchdiam secondary. There is no problem with racing sparks. I do
> not understand
> why the helical primary seems to be in disfavor with many coilers
> sincemany of the historical *Tesla era* photos show a helical coil.
>
> Ralph Zekelman
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla@xxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 8:43 PM
> To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: SMALL SPARKS: PLENTY OF POWER- NO TIME
>
> Original poster: "Lau, Gary" <Gary.Lau@xxxxxx>
>
> Hi Jeremiah:
>
> I would also suspect that the primary tap may not be optimum.
> With a 15
> turn primary, one can vary 1-2 turns and not see a world of
> difference,but since you say you use only six turns, it may be
> very sensitive to
> fractional turns.  It looks like it wouldn't be too difficult to
> replacethe insulated wire you have with solid bare wire, at least
> temporarily,or ideally 1/4" copper tubing, to permit quick and
> easy tapping at
> arbitrary points.
>
> It's curious that you've not reported racing sparks.  It's always
been
> said that the use of a helical primary will result in too-high
> couplingand racing sparks.  Maybe no one's ever actually tried it?
> I hope so,
> yours is very compact!
>
> I don't think that 20 Amps is at all out of line; I use at least that
> much with my 15/60, and that's with PFC caps.
>
>
>