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Re: Varnishing my secondary.

Original poster: "Barton B. Anderson" <bartb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi Nick,

Certainly you can. We all have our "favorite" winding varnishes (I prefer Marine Spar Varnish). When I varnish a coil, I set the coil up horizontally and throw on a slow speed motor to keep the coil turning. I then simply use a stain brush with the varnish (letting it dry between coats). Once I have 2 or 3 coats on, I lightly sand the coil form and recoat. If you sand too early, you'll likely sand through the wire insulation which causes shiny copper areas along the form. That's why a wait a few coats before I start the sanding and recoating processes. Once it's smooth to your liking, you can call it done.

Fabricating a motor to run turn the coil form doesn't have to be high tech or elaborate. If you try to brush on varnish without the form turning, you will likely cause runs in the varnish. Even spraying on varnish might be easier if you don't have the means to hook up a coil turning rig. The only problem with that is the number of cans required to get a decent coat.

If you need a slow turning DC motor, I have some for sell (contact me off list). At 24 VDC, it will take about 6 seconds to turn 1 complete revolution. I've ran these at even slower revolutions down to 5 VDC.

Take care,
Bart

Tesla list wrote:

Original poster: "Nick D." <ngdbud@xxxxxxxxx>

This weekend I managed to finish winding the secondary of my smal Tesla coil (just over 600 turns) and now i need to varnish it. I am 14 and don't have a budget allowing for enough varnish to just dip a coil in. I am wondering if I could buy a small bottle of varnish and paint it on.