Re: slide choke wire size?

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "J. Aaron Holmes" <jaholmes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

I've heard people assert that solid-core stuff needs
to be used, but a friend of mine just built a large
slide choke using #6 AWG stranded (of the sort found
on the shelves of Home Depot and the like) and we
pushed about 160A through it at 240V.  That was the
current draw with no core material inserted.  Anyway,
we ran this into a 29kV pig connected to a
25-foot-tall Jacob's ladder and got some real spiffy
arcs in excess of two feet long!  This was in a
warehouse where he works--hard to beat that venue for
a huge JL.  Anyway, we did several 30+ second runs,
and the choke wire was barely warm to the touch
afterwards.  Not bad!!

Stuffed half-full of ceiling wire, the current draw
was about 20A.  I couldn't tell you the exact
dimensions, but the PVC form was at least 5" OD and 2'
long, and he had a couple of layers of the #6 on
there.

Regards,
Aaron, N7OE

--- Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Original poster: Robert Amaya
> <dimon20042004@xxxxxxxxx>
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> I am wanting to make a slide choke for my coil but i
> am not shure
> what gauge of wire to use. I will be using it to
> keep the power
> consumption down to around 100 amps at 120v. Any
> comments would be apreciated.
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Robert A. in Austin
>
>
>