Original poster: "Gerry Reynolds" <gerryreynolds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Hi Mark,What works for me is to drill a hole into the form (at the ground end), and use a nylon bolt and two brass nuts to secure the wire with solder lug attached. Start winding from the ground end toward the hot end. What you do at the hot end is more controversial. I drilled a small hole and routed the wire into the interior and then up to a brass bolt on the end cap. I did have a half inch thick acrylic baffle below the point where the wire entered the form. I also made sure that the wire did not droop below the entry point so it would be surrounded by equal potential field lines. My coil is a lot larger than yours (8x36 inch winding) and is driven by 15KV 120ma NST farm. Never have had a problem.
Gerry R.
Original poster: mark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Hi, I'm new to the tesla coil world and coil winding, I'm currently building a 3" coil using a 15kv nst. Anyway I fine on the contruction of everything other than winding the secondary coil, I've obtained a 3"x27" piece of acrylic pipe, which has a high sheen to it. Now I've never wound such a large coil, (the largest was a loo roll tube when I was a kid for a antenna tuner.) Can yousuggest how to go about a fixing the wire for the first turn and how to keep itin place while winding, special as I'm doing this by hand. My own thoughts are to rough the acrylic up as to not have a slippery surface, and apply a light varnish as I go which should go tacky and hold the wire. Anyway thanks for any suggestions Cheers Mark UK