Re: Non-copper components (fwd)

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2007 23:07:23 +0000
From: David Rieben <drieben@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: drieben@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Non-copper components (fwd)

Hi Frosty?

I think your "exception" - the primary tap, is the exception
that Gary was saying to NOT use steel in. BTW, Gary
didn't say that steel wouldn't get warm, he just said that its
presence, within reason of course, would have no noticable
negative effect on the performance, and I agree with this.
If you keep ferrous metals out of the direct conductive path
of the RF currents, small pieces of ferrous hardware here 
and there will not noticably affect performance. Most pig
coilers have their RGS motor, which is a substantial chunk
of "ferrous metal", directly underneath the primary coil and 
yet the coils do still work well. I had noticed that the outer
steel shell of my Hipotronics pulse cap did tend to get warm
during operation when it was mounted only a few inches be-
neath the primary coil, underneath the wooden base. It was
obvious that this was mostly inductive heating as opposed to
internal dielectric heating because only the top side of the
pulse cap, the side closest to the primary coil, developed
this noticable warmth above ambient temperature. Once I
repositioned the pulse cap a mere 6" or so lower, this effect
all but disappeared. 

David Rieben

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> 

> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- 
> Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2007 20:58:42 +0930 
> From: Frosty 
> To: Tesla list 
> Subject: Re: Non-copper components (fwd) 
> 
> I beg to differ on that. My first tesla coil was a 4inch coil powered by two 
> mots, with a copper tube primary. all of the wireing was copper to, except 
> the primary tap and a couple of nuts/bolts used for connections. everything 
> that was not copper would get quite hot and even the innerfew turns of the 
> copper tube (1/4 inch) primary would get quite hot. 
> 
> On 6/16/07, Tesla list wrote: 
> > 
> > 
> > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- 
> > Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:20:35 -0400 
> > From: "Lau, Gary" 
> > To: Tesla list 
> > Subject: RE: Non-copper components 
> > 
> > The answer depends a great deal on the nature of your coil and the power 
> > level you're using. Solid-state IGBT-based coils are the bleeding edge 
> > of coiling technology, and run with extremely high primary currents. If 
> > a steel bolt is used in one of these as a main conductor path, it may 
> > indeed get hot. But in a conventional spark gap coil using an NST power 
> > supply, I think we often tend to overkill on conductor sizes. Are you 
> > using an NST, or a pole pig? 
> > 
> > As far as avoiding steel near the tank due to being ferromagnetic - I 
> > believe steel has been over-vilified. A couple bits of steel hardware 
> > are not going to make any observable difference in performance. 
> > 
> > All of the MMC caps I've seen do not have steel leads. 
> > 
> > The primary tap however is something that I WOULD try to use copper, 
> > brass, or bronze on, for oxidation as well as resistance reasons.