Hey Scott...Insulation is considered important when running the wires within 3-4" of anything that may be a "ground". As far as using wire from the hi volt outputs of the trannie to the cap/gap system, I suppose 12 - 14 would work since there is a small current flow (a bit less than 1 amp) but the wattage is still there and by using thinner wire, one increases the resistance as compared to say...# 4-8. Consider the application of X-Ray machine wires for example, lots of insulation and safety shielding along with the core wire sometimes being in the range of a # 8 Ga. I have about 100 feet of some X-Ray wire and the wire inside ( altho multi-strand) can easily pass as #10 maybe even #8... The BIGPIG has been wired up with 50KV rated multistrand at about #6 ga. ( the wire core is almost as thick as a standard cigarette)but it is also used to connect the caps and gap to the primary, sooo in theory it should work but I feel that would be pushing it a bit much to go that thin.
Scot D Scott Bogard wrote:
Hey all,My Cousin and I had a debate today about wire gage from the High voltage output of a Pole pig (or other similar transformer.) I told him for Tesla coil applications that 14 AWG would be sufficient, and that insulation is more important. He thinks that I should have a larger gage (like 10,) and that insulation is also important (unless you suspend the wires an don't allow them to touch anything of course.) We both agree the tank wire should be thicker, we are just concerned about getting the power there. He wants to here it from the "experts," so a few responses yea, or nay, would be appreciated. Thanks for settling this.Scott Bogard. _________________________________________________________________ Get Windows Live and get whatever you need, wherever you are. Start here. http://www.windowslive.com/default.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Home_082008_______________________________________________ Tesla mailing list Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla
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