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Re: [TCML] RE: Primary coil supports

I've used wooden primary supports on my coils with a good measure of success... Without any sort of sealent either... however, as I believe was recently mentioned, at a high enough voltage EVERYTHING becomes conductive.... At the voltage levels used in our primary circuits wood will conduct a small amount of current. there is probably some inductive losses in it too.. Plastic will essentially be lossless. All in all, I doubt the losses from using wood would be significant - and if you ensure that its dry and well sealed then it should perform every bit as well as a plastic coil form.
As for MMC construction - I think the main reason that most people use plastic rather than perf board is that it just looks nicer. And the holes on most standard perf board may not be big enough to accept the mmc cap leads without some help. Also, perfboard is really flimsy and will buckle under the weight of a load of MMC caps without good support... But there's no reason that it can't be used. 

Cheers,
Troy.

Lau, Gary wrote:

Wood has been used by some, though one would probably want to be sure that it's very dry and well sealed before use.

It's certainly possible to enamel one's primary.  Yes, the freshly polished copper looks so nice initially and will always tarnish with age if left uncoated.  But that would make it impossible to change the tap position in the future, so that's typically not done.

Perf board is commonly used for MMC construction.  Just be sure that it's not the type with conductive etch rings at each hole.  Even if every hole is isolated, the presence of the etch circles reduces the insulating value.

Regards, Gary Lau
MA, USA


-----Original Message-----
From: tesla-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:tesla-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Stephen J. Hobley
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 10:28 AM
To: Tesla Coil Mailing List
Subject: [TCML] Primary coil supports

Is wood a bad choice for primary coil supports?
I see a lot of plastic being used, but I seem to be able to work more cleanly in
wood...

Also can I enamel the primary coil?
Wood and shiny copper has a nice 'Edwardian' feel to it...

Furthermore - when building an MMC - is perf board OK to mount the caps?
Or is there something more suitable?

Steve

Stephen Hobley Photography
www.stephenhobley.com
317 201 4281

The Laser Harp Project - www.stephenhobley.com/build



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