Jim,ANother approach is to put your primary on a flat piece of acrylic or polycarbonate and use nylon cable ties to hold the turns in the right place. On my small coil, the turns are "under" the plastic, and the secondary sits on top of the plastic. That way, I can move the tapping clamp around fairly easily.
UNDER THE SUPPORT PLATE! I've built at least 20 primaries with a movable support plates and it never occurred to me to flip one of them over. That solves several problems. The strike rail can be mounted directly to the top of the support plate, arcs from the secondary would have to go through the plate to get to the primary, it adds a degree of safety, and, as you point out, it's easier to position the movable tap. Genius.
Dave
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