You know I think you might be right about that.
making primary supports that actually looked nice was sort of a pain.
At the beginning of coiling, not many of us went right to a rotary gap, so I would not really consider a rotary gap a beginners device.
Perhaps custom parts for a nice sucker gap would be something people would like.
Cheers,
John "Jay" Howson IV
"Why thank you, I will be happy to take those electrons off your hands."
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Hall" <brianh4242@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Tesla Coil Mailing List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, February 22, 2014 8:26:36 AM
Subject: Re: [TCML] Huge opportunity for new and veteran coilers
Creating the supports for my flat spiral primary coil, in addition to getting the copper tubing to go where I wanted, have been my two greatest manufacturing challenges.
My resource-limited attempt at creating primary supports can be seen herehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1hKE2Ms-tk
And how I started off alright on winding the primary herehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5j8V19qK1Mbut about 14 minutes in the result of my frustration with it become obvious!
Something else I am pondering is how to connect ring or horseshoe type terminals to the HV wires coming out of my NST. The insulation thickness is of course greater than your average wire, given the amount of conductor within it.
Mounting the primary coil onto a base with wheels, sufficient to support the weight of a 15/30 NST, for me has also been something I started to hack together. A tank circuit base unit with flat spiral primary on top and a place for AC current in (maybe even with EMI or Terry filter), MMC and spark gap mounting points, RF ground point connection, might be a nice one piece frame of a unit if the price is right.
Acquiring the NST, connecting wires, MMC, and static gap in my experience has been relatively easy, its building something where I can get them all mounted in a contained area, yet accessible for maintenance and part swap-out that seems a bit daunting.
----------------------------------
Brian Hall
> Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2014 16:10:13 -0500
> From: arobinson@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [TCML] Huge opportunity for new and veteran coilers
>
> ALL MEMBERS: Please take a moment to read this as it may help you even
> if you don't realize it yet.
>
> Howdy all,
>
> Just wanted to share some information with you and get a little
> feedback. I wanted to pose a question to everyone out on the list that
> may end up helping a lot of you in the near future. The more people I
> can get to respond, the more helpful it will be. First though, lets get
> a little background information...
>
> Many many years ago when I first got into coiling, I was VERY young and
> lacking a lot of skills required to really push forward into the modern
> world of coiling. As a result, today I feel I can really relate to some
> of you newer guys trying to get into the hobby, but not really knowing
> where to start, who to call, where to buy materials, etc. There are a
> lot of ways to do things in the conventional tesla realm (as well as the
> solid state arena). Some have slowly become the "tesla industry
> standard" way of doing things, others are considered learning steps for
> newcomers. Unfortunately, some of these learning steps can be deadly. I
> think a great example (one of many) is using Arcylic as a rotary gap
> material. Don't lie, you know some of you out there have done it. Some
> probably never ran into problems. Others may have experienced rather
> exciting yet terrifying failures. Hopefully none were hurt. This is just
> one of the many examples of the learning steps involved in build coils.
>
> One thing that I feel is really key to this hobby is growth. Sure there
> are some of you out there who build one coil and then move onto
> something else and that's fine, however, if I had to guess, several of
> you if not most of you out there are hooked into coiling and will most
> likely progress through several coils, revisions, etc. That part is key!
> Most of us on here are here to stay and don't want to be spoon fed. We
> want to let the true engineer inside shine through. Come up with our own
> concepts and turn them into practical creations. The problem here, is
> sometimes without the experience or knowledge, this can be difficult at
> first. I've been trying to think of a way I can help bridge this gap. A
> way I can help and give back to the community, but in a way that is not
> spoon feeding the newcomer. So what is my original question to all of you?
>
> *Let me make it clear first that I am not gaining anything from this*
>
> If I was to offer any tesla coil part you could possibly imagine,
> precision machined out of almost any material, what would you want to be?
>
> In other words, what as a newcomer do you find to be the most difficult
> mechanical obstacle to overcome when building your coil? Garolite rotary
> gap discs? Custom tungsten electrodes? How about standoff insulators, or
> primary coil supports? You name it. I'd like to get this feedback from
> everyone as I am considering offering these parts and services to you
> all at a fraction of the normal cost. This was always the biggest
> challenge for me when I first started. I knew what I needed. I could get
> all the information I wanted from this wonderful list, but I never knew
> how, or could afford to have various parts professionally machined, let
> alone multiple revisions.
>
> Sure this sounds like a sell, but don't think of it like that. This is
> simply my way of giving back to the community and again, ***I will not
> be getting anything out of this* other than the satisfaction that I get
> from returning the favor that others did for me when I was first
> starting. Any cost to you is simply to cover the CNC machine shop that I
> work for that will be doing the manufacturing. So how is this not spoon
> feeding? The idea here is to help encourage growth using safe processes
> and materials and provide the necessary equipment that would be
> otherwise out of reach. Now once I get some feedback from everyone we
> can determine what if anything you would like to see. We will probably
> take everyone's suggestions and create a variety of parts of different
> sizes. These parts will then be available to you to purchase directly
> from the machine shop or through me if you prefer. This will allow you
> guys to for the first time be able to pickup individual pieces to build
> out what ever coil you have pictured. I like to think of us as the Home
> Depot of Tesla coil parts. Getting back to one of my original points
> though, we're very hesitant to sell entire kits. You can buy Tesla kits
> on eBay. That's boring... Be creative! That's what this hobby is all
> about! Continue to do what we all do best. Come up with new and
> incredible coil designs, but in a pinch, let us help you fill in some of
> the gaps.
>
> Send me parts you would like to see. We are also considering allowing
> you guys to submit custom parts for fabrication. Hopefully we will start
> offering some basic parts such as rotary gap parts here in the next few
> weeks. Some examples, submit suggestions, get more information, etc here:
>
> http://www.teslamad.com/mecha.html
>
> Send me a message off list: arobinson(at)teslamad(dot)com
> or visit me at http://www.teslamad.com/
>
> You can visit the machine shop at http://www.mechainc.com/ or visit the
> shops store at http://www.mechainc.com/store/
>
> Thanks guys for your time and thanks to the list mods for all you do!
>
> Cheers,
> Andrew
> _______________________________________________
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> Tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
> http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla
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