I took the day off from work and managed to get the finishing touches done
on the coil. Now it's not my first one, but I haven't messed with any coils
for a long time.
I hit the power and the static gap popped once and there was no output from
the business end. I kept trying stuff and eventually gave up. The spark gap
just will not stay lit. I can close it down really low and the gap will
spark (with no output from the secondary). As soon as I open it up it
things get sketchy. It might produce weak thin and dim streamers for less
than a second and then the gap permanently quenches.
My thought is my old MMCs are toast and are internally arcing. I got them
on a pupman list group buy 2000 or 2001 I think, but they don't have a lot
of run time on them. Here is a pic.
https://imgur.com/weioLTY
I did re-verify both legs of the NST are hot and produce a violet arcs to
ground. For now I'll probably kick it old school and build some adorable
salt water caps to get me through these dark times until I can afford a new
MMC set up. Is there a way to test to see if/what cap failed? The MMC tests
OK on my DMM but obviously that's not the same as a running coil.
Basic stats are:
15/60 NST
.045 uF cap @ 24,000 v (cutting it close)
Vacuum quenched single gap
Flat spiral primary
6x26 PVC secondary with 1,057 turns of 23 magnet wire.
Thanks for any insight,
~Dan
Kansas City area
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