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Re: More Questions...

In a message dated 95-12-22 21:13:01 EST, Noetic1 writes:

<< To:	Esondrmn

After subscribing recently to the Tesla group, I read your post 
about the coil, and since you sound rather informed, I couldn't resist asking
your opinion on our coil project (my sons and I). I built a 
tesla coil for them to help demonstrate principles of electricity and 
circuits...

We have a 15,000 volt neon transformer with two chokes, and 
a rotary gap that we built from a small refrigerator motor. The 
capacitors are .1mf each, for a total of 12, in series. The primary 
is 9 turns approx of 8 guage insulated wire, on a 6" form, and 
the secondary is about 470 turns of 26 gauge magnet wire on 
a 24" long 3" diameter form. Both are 1/8 thick wall acrylic. 
Problem is, we get massive sparking on the primary safety gap
and rotary, but nothing on the terminal capacitor! We have 
an excellent ground..(telco) wired direct and the system is wired
with 10 gauge solid copper insulated. We've spent all this time 
and we're just disappointed...any ideas? 

post this to the tesla list or directly if you wish...

would appreciate any comments...thanks for your time..

chris, evan and andrew dunagan >>


Chris,

Sorry about the delay in answering, I have been gone for a week.

It sounds like a nice project.  I will post this to the list and maybe we can
get some more help.  We will need some more information.  Please describe
your circuit so we will know how it is wired.  I don't understand your telco
ground comment please describe.  Have you tried tuning the system by tapping
the primary at different places.  I don't have much time today and have not
done the math to see where your secondary should resonate.  The effective
primary capacitance should be about .008 mfd.

Your safety gaps should be set at about 1/2" each.  If you are getting sparks
in the rotary and the safety gaps, I would think the system is way off tune
or something is hooked up wrong.  What are you using for a discharge terminal
on top of the secondary coil?  When tuning the primary, it is helpful to
place a grounded wire near the secondary discharge terminal and to tune for
the longest, hotest (white) spark.

It sounds like you have a good start here, don't be disappointed.  Please
describe the whole system in more detail.  There is a lot of experience here,
I am sure we can help.

Ed Sonderman