Re: First light!!

["Albert Hassick" <uncadoc-at-juno-dot-com> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

Hi Jason.  Very nice!  Good job with the $90 you spent.  Now you do
indeed need more a.c. mains juice.  You are now addicted!  Keep on
coilin'    AL


On Sun, 01 Oct 2000 20:22:30 -0600 "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
writes:
> Original poster: "Jason Johnson" <hvjjohnson13-at-hotmail-dot-com> 
> 
>     Well I'm proud to announce that I have acheived first light on 
> my MOT
> powered 4" budget coil. Actual first light was a few nights ago but 
> I wanted to
> do some more experimenting before officially announcing it. Maximum 
> spark
> length the night I fired it up first was about four feet. Last Night 
> with a bit
> more tinkering resulted in the coil consistently hitting 54 inches.
>     Testing was done in my driveway at about 1800 VA input. The coil 
> consists
> of 2 MOTs wired in series for about 4800 volts (just over 6000 volts 
> -at- max
> variac setting), an MMC consisting of 27 (3x9) 330nf 2kvdc snubbers 
> for a total
> of 110nf -at- 18kvdc. The spark gap is two peices of 1/4" brass 
> threaded rod blown
> by a 40 psi air compressor. The secondary is 4 3/16" od x 23 some 
> odd inches
> wound with #28 magnet wire. Primary is 1/4" Cu tubing w/ 1/4" 
> spacing 6.25" id
> tapped -at- turn 6.2.
> Topload is 4.2" x 17" corrugated Al dryer duct. The budget part is 
> that the
> coil only cost about $90.
>     The interesting thing about the coil is that when the spark gap 
> power arcs,
> (it does this after about one minute) the sparks don't get shorter, 
> but
> coallesce (spelling?) into one big thick spark that readches out and 
> up with
> huge branches coming off the main section of the spark. This spark 
> is very
> frantic in the way it jerks about the toroid, and lasts until I 
> either turn
> down the variac or it trips the 15 amp breaker (about 20 seconds).
>     I  can't wait until later this week when I can get a bigger 
> breaker and a
> bigger (read 8" x 30") topload. 
>     Open to questions or praise!
>  
> Jason Johnson
> 
> 
>