RE: Woohoo

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Ted Rosenberg by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Ted.Rosenberg-at-radioshack-dot-com>

Ry: the typical strike ring/rail on the coil is NOT a complete circle. It is
about 10-15 deg short of the circle and mounted using HDPE or PVC pipes so
that it is typically 2-3 inches above the plane of the <flat> primary. It is
grounded to the RF ground with a large calibre cable.

Another option, used by some with great success for lower powered coils, is
a large sheet of 1/8 to 1/4" inch thick acrylic at least as large as the
primary. The sheet has a center hole about the same as the inside diameter
of the primary. The entire sheet is suspended above the primary by an inch
or so.

This sheet does two things...1. it dissapates any strikes that hit it 2.
keeps the primary dust free and prevents relish from hot dogs falling on the
primary.

I plan to use this approach. It looks cleaner. Dave McKinnon has praised
this style and also the now defunct Diabolico company used it on some
smaller coils.

Hope this helps.

Safety First

Ted

-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2001 9:21 AM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Woohoo


Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<rblaisdell-at-juno-dot-com>

Well done to all those involved in upkeeping this list.

Well I upgraded (or changed at least) the spark gap from 1/4 20 brass
bolts to 1.25" diameter 
solid brass nobs and added two plates to our plate capacitor which is
working great by the way.
All in all the spark gap can be set much smaller and still achieve the
same if not better results as with the more primitive one.  ~20-24"
sparks from the toroid.  Am now getting close to danger of arc to
primary.  Will need to put on a grounded rail above primary for safety. 
Should it be a complete circle?


Peace,
Ry