Re: New coiler :)

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

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

Johnathan, 
   Can you tell us more about your SW cap?  If you cannot measure the
capacitance, perhaps the number of bottles will be close enough. 
   Your coil is wound with wire thicker than most would use(most would use 24 -
28g for this size coil to get about 1000 or more turns).  Yours has about 400
or so.  This will work.  For a particular experiment, I just made a short  coil
with only 300 turns that works fine.  The paraffin was likely not necessary,
but shouldn't hurt anything.  I don't even have any varnish(or similar) on the
300 turn coil and it works fine.  I don't think any amount of insulation will
help if a coil is overcoupled or mistuned to the point of causing sparks along
the secondary winding anyway.  More likely, it will become carbon tracked and
make the coil useless if racing sparks form and are allowed to continue for any
length of time.  Sanding the pvc pipe is not necessary in my opinion.  I just
use a mix of acetone and ethyl alcohol to wipe of any lettering(acetone alone
will dissolve pvc if left on very long).  I just ! pour the mix onto a rag and
quickly remove the lettering.  PVC, I guess can absorb moisture, but I live in
a relatively dry area and haven't had any problems of this nature.   
    As for your topload,  It should work alright, but a toroid is generally
thought to be better than a sphere.   
    Chances are you are just not in tune with the given setup, but without
knowing a bit more about your SW cap, it would be hard to hazard a guess. 
Mike