Re: First light?

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

Original poster: "S & J Young by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <youngs-at-konnections-dot-net>

Bob,
Yes - here is a pointer.

You need to elevate your primary about a foot above your steel table.
Better yet, put your stuff on a wood table.  Your primary will try to heat
up your steel table top, something like an induction heater, and will rob
you of significant power that otherwise would make longer sparks for you.
--Steve
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2002 8:03 AM
Subject: First light?


> Original poster: "Bob Bozarth by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<jbdetails-at-prodigy-dot-net>
>
>     Well, I've never built a Tesla coil before so this is kind of a big
deal to
> me. Using a tesla coil, I made sparks for the first time! Even though they
were
> faint and only 3" long, I feel pretty good about it. Nowhere to go but up
I
> guess. I suppose a little tuning is in order.
>
>     Just in case anyone is interested... I started of with a 15K 30ma NST.
A
> spark gap that came from a plasma torch (unknown material). A six pack of
> rootbeer SWcaps still in six pack carrier. Then onto 13 turns of flat
primary
> 8ga stranded well pump wire that I stripped clean of all plastic to make
tuning
> a little simpler. I set all this up on my 4'x5' steel welding table. NST
> sitting on a piece of glass, primary mounted to a piece of 1/4" thick
> hardiboard, then the secondary sitting on the same piece centered on the
> primary. The windings on the secondary started about 1/2" or so higher
than the
> primary. I drilled a 3/16" hole in the center of the board to allow the
lower
> wire from the secondary to slip through and rest on the table top.
>
>     Any pointers? Anyone? Anyone?
>
>    Bob Bozarth
>
>
>