Re: Strike Ring

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

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

In a message dated 6/5/03 10:19:19 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:


>Original poster: "Jeremy D. Gassmann by way of Terry Fritz 
><teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <gassmajd-at-email.uc.edu>
>
>Hi group,
>          First off, thank you for your replies to "Strike object and Terry
>filter"!  Just needed some good opinions and info.  Now I have a question
>about the strike ring to protect the primary (and hence the NST's) from
>taking a direct strike from the output of the coil.  My question is, how
>high above the primary (or how low below the toroid) should I place the
>ring and how much distance should I leave from end to end of the ring so
>that I have no where near a shorted primary turn.  My secondary is 4" in
>diameter along with the cross section of my toroid and the toroid has a 25"
>main diameter.  The toroid is approximately 3 ft. from the primary which is
>a flat spiral.  My power supply is 4- 15 kV 30 mA NST's in parallel (1.8
>kVA).  It uses a multiple static gap with forced air over the gaps and a
>plate capacitor of 2.2 nF.  If I am leaving out any necessary info, let me
>know.  You may be able to find any needed info at my web site at the
>bottom.  Thank you very much for your help!  With all of the info you guys
>have given me, I have become very close to completing my First coil.
>
>Jeremy Gassmann
>Cincinnati, Oh
>http://jeremyee.tripod-dot-com


Hi Jeremy,
        A couple of inches is plenty of gap in the strike rail. Two inches 
or so above the outer turn of your primary is usually OK for its position. 
The Idea is to have the distance from the bottom of the toroid to the 
strike rail be less than any line from the bottom of the toroid to any 
point on the primary. This way, any downward pointing streamers will 
preferentially go to ground via the rail. Rail is, of course, tied to RF 
ground. Just make sure that grounding wire is heavy and dressed so it is 
not within arcing distance of outer turn of primary.
        This has always worked for me. Others may have different experiences.

Matt D.