Newbie with questions...

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

Original poster: The MCP <ejkeever-at-comcast-dot-net> 

Hello, everyone. I just signed up and have some questions to ask about some
aspects of coiling.

I've built a small (tabletop-size) tesla coil for fun, and I am observing some
very odd behavior from it. But first, I should provide some basic info.

The secondary is a .75" PVC pipe (I got excited and built it before doing
enough research), with about 10.5 inches of 32 gauge magnet wire on it, about
1000 turns. The helical primary is 5 inches in diameter, ~3.5 inches tall,
with 5 turns.

The main tank circuit has a smallish 5000/20 NST and currently a single
40KV/2nF cap from TDK that I picked up for $30.

The spark gap is a simple static gap, currently separated by about .125
inches, using the tips of a pair of screws. When these wear out, I can just
replace them with fresh ones. The gap can be set for up to 1/2 or so inch
separation.

Currently, the whole thing is in a highly experimental state. By that I mean
that very little is set in stone; Almost all the major connections are either
twisted together or clipped. So you've got a lot of latitude to change
things.

Anyway, on to my questions. First of all, I'm wondering if I've got any of the
components grossly off-key. Comment away.

Second, I've found something odd( to me at least). One day, just for the heck
of it, I took off the topload and stretched the wire straight out. Nothing
much happened. But when I took the 6 inches or so of wire and wound them into
a small spiral (about 7 turns, 3/8 inch diameter, 1 inch long), the coil
worked almost as well as with the big copper topload so I abandoned it. Can
someone tell me why?

Thanks for taking the time to slog through all this and answer my probably
silly questions!