[TCML] General Questions About a Pig Powered Coil (and an Introduction)

[Thomas Schmit <Thomas.Schmit@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Everybody,

I've never used a mailing list like this before, so you will have to
excuse any faux pa regarding the use of said list. For a quick bit of
background, I am a machinist and high energy physicist and it seemed
time that I build a Tesla coil. (No self-respecting physicist can
neglect to build one ;-) ).

I have a 3 phase variac (used for a cloud chamber, originally - its
good to 100 amps and 600 VAC RMS), a single phase pole pig, an old
mil-spec 30 KVDC 5 ma supply, several neon light transformers, etc.
That being said, I'm new to the home-brew high voltage game. It is
considerably different than working for a lab where dropping $10,000
on a power supply is trump change :-D and I could use all the help I
can get!

What I am concerned about now is the design of my coil. I am building
with a 6' spark in mind - that should pretty well max out a 110 volt
supply (the pole pig will be fed through one of the variacs hooked
into 110 volt mains through a 30 amp breaker). I'm looking at a
secondary coil with about 1000 turns of 23 AWG wire, which works out
to a length of only about 25". I am concerned about strikes hitting
the primary coil from the discharge terminal on the secondary.

 I guess I was just hoping I could get some input on the secondary
design. I'm thinking an 8" diameter PVC form - I will clean, bake and
shellac it before winding my coil. Size/length/diameter of wire/number
of turns - these are all variables that I'm not to sure about. I know
what inductance I want to hit, but I can get there several different
ways and I figure you all have already done the hard work for me ...
:-)

 Tom Schmit
>

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