Re: Sparking off the secondary problem - author reply

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

Original poster: sean <sean-at-nc.rr-dot-com> 

Thanks for all the help.
Something even stranger happened after I put electric tape over the
burnt marks!
It started spewing black smoke from the secondary!

I looked inside (and choked on it) and there were burn streaks on the
inside, the whole inside was black.  The pvc had been burning!  I
covered the burn marks with electrical tape again, and now it works
again.  I'm guessing I made the secondary too tall 4"/21".

I have gotten 24 inch sparks.  It also hits the fan cooling the spark
gap...

Is this good performance for a 12k/60 NST with beer bottle capacitors?

I don't have a safety gap yet, so I'm not going to run it much.  I have
heard various statements reguarding safty gaps.  Do I tune it to almost
(but not) fire when only it is connected to the transformer, or do I
tune it when everything is connected except the spark gap. Do I connect
the safty gap to the NST midpoint?  This makes sence.  If so, do I also
connect the bottom of the secondary to the NST midpoint and RF ground,
or only to the RF ground?  Thanks.

On Sat, 2003-10-25 at 15:00, Tesla list wrote:
 > Original poster: Paul Nicholson <paul-at-abelian.demon.co.uk>
 >
 > Sean wrote:
 >
 >  > instead of working normally, it shot sparks 2/3 of the
 >  > way up the secondary
 >
 >  > I turned it off, checked the connection between secondary
 >  > and toroid,
 >
 > Also check secondary to ground connection, and make sure that
 > none of your primary cap strings have gone open circuit.
 >
 > Both these could cause the TC to operate in quite the wrong
 > resonant mode.
 > --
 > Paul Nicholson
 > --
-- 
sean <sean-at-nc.rr-dot-com>