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New coil troubles



Original poster: "Christopher" <cpfortun@xxxxxxxxxx>

Hi,

I'm writing in regards to a new coil I recently constructed. The specs are as follows : 9kv franceformer....180mA, SRSG, a total of 24 caps.....8 seriesed 3 legs paralled.. (.15MFD at 2000V each) making for a total of .058MFD, the primary coil consists of 11 turns......the first four turns are vertical and the other seven are horizontal.....I am using 1/4" soft copper tubing "OD" and the spacing between the turns is 1/4", the secondary is 3" "OD" with a total height of 24 1/2" with the magnet wire wrap length meausuring 22 3/4"........on top of the secondary is a spacer which holds the toroid a total of 3 1/2" above the secondary, the toroid measures 19 1/2" by 4". The electrical connections are as follows : xfmr is in parallel with the caps, on end of the caps is connected straight into the primary coil, the other end of the caps is connected to the spark gap (one side of the spark gap), the other side of the spark gap is used for the tapping point of the primary coil, (The safety gap, secondary coil, and strike rail are connected together as one source going to RF ground). If there may be any questions that need further explaination in regards to the mechanical or electrical setup let me know.
Moving on to my troubles.......when I initially constructed my coil I allowed for a 5" inside diameter between my secondary and primary........which left a total of 1" spacing between these two. This wasn't enough because I was getting sparks from my primary to my secondary on the vertical turns. So I redid my primary and made for a 6" inside diameter needless to say this fixed the problem and decreased the tapping point. The problem now is that my streamers are extremely short, maybe 10 inches, and I am getting sparks that start about the middle of my secondary which strike down to my primary. The tapping point has no effect on the size of the streamers no matter where I tap it, they are the same l ength. I tried raising the secondary gradually but has no effect on eliminating the sparks from the secondary to the primary.....I either get sparks or nothing at all. The spark gap is set up as 4 stationary electrodes and 1 rotating electrode. I am also using a variac with this system. After the spark gap has been turned on and operated up to full speed, I slowly turn up the variac from 0 V to 120 V, this is the reaction of the spark gap....all four will fire, then two will fire and them the other two will fire almost instantaneously, then only two of the electrodes will fire until I reach 80 volts and then all four will kick in again and stay on up to 120 volts. Does this sound pretty normal for the operation of it ? Anyhow that's enough for now.
Any feedback in regards to the sparks from the secondary to the primary and just the overall setup and operation of this unit will be greatly appreciated :)
Thanks,
Chris F.
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