Help with my rotary gap (and other tuning problems).....

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Adam R." <arabraxas@xxxxxxxxxxx>


I just finished testing my rotory gap, similar to the simple low inertia 
ones seen on Terry Blake's Website. However, it didn't work very well...my 
alternate (static) gap kept firing and the spark length achieved wasn't 
impressive (I admit, the tuning wasn't the best)...

But my main question lies in the phasing. I have a 47uF cap across the 
motor and a variac to adjust the power imput. I tested this under a strobe 
light and the dark bands (ie the phase) didn't seem to change much. It the 
electronic adjuster working and I am not noticing it? I don't want to mount 
the motor and find that the phasing is WAY off!

Also, do I need a safety gap literally ON the motor? I have a Terry Filter 
in line with the coil (which has two spark gaps to the ground), would that 
suffice? or do I need a whole new gap just for the motor? (it doesn't seem 
like it)...just by looking at the math of it, it seems I need to get the 
phasing right on!

One more thing, I tried out my new dual layer primary and it doesn't seem 
to be working very well. There appear to be many arcs racing to and fro on 
the secondary. What causes all this activity on the secondary? Could it be 
the geometry of the design? Here's a picture ... 
<http://img282.imageshack.us/img282/158/10016792mp.jpg>http://img282.imageshack.us/img282/158/10016792mp.jpg

Thanks for any suggestions!