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first coil issues (fwd)



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:07:17 -0500
From: Drake Schutt <drake89@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: first coil issues

Hi All,
I've been tinkering with my coil off and on for the past few days and just
when i thought i had everything set, i'm having more troubles.  The first
issue was the vaccum motor broke off its mounts, then the spark gap
electrodes broke off and now my MMC is broken.  I mounted it on i think 1/8"
thick plexiglass which i can now tell you cracks very easily.  I desoldered
the caps and tried configuring them on a cutting board from walmart.  The
leads were too short to thread through the board so they are literally
soldered together (rather haphazardly) in strings sort of like this:


====|
====|
====|

the strings all terminate in about the same spot and i'm using some bare Cu
(maybe 6 awg) grounding wire a nice fella at home depot gave me for free.
The trouble now is when I turn the varic up to about 60V the MMC bank starts
sparking noisily.  I cannot spot anywhere where the caps have failed or
carbon tracking on the PE mounting board.  I tried insulating the "bus bars"
with some PE tubing which helped a bit.  I am thinking about putting them in
a container filled with oil to keep it from shorting out.  What do you think
would be a good short term solution as I am sort of nearing a deadline with
a project for school.

Also- I was using I/O gauge wire in my tank circuit but it was just too hard
to work with.  I'm now using #6 stranded wire.  Can I go smaller?

What would be a good primary tap (1/4 Cu tubing)? as the one i'm using now
was sort of lashed together

Thanks a million
drake schutt

p.s.- dave do you remember it ever being sooo hot here?  I can hardly stand
just going outside.  I sort of feel guilty for watering my grounding rod
during a drought ^_^

pps-  coil specs:

xfrmr- 12kv/90ma
cap- 0.028uf@32kv
primary- 1/4 cu tubing, 8.5in ID, 21in OD
secondary- 6.5" OD-  30" of #22
top load- 6"x24" ducting/pizza pan/Al tape (slightly dented, w/6" copper
breakout point)