[TCML] Re: Party time (fwd)

[BunnyKiller]

Hey Tony..

I was also excited about getting mine going for the first time too...  
but alas, nothing just a hum. But dont be totally bummed about a 
"no-show" streamer.
I would start with a safety gap setting of 3/16" to 1/4" to start and 
have the main gap setting at 1/16" less than what the safety gap is set for.
Since I dont know how your coil is set up, I would start with the 
primary tap at the furtherest outside turn and work towards the inside 
turn one at a time ( yup its time consuming but it works). If you have a 
variac, start it with he voltage set on 0 and increase slowly, look for 
arcs where there shouldnt be any, like around caps, wires near cases, 
secondary to primary flashovers, secondary running arcs( down the 
outside of the secondary). Listen to your coil, odd out of sync snapping 
or popping noises means there could be a problem. If your safety gap 
fires continously ( loud bright popping) you may want to open it up a 
tad, but not more than 1.5X the RSG width, you want to protect the NST 
as well as you can. By starting with a low voltage and slowly raising it 
via a variac, you can set the tuning in a safe "low level" voltage. Once 
you are getting streamers 12" or so you can start ramping the variac up 
to and past the 85+% and do the fine tuning of the primary.
Remember, caps can hold a charge for some time and can bite you..... 
unplug your coil when making any adjustments.

Scot D



Tesla list wrote:

>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2007 16:30:54 -0800
>From: Anthony R. Mollner <penny831 at earthlink.net>
>To: Tesla list <tesla at pupman.com>
>Subject: Party time
>
>I have completed my tesla coil and I'm ready to "tune" it up. What does
>everyone advise regarding the first time run for a 15/120 SRSG coil? What
>would be advised for the safety gap setting, the SRSG gap and enitial phase,
>voltage start up and even the primary setting?
>
>I'm looking forward to pushing that on button!
>
>Tony
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