[TCML] primary material? (interview)

[Lau, Gary]

As primary resistance and Q are important, we usually choose copper as the first choice to optimize these things.  Exactly how much performance would suffer if aluminum were substituted, I don't think, has ever been experimentally tested.  It would no doubt depend on many things, especially the primary inductance (losses will be higher in a low inductance primary).

However, there are better reasons to stick with copper.  The ability to solder and splice copper, and to use a tap clamp without worrying about the oxide layer are important.  The cost of 1/4" copper tubing, relative to the total cost of a coil, isn't huge in my opinion.

Regards, Gary Lau
MA, USA

> -----Original Message-----
> From: tesla-bounces at pupman.com [mailto:tesla-bounces at pupman.com] On
> Behalf Of John Matok
> Sent: Friday, July 18, 2008 2:11 PM
> To: Tesla Coil Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [TCML] primary material? (interview)
>
> What affect would aluminum have on my performance?  If it's cheaper, why
> wouldn't everyone use it?
>
> Nicholas