[TCML] Racing sparks - question

[Jon Danniken]

otmaskin5 at aol.com wrote:
> Hi coilers.  Life's been busy the last few months & not much time for
> coiling, although I still read the pupman postings.  Anyway, I did
> find the time to roll out my coil tonight & run it, but I kept
> running into on an old problem I've had in the past.  Using a screw
> or ball bearing for a breakout point, my 15/60 coil produces good
> sparks, and the coil runs well with no problems.  If I remove the
> breakout, I still get sparks from the toroiod, but eventualy start
> getting racing sparks.  Without the breakout point, the coil seems to
> have no trouble producing sparks from the topload even fairly lower
> variac voltages, but when I increase variac the voltage to the 120 or
> higher I eventually get the racing sparks.    I've played around with
> raising the secondary to reduce coupling, but so far, I'm still
> getting racing sparks if I dont use a breakout.
>
> If it's just a matter of over coupling, I'll have no problem
> gradually raising the secondary to eliminate the problem.  However
> this will be somewhat involved as I have to removing the secondary's
> end cap & adding a longer mounting bolt.  Before I go much further, I
> wanted to see if any of you guys had other suggestions on what might
> be causing the racing sparks when I don't use a breakout.  I'd really
> like to be able to run the coil without using a breakout.
>
> FYI, I have a 6 X 20.5 toroid and a 3 X 12 toroid underneath it.

Without knowing more specifics on your coil, you might try a higher 
breakrate, or a larger secondary.

Jon