[TCML] MOT mystery arcing

[David Rieben]

Hi Scott,

I hate to be the barer of bad news but it sure sounds as if
your MOT(s) is/are in the process of dying. :^( Have you 
considered submerging your MOTs in oil? This may help
to alleviate that problem. If possible, I would simply get
2 more undamaged MOTs and submerge them in oil pri-
or to use in your coil circuit.

Ground strikes tend to induce RF nasties into the ground
as well as nearby associated circuitry so that's like what's
going on with your setup. This is the reason that it is impor-
tant to keep the RF ground seperate from the mains ground.

David Rieben



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Scott Bogard" <sdbogard at gmail.com>
To: "Tesla Coil Mailing List" <tesla at pupman.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 9:57 PM
Subject: [TCML] MOT mystery arcing


> Hey Guys,
> So here is a new one that has me stumped...  My 4-inch coil burned a 
> MOT (no uprise there) so I replaced it, to keep the coil from arcing to 
> the primary and capacitor etc, I hung a grounded wire off the base so 
> any downward reaching arcs hit it instead of the works (and it does the 
> job quite well.)  Here is the bizarre thing, sometimes (most of the time 
> in fact) when it hits the wire, I see arcing in the MOT windings to 
> core, it started as high voltage secondary coil type arcing racing all 
> over, but over time the windings are actually catching fire inside on 
> one of the MOTs.  I cannot believe but it is still running.  None of the 
> wires were connected, I tried grounding the MOTS and nothing has 
> changed, I'm using only two, what is going on here?  My base is wood 
> painted with black paint, and one MOT has shunts removed, the other 
> doesn't.  I don't know what else to say, it's never done this before...
> 
> Scott Bogard.
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