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Balast (was Re: to Bert Hickman)




From: 	Julian Green[SMTP:julian-at-kbss.bt.co.uk]
Sent: 	Monday, July 28, 1997 12:45 PM
To: 	tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: 	Balast (was Re: to Bert Hickman)

Balast is something that I have been trying to get sence I got my
pole pig, but as yet have not been successfull.

I recently salvaged a 25KVA welder from a heap of scrap metal but 
not connected it up as my coil seems to run perfectly well without
it.   It also need some fixing.

I put this down to the spark gap which is a high speed rotary with
the minimum number of electrodes (2) on the rotor.   The rotary runs
at about 300 BPS.

The wall socket power is 13A -at- 240v and output spark length is 45"
(need bigger garage) nice white hot - burns holes through wood.

Coil stats are:	7" x 21" Secondary 770 turns, 24" x 5" toroid, 21" 
primary, 0.03uF cap.  Primary voltage 11KV.

Tuning a coil without balast is tricky as violent current spikes can 
occur, but these can be kept at a minimum if the speed of the rotary 
is kept high.  

When good tuning is achieved the power from the wall socket drops, 
the intencity of the spark gap drops and output spark length increases.

Do other coilers believe that adding inductive balast would increase
the output spark, or do I have a spark gap that solves the balast 
problem?

Please comment on this as I would like to know if my coil is any good.

Julian Green