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Re: No Rain=Test

Subject:  Re: No Rain=Test
  Date:   Mon, 2 Jun 1997 13:25:41 -0400 (EDT)
  From:   Esondrmn-at-aol-dot-com
    To:   tesla-at-pupman-dot-com


In a message dated 97-06-01 00:58:32 EDT, you write:

<< Hello All:
 
 We finally had a decent day here in south eastern Wisconsin and I was
 able to run a successful test on my newest coil.  I acutally got sparks
 that were easily in the 12+ foot range, at 14 KW input.  This is the
 first real night with any type of success, so now the tuning will
 start.  I ran it four times about 1-2 minutes each time and ended up
 with some of the neighbors out watching--they clapped at the end of the
 runs!  
 
 I'll give the coil specs at the end, but I need to babble on for a bit
 first.  This was an all winter project and I was just blowing fuses the
 first couple of runs, due to what turned out to be a faulty pilot light
 holder, another long story.  O.K., last night I set the coil up with a
 breakout bump on the toroid, along with an aluminum ladder (grounded)
 holding an aluminum handle extension for a paint roller for painting
 ceilings.  This provided a ground path with the end about 12' up and
the
 resulting strike distance of roughly six feet for the start.  This
 worked great and I then moved it out to eventually 11-12 feet which
 still consistantly drew arcs along with the coil spitting out what
 "seemed" to be longer sparks into free air and hits to the driveway 
 about every third or fourth spark (tough to count!)  This story had to
 be told today, otherwise it would be like a fish story--you know, the
 fish gets bigger each time the fisherman tells the story!  I am sure
the
 sparks were at least 12' long and I'm real excited about that.  
 
 On the fourth run,  I was watching the meters and trying to generally
 soak in anything out of the ordinary.  I had inspected everything at
the
 end of the first short run and the spark gap wa humming real nice.  Now
 I suddenly saw some wisps of smoke or something coming from the
 secondary.  I shut it right down and found that 23" up from the bottom,
 a turn or more (#15 wire) had gotten hot enough to bubble the Behr
Super
 Build 50 over coating and had really gotten it to smoke.  I was having
 so much fun I hadn't even tried to do any final tuning yet--I'm not
real
 sure yet why this occurred, but it will have to be resolved before any
 more runs at full power are even considered.  
 
 I checked out the spark gap and both the new vacuum gap system and the
 rotary built last year looked like the rotary loved it--no visible
 problems there.  However, the vacuum gap now in the daylight shows some
 discoloration of the acrylic shell that holds the nine electrodes--that
 needs a close look too.  Absolutely no arcing was noticed anywhere,
with
 the primary now positioned about even to + 1/2" above the bottom
primary
 turn.  If anyone has experienced a turn near the middle of the
secondary
 getting real hot, I'd appreciate any comments.  Thanks in advance, coil
 specs below.
 
 Chuck Curran
 Cedarburg, WI
  >>
- snip -

Chuck,

Congratulations, sounds like a hell of a project.  I would difinitely
like to
see it.  Keep us posted.  I don't have any idea why one turn or section
of
the secondary would get real hot unless it is from overcoupling or not
being
right on tune.  I have heard of sparks breaking out on the secondary of
a two
coil system (and seen it on mine) but have not heard of the wire getting
real
hot in one spot except with Richard Hulls maggys.

Ed Sonderman