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My First Tesla Works!



Subject:      My First Tesla Works!
       Date:  Wed, 11 Jun 1997 18:53:03 -0400
       From:  Tom Heiber <theiber-at-lonet.ca>
Organization: Power Surge
         To:  tesla-at-pupman-dot-com


This IS a Re-Post as it seems it was not recieved by the Tesla List
Server! with some minor changes :)

Hey There Guys (and gals) my FIRST Tesla Coil Works.
After painstakingly long hours of building it It Works!

WOW!

Well Here are the specs!

Power Supply: 12KV 60mA Neon Xfmr.
Spark Gap   : 4 bolts in series, cooled by a cooling fan
Cap         : Home-Made Salt-Water Caps -at-13.1nF
Primary     : 9 Turns 1/4" copper tubing, tapped at 9 (needs more turns)

Seconday    : 4"x13.5" 22Gauge, blue PVC pipe
Toroid      :  4"x30" aluminum duct pipe

Well. After I have cooled down a bit. Here's my problem.

About 1/3 way from the bottom of the winding (secondary) I had a breakou
of corona and it fused about 4-5 turns together. Now, I have no idea why
this has happened or how to fix it.
Also, all I get from this TC is about 13"-15" sparks. Is this the
maximum I can get from my Tesla?

I have noticed that while operating the coil inside the garage. The
garage door went wild. I had to unplug it cuz It was getting too weird.

BTW. Is the spark gap supposed to be THAT loud? I thought the output
from the Sec. was more powerfull and would make more noise.

Does anyone have any suggestions about my coil for improvement? (except
the cap)

CYA

Tom Heiber

P.S. Build Time 1 month (4-5 hours a day)