Re: Nathan has some success!

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Nathan has some success!
From: Esondrmn-at-aol-dot-com (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2000 11:56:10 -0700
Approved: twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net
Delivered-To: fixup-tesla-at-pupman-dot-com-at-fixme

In a message dated 1/11/00 12:14:33 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:

 -snipola-
>  BUT..
>  After several minutes (not continuous) of working, the spark gap stops 
>  firing. (this was just as I got the camera out to record the new record... 
>  coincidence, or no?)  The tranny still hums like before, but no spark gap 
>  again.  All of my connections are good, the capacitor is working, and the 
>  NST even draws the same length of arc as when the coil works, but no spark 
>  gap.  Darn!
>  
>  My gap presently is an RQ,no cooling fan right now, 8 sections -at- .03".
>  
>  Has anyone had this problem before?  It was happening earlier too.  Then I 
>  worked on other parts of the coil for a couple days, and tonight it worked 
>  fine again.  Perhaps the coil will work fine for another couple minutes 
>  tomorrow evening...
>  
>  but i would like for it to work as long as I want it to!
>  
>  thanks,
>  and safe coiling to everybody,
>  Nathan

Nathan,

Glad to hear things are starting to work.  I would suggest adding a muffin 
fan to the RQ spark gap - or something to move quite a bit of air through 
there.  I have built two of these gaps, both with muffin fans and they work 
well.  It sounds like your gap starts out working fine and then heats up and 
quits quenching, the air flow should fix this.

Since your pile of bad transformers might be getting larger than the good 
ones that you have left - I think you need to add some kind of protection 
system between the neons and the primary.  There are as many opinions on this 
subject as there are people on this list.  I use one choke made with as many 
turns of #16 pvc insulated wire as I could get on a ferrite core (about 1.2" 
I.D. if I remember correctly) and one 3,000 ohm 25 watt resistor in series 
with each H.V. feed line.  Whatever the opinions, this seems to work for me 
and I have not lost a neon transformer in over a year - knock on wood.  I 
also have a pile of bad ones from my earlier efforts.

My 4.0" coil, using a 12kv 30ma transformer and a .009 uf cap produces 26" 
sparks with the RQ static gap.

Ed Sonderman