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MMD update

    Last night I recieved my 500 diodes, MOV's and bypass capacitors from
Digikey.  Most of yesterday and today I have been building 2 MMD's for use in
my coil.  My approach was a little different than the usual perfboard one--I
couldn't actually afford the 2 pieces of perfboard I would have needed ($10
apiece), so on a hunch I bought 20 surplus 18-pin PCB sockets for five bucks.
Besides, this would make the MMD much smaller, though I'd have to encase it in
wax to prevent arcover.  First I bent and soldered the output pins together,
making sure I didn't have sharp points protruding.  I guessed beforehand that
the diodes wouldn't fit side by side in the sockets, so I did some
experimenting with different lead lengths, and came up with a high-low scheme
which seemed to fit the sockets very well.  I then bent the leads of 100
diodes, and hammered the ends of them, so they would fit snugly into the
sockets.  This morning I finished the 2 3-diode sets (18 diodes apiece)
arranged attaching wires between them, and encapsulated both MMDs in canning
wax.  I heated the wax for a half an hour beforehand to get rid of any
moisture.  Upon cooling the wax shrunk substantially, apparently creating
stresses and voids in the wax which clouded it.  I am guessing that this won't
affect the performance, as even though there is very little space between the
diodes (at smallest ~5mm) the voltage each will be "seeing" is only ~400.
Since this is below the quoted 600v arcing voltage it shouldn't be a problem.
I'm still worried about the sockets however, since the diode leads aren't
soldered to each of the sockets.  If wax somehow was introduced between the
leads and the sockets, they could arc through the wax, heating it, melting it,
and spreading carbon around.  I haven't tested the MMD's yet, but if this
happens I'll let the list know.
    In the last three days I also found the time to build a charging reactor
for the tank circuit.  I used 3 MOT secondaries in series, and encapsulated
them in wax as well.  Eventually I will have to build one more, since my supply
has a positive and a negative output.  I'm still looking for information on
filter caps, if anyone read my last post.  I'm not sure if the doubler caps
will be sufficient, or if I will need something substantially bigger.  At any
rate, I plan to get 30 or so *more* oven caps before I am done, which should up
the doubler capacitance to. .. umm. . . 10 uf.  Still not enough, is it?  The
other question I have also remains unanswered.  Will I really need a charging
reactor for a CW coil?  I'm not worried however, about already having built
one, since I plan eventually to make a very large disruptive DC coil

                    --Mike