New coiler :)

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Jonathan Senger by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <scoobysnax100-at-hotmail-dot-com>

Hey guys,
 
I'm a 17 year old newbie coiler from Auburn, Alabama.  I was
wondering if there are any coilers in my area?  My first attempt 
at a coil was a flop...  I've been looking at the tesla ring and various 
Tesla sites and I think I see a few probs with my design. Sorry if this post
is a bit long.
 
I used a 15kV 30 mA NST, SW caps, and a simple 1 gap spark gap with 
no quenching(could this be the problem?).  My primary was 11 turns of 
1/4" Cu tubing, with 1/4" spacing wound up the outside of a plastic beach toy 
bucket and secured with cable ties(could overcoupling be the problem?).  My 
secondary is wound on a 1.5 foot long sched 40 PVC pipe with an OD of
3.5"(I just read something about sanding the PVC and baking it in the oven to 
drive off moisture and then sealing it with varnish, how important is this?)  
I painted the PVC with a thin layer of beeswax to help the wire stay while 
I was winding(bad idea?).  I hand wound 20 awg magnet wire for 14"(not 
enough turns?) and passed the ends through a hole in the PVC at each 
end of the winding.  I probably should have used a shellac or varnish to seal 
it but I don't think it would have stuck to the wax anyway. To seal it i used
paper 
towels soaked in paraffin(this was probably a bad idea). For a discharge
terminal I 
used a 6" foam sphere wrapped in aluminum foil and rubbed smooth. I had no idea

how to tune it right so i just tried a bunch of spots, I also didn't know how
wide 
of a gap I should use.  I was able to get 5 inch very thin(less than a mm
thick)
spindly sparks if I put a grounded cable close to the sphere, but no 
brush discharge or streamers.
 
Any advice would be appreciated, thanks :)
 
Jonathan Senger