Gets all "wimpy"

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jim-at-jlproduction-dot-com>

Happy Easter all,
I just got back from trying out the new "air blast" gap. Performance was
improved for sure by spark length of 3 or 4 inches at least. When I put
my 4 inch toroid on top it would actually break out on its own but was
sporadic. I never messed with the tune however. More air from the tank
regulator also made longer arcs. The pictures I took didn't come out all
that hot but you can see them at the link below. At the Web page just
scroll way down.

Then I began to get some curious behavior from my coil-
I tried forcing an arc to a grounded rod but it seemed like the arcs
didn’t like it. I know this sounds crazy but to get it to jump to a
large steel ice bar that was connected to my RF ground I had to get
within like 8-10 inches. The arcs w/o this rod were pushing 16-20 I
would say. Why didn't it like this? They would actually dance all around
the rod and corona could be seen on the far side of the rod, but an
actual hit took very close proximity.

After I got the main gap set so the safety gap only fired once in a
while I noticed the toroid was breaking out immediately even at low
power. However after about a dozen 30-45 second runs it stopped breaking
out altogether. I checked everything and all was cool to the touch but
this continued. Once it never even broke out at all but got going once I
drew spark from a bulb on a stick. It then continued on with no help but
then just stopped again.
What was going on here? Why was it pooping out on me?

Thanks all,
Jim Layton
http://www.jlproduction-dot-com/firstlight.html






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