Re: First light?

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

Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>

Hi Bob,

I would take the coil OFF the steel table.  The primary will induce very high
currents in the big metal table (like maybe 1000+ amps!) and it will act like a
shorted turn steeling most of the coil's power.  I think it will make a giant
difference if you put it on wood, concrete, dirt, or just about any other
non-conductive surface.

Next try to get an MMC cap for another big jump in power.

Cheers,

        Terry


At 02:02 AM 1/17/2002 -0500, you wrote: 
>
>     Well, I've never built a Tesla coil before so this is kind of a big deal
> to me. Using a tesla coil, I made sparks for the first time! Even though they
> were faint and only 3" long, I feel pretty good about it. Nowhere to go but
> up I guess. I suppose a little tuning is in order.
>     
>     Just in case anyone is interested... I started of with a 15K 30ma NST. A
> spark gap that came from a plasma torch (unknown material). A six pack of
> rootbeer SWcaps still in six pack carrier. Then onto 13 turns of flat primary
> 8ga stranded well pump wire that I stripped clean of all plastic to make
> tuning a little simpler. I set all this up on my 4'x5' steel welding table.
> NST sitting on a piece of glass, primary mounted to a piece of 1/4" thick
> hardiboard, then the secondary sitting on the same piece centered on the
> primary. The windings on the secondary started about 1/2" or so higher than
> the primary. I drilled a 3/16" hole in the center of the board to allow the
> lower wire from the secondary to slip through and rest on the table top. 
>  
>     Any pointers? Anyone? Anyone?
>  
>    Bob Bozarth