Re: [TCML] plan

[mddeming@xxxxxxx]

Hi,
If you follow this plan it MAY work somewhat for a little while. Here's a few of the reasons why:
 
1) Having the cap across the secondary of the transformer places maximum voltage stress on the high voltage windings, usually leading to early failuire of the transformer.
2) The 1 cm spark gap distance is too large for an OBIT and will lead to overvolting. A setting of 5-6 mm is more appropriate for 10kV unit.
3) There is no safety gap. 
4) Putting the gap in an insulated container without significant airflow will lead to quick overheating and power-arcing, causing degraded performance and more stress on the transformer.
5) A bolt-head gap overheats very easily and corrodes easily, requiring frequent cleaning, even with air-flow..
6) "About 400 turns" of unknown guage wire for the secondary is too small by half for efficient operation.
7) What size "small plastic tube"?
8) One layer of electrical tape will not prevent flashover.
9) 22ga. wire is way too small for primary.
10) Winding the primary onto, or worse yet, over the bottom of the secondary form is always a bad design for small coils. 
11) A single glass jar capacitor at 10 kV will develop hot spots and crack after a short time in service. 
12) Accidentally touching the outside of a foil-coated jar could easily be lethal.
13) His statement "The purpose of the capacitor is to allow the spark gap to fire" shows that he doesn't really understand what he's doing.
14) The foil covered marble does little but give it a "science-y" look. It provides little energy storage.
15) All critical dimensions are missing from his write-up. Knowing the physical dimensions are necessary to even guessing the proper tuning. As shown, there is  no way to guess what the tuning should be and no way to tune this coil if you did know.
16) Using a TC as a radio transmitter is a federal offense.
17) Touching the top of a coil during operation indicates equal parts of ignorance and stupidity.
18) Based on the other comments on his site he seems fairly well-rooted in pseudoscience and unsubstantiatable claims.

In my opinion, you would do well to lose his URL and stick with the recommendations of the rational people on this list.

Matt D.


-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Pilant <n1vqw@xxxxxxxx>
To: Tesla Coil Mailing List <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Fri, Nov 27, 2009 12:00 pm
Subject: Re: [TCML] plan


Here is a good link: 
 
  http://matttech.wordpress.com/2009/05/19/homemade-tesla-coil/ 
 
The dot between the "mattech" and "wordpress" is missing. 
 
- Mark 
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