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RE: [TCML] Variac Amps for a VTTC?



My advice would be to start with a smallish spark gap coil and to work with that until you have a through understanding of general coiling theory and optimization and most importantly - safety,  before you jump in on a vacuum tube project. Not knowing what your experience is with high voltage, I can't really guess what you know of the safety habits that you must develop when working with it. I only know that when I made my only mistake with high voltage, I was happy that it had occurred with a small current limited NST with the variac at very low voltage, because if it had happened with a MOT it probably would have killed me. And until you have such an experience its hard to appreciate the care you must take at absolutely every moment when you are dealing with the primary circuit of a coil. A MOT absolutely has the potential to be a life taking apparatus, even at a low voltage input, and especially when combined with a tank capacitor. And if you make such a mistake your death will likely be very painful and very messy. 
Not to scare you off from coiling, but vacuum coils are quite complex, and they are inherently much more difficult/dangerous to build & tune than a spark gap coil built with a current limited nst. And really spark gap coils perform much better in terms of streamer length with much less input. 
They are more of a specialty type coil, unique for their sword like streamers and high frequency, and in my opinion should be reserved for more advanced coil builders. 
If all of this is redundant and you're some high voltage technician/engineer/electrician, please excuse this post. 
Otherwise I highly recommend starting out with a spark gap coil. There is a lot of weird physics involved in coiling, most quite counter-intuitive, and I know that if I would have started out with a vacuum tube coil I most likely would have abandoned coiling all together because of the combination of the lack of basic knowledge that naturally comes about with your first coils and the added complication of tube coiling. 

Whatever you choose to do, be safe and best of luck on your coiling adventure. 

Shannon Weinhold




-----Original Message-----
From: carsten [mailto:cgz365@xxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2011 10:19 AM
To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [TCML] Variac Amps for a VTTC?

I'm working on my first coil and plan to use 1-2x MOTs in series with 1-2 GU-81m tubes.  How big if a variac do I need @120vac?  I'm guessing a minimum of 10A, but probably 20A to be on the safe side.  What woudl be the requirement for 1 MOT vs 2?

Thanks!

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