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Hi, There are a number of potential problems, all which are combining to reduce your coil's performance. The secondary diameter should be at least 2", and you should wind it with some new 26 - 28 AWG magnet wire. Make the secondary winding at least 12" long. If your 2 liter pop bottle is made from plastic it will be very lossy - it should be made from a number of glass bottles (beer bottles work well) instead. You also may want to make a small toroid out of some small aluminum dryer duct once you've gone to a larger secondary. You may be able to connect the two ignition coils in parallel to get more current, but you may need to reverse the connections to the primary of one of them so that they don't "fight" each other. Eventually, a Neon Sign Transformer will provide you with much better performance. Do not use the microwave oven transformer - it's overkill for a small coil. You also may want to check out some of the sources listed on my site for more information, especially the Pupman or Tesla-2 mailing lists: Good luck and play safely! -- Bert --
: Hey all, this is my first post. I just recently built my first TC from
: old junk I had laying around and one automotive ignition coil. The coil
: is an old oil-filled one that says Delco-Remy on it. (?) I am using a
: lamp dimmer to control the ignition coil, with a clothes iron heating
: element in series to limit the current. the cap is a 2 liter pop bottle
: filled w/salt water in a bucket with more salt water, lined with foil.
: the foil and a copper pipe in the bottle are the terminals. the spark
: gap is simple, just a couple of bolts that can be twisted in and out.
: the primary is 13 turns of heavy wire (#12 if i remember right) around
: half a 2 liter pop bottle. the secondary is about 720 turns of wire i
: pulled off of a blower motor around a 7/8in diameter cardboard tube.
: The secondary stands about 12in high. the toroid is just an old stereo
: speaker cone frame wrapped in foil (looks pretty cool). My RF ground is
: a 2 foot pipe hammered in the ground out the window, nothing special. I
: can get about 6-7 cm sparks at best off of the toroid when tuned at
: about 6 winds on the primary, and spark gap as far out as it will still
: spark reliably.
: Is there any way to improve spark length, i think maybe my secondary is
: too skinny maybe. I havent seen any under 2in diameter.
: I have another auto coil now too, any advice on dual coil system? when
: i hooked 'em both up it hardly worked at all. I tried series, paralell,
: no good.
: I also have a BIG OL microwave transformer, but it sucks (2-3cm sparks
: at best when hooked up to the TC. It was pulled from an old radarange
: (60's model, i believe.) It draws about 2400 watts, dims my lights and
: all.
: Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
: =Rockinriley14=
:
http://205.243.100.155/frames/build1.html
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