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You can often buy NST's on eBay for reasonable prices. Also OBIT's can often be had for free or little $ (just bring your tools!) from heating and ventillation places when they junk/replace oil furnaces. You can also buy them new from Grainger (look for "ignition transformer) or HVAC (that's Heating, Ventillation, and Air Conditioning) suppliers for $40-50. #28 AWG will give you more turns and higher inductance (desirable for technical reasons), and the smaller diameter is not a problem due to the relatively low current even at higher power levels. If you decide to significantly boost up the power later, you'll want to increase both the diameter and height of your secondary anyway. It really doesn't matter if you use smaller or larger bottles as long as the wall thickness is sufficient. Most beer bottles will work fine (small or large). I wouldn't recommend large pickle jars. Some folks have also made "bucket caps" using 5 gallon plastic (HDPE) buckets - check out bucket caps on the Tesla List archives. Secondary height vs diameter is not critical as long as the form is long enought to prevent flashover and the coil has reasonably high inductance (say 800-1500 turns). A minimum of 3:1 and a maximum of perhaps 10:1 for small diameter coils is in the ballpark - it's really not a critical parameter. Good luck and best regards, -- Bert--
: Well, I wanna NST and I am going to check around for one, unfortunately
: I live in the middle of nowhere, where old cars are much more plentiful
: than NSTs... where could I get an OBIT, are those easy to come by, and
: out of what? an old oil furnace, I suppose, but anywhere else?
: As for the wire, does #26 or #28 make a big difference? I just figured
: i'd be less likely to break #26, and it would allow for more power later
: on down the road >:}
: A beer bottle cap is sounding like my best bet. Would it be better to
: use several smaller bottles or a few big jars? I have several large
: pickle jars (a gallon or so apiece) sitting around.
: Is there a certain height-to-diameter ratio that works best for
: secondaries?
: Thanks!
: =Rockinriley14=
:
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