Davido,

The main problem is with the way your capacitor is currently wired - this results in your capacitor being about 20% of the desired value, and this is causing your coil to be severely out of tune (i.e., inefficient).

Unfortunately, Walt Noon's 1999 design is somewhat dated, and there are some changes that should be made to the circuit (such as where the capacitor is located and removing the HV choke coils from the design). Also, a 15 kV NST will overpower your small secondary coil - using perhaps 1/2 of the NST would be a better approach. There are also problems using a dimmer with an NST.

See my response to your other message, and my direct email response to you as well.

Best regards,

-- Bert --

Davido Hyer