wiring question about tesla coil

[lokeycmos]

so my tesla coil is comming along slowly but surely. im wondering how and where to feed the wiring for the earth side of the secondary and the primary, as to minimize the chance of arcing.i do have a few short lenths of high voltage wire from flybacks and neon sign transformers. i attached a few pics of my setup. thank you

 

[DerStrom8]

Wow lokey, that's looking great! The inside of the primary might be a little too far from the secondary for good energy transfer, but that wasn't your question.

On my tesla coil (about that size) I have the ground wire from the secondary go straight through the wood at the bottom, then across the inside and finally, out to a metal stake in the ground. I'll see if I can draw a simple image for you:

View attachment 60279

That's how mine is set up and it seems to work pretty well.

I hope you can follow that drawing. Let me know if you have any more questions.

Keep up the good work!
Regards,
Der Strom

 

[lokeycmos]

crap! ur right. the inside of the primary is 7.25inches. i must have messed something up in my calculations. any tips or advice? it'll be a ***** to take it apart, cut more grooves and rewind the tubing.

 

[DerStrom8]

crap! ur right. the inside of the primary is 7.25inches. i must have messed something up in my calculations. any tips or advice? it'll be a ***** to take it apart, cut more grooves and rewind the tubing.

Uh, good question. The easiest thing I could think of is to put a coupler on the inside end of the primary and add a little more tubing, but that's a little risky. The coupler would add more edges that could allow leakage. It might be easier than rewinding it all over again. I mean, you could probably try it the way you have it now and see how it works. Just know that it may not run at its full potential.

The secondary looks to be about 4 inches in diameter is that right? I can't remember exactly and I'm too lazy to look back
If so, the inside of the primary should be about 4 3/4 - 5 inches in diameter, but you might get enough of an output the way it sits.

Yeah, actually, I wouldn't worry about it too much right now. Finish the circuits and everything and fire it up. If at some point you want to improve it, you may not mind re-winding it or adding more tubing. Just give it a shot and let us know what happens

Regards