Alternative wire for Tesla Coil secondary? / Tesla Coils / Forums

Forums

4hv.org :: Forums :: Tesla Coils

« Previous topic | Next topic »

Alternative wire for Tesla Coil secondary?

1 2 next

Move Thread

LAN_403

HM_Murdock

Mon Sept 06 2010, 02:26PM

Registered Member #3075 Joined: Fri Aug 06 2010, 02:44PM
Location: Athens, GA
Posts: 148

Is there a reason to not use regular insulated wire for a secondary? I have no local resourced for magnet wire, so it got me thinking...

Could I use something like a single strand of wire from a Cat5 cable, or maybe thermostat wire?

I am guessing the main concern is still getting the number of turns on my form?

Duality

Mon Sept 06 2010, 02:46PM

Registered Member #1951 Joined: Sun Feb 01 2009, 01:59PM
Location:
Posts: 105

you can insulate the secondary after winding, with epoxy or something else

pauleddy

Mon Sept 06 2010, 04:06PM

Registered Member #2909 Joined: Wed Jun 09 2010, 12:31AM
Location: fort belvoir, Va USA ( south of DC)
Posts: 145

ya i was thinking the same thing i have thousands of feet of telephone wire.
but can you use wire bundles for the primary as well?

HM_Murdock

Mon Sept 06 2010, 04:14PM

Registered Member #3075 Joined: Fri Aug 06 2010, 02:44PM
Location: Athens, GA
Posts: 148

R v.d. - not what I was asking about...

pauleddy - at the very least, I would think you would need to remove the individual strands from the phone wire, but yeah, that's exactly what I am asking about. I don't think stranded would work on the primary though.

Anyone out there with some experience that can chime in on this?

Matt Edwards

Mon Sept 06 2010, 05:58PM

Registered Member #2838 Joined: Fri Apr 30 2010, 07:55PM
Location: tehachapi, CA
Posts: 333

Yes, Insulated wire will work just fine. Use a decent gauge if you have enough room. I used 14awg on my flyback. Something to think about. If your ferrite core is close to the flyback secondary and you have little room to wind the wire, you may have issues with the primary arcing to the secondary when powering the circuit above 12v.

HM_Murdock

Mon Sept 06 2010, 06:34PM

Registered Member #3075 Joined: Fri Aug 06 2010, 02:44PM
Location: Athens, GA
Posts: 148

should have been more specific...

Can insulated wire be used to make a Tesla Coil Secondary Coil?

Talking about solid-core, thin insulated wire (like thermostat wire, or the wires from inside a phone cable or Cat5 cable)

Herr Zapp

Mon Sept 06 2010, 06:50PM

Registered Member #480 Joined: Thu Jul 06 2006, 07:08PM
Location: North America
Posts: 644

HMM -

Yes, small-gage plastic insulated wire can be used to wind a Tesla coil secondary, but because of the greater insulation thickness (compared to enameled magnet wire) you won't get nearly as many turns per given length of secondary coilform for a given wire gage. Your biggest problem may be getting a single length of wire long enough to wind the entire secondary. You can splice shorter segments of wire together, but it won't be pretty, and will likely cause problems with corona and flashover unless you overcoat the completed secondary with varnish or epoxy.

Solid or stranded wire doesn't make any difference in either the primary or secondary coils; both will work equally well.

Herr Zapp

Dr. Slack

Mon Sept 06 2010, 07:47PM

Registered Member #72 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:29AM
Location: UK St. Albans
Posts: 1659

You get best performance from using the largest diameter copper you can get, for best Q, lowest RF losses, consistent with it being sufficiently insulated that it doesn't break down turn to turn. Magnet wire has just thick enough insulation. cat5 cores are overkill for insulation thickness, so you lose out on RF loss. But - if it's all you have to hand you will still get a coil that works. It will simply produce shorter sparks (other things being equal) than a similar coil wound with magnet wire.

Matt Edwards

Mon Sept 06 2010, 07:49PM

Registered Member #2838 Joined: Fri Apr 30 2010, 07:55PM
Location: tehachapi, CA
Posts: 333

My mistake, I did not read the thread title. I assumed that you were asking about a flyback secondary. There are quite a few flyback questions on here at the moment...

As for insulated wire on a tesla coil secondary.. Yes I have seen it done. I have no experience with stranded wire on a secondary so I cannot comment on its effectiveness. But it does seem to work fine for the primary coil. As Herr Zapp stated, you will have to take into consideration the extra space taken up by the insulation when determining your coil height.

Here is a good example of insulated wire for the secondary.

FYI, there are a few people selling enameled wire on ebay for relatively cheap. I purchased from this guy and it seems to be good quality wire. I have built two coils with it so far.

Duality

Mon Sept 06 2010, 08:21PM

Registered Member #1951 Joined: Sun Feb 01 2009, 01:59PM
Location:
Posts: 105

HM_Murdock wrote ...

should have been more specific...

Can insulated wire be used to make a Tesla Coil Secondary Coil?

Talking about solid-core, thin insulated wire (like thermostat wire, or the wires from inside a phone cable or Cat5 cable)

one word, yes :)

and srry i thought that the reason was insulation thats why i said that.
but you can use stranded wire, but solid wire will give more turns per coil :) (depending on the thickness of the solid wire of course )

1 2 next

Moderator(s): Chris Russell, Noelle, Alex, Tesladownunder, Dave Marshall, Dave Billington, Bjørn, Steve Conner, Wolfram, Kizmo, Mads Barnkob