my 4" coil turned to a 6" at 68"+ arcs

[Bradselph]

6.6" OD PVC form Winding 28" of #24AWG Magnet Wire Primary is 0.25 Copper tubing 11 turns
3 Microwave transformers to 68nf bottle caps 7" x 24" topload overall height 60"  targets on the side are about 65" away from center of topload

have 3 12kv 60ma franceformer transformers for this coil but performance was disappointing compared to the brute power of the microwaves

not much changed from the 4" coil besides the increase in bottle caps and how i setup the coil on top of the bottles 70 total in a 7x10 layout.

anything i didn't mention just ask

[Mads Barnkob]

Good results from a coil running on bottle capacitors.

Your NST will for sure out perform that MOTs, if you upgrade your resonant capacitors to MKP film type. I think the lossy bottle capacitors simply works better at high current/low voltage, compared to what you have with the higher voltage/lower current of the NST.

Try to use some kind of direct light on the coil itself when recording sparks at night, as long as the background remains dark you will get much better video of both coil and sparks.

[Bradselph]

Good results from a coil running on bottle capacitors.

Your NST will for sure out perform that MOTs, if you upgrade your resonant capacitors to MKP film type. I think the lossy bottle capacitors simply works better at high current/low voltage, compared to what you have with the higher voltage/lower current of the NST.

Try to use some kind of direct light on the coil itself when recording sparks at night, as long as the background remains dark you will get much better video of both coil and sparks.

Thanks for the lighting tip, I usually leave 1 light on but that night it wasn't agreeing with staying on either feedback in the line or justthe coil all I have is florescent lights unless I setup a light just for the coil I'll probably use a 8 foot tube near the coil like I did with my 4" coil. I also got a better camera now and have yet to setup for another run.

The capacitors are definitely a big loss with the neon transformers mostly because the higher initial voltage causing alot more corona I see maybe half glow from the bottles when using my microwave setup

Which brings me to a question regarding paralleling the neon transformers while scratching my head wondering why the output was so disappointing besides the obvious thoughts I decided to use a cheap clamp meter over the secondary output a tested the short circuit current of each transformer separately and the together
All are franceformer 12kv 60ma marked units so I should have 180ma once parrelled I'm assuming
So here's the measurments

NST#1 output to output measures 58ma output to core both measure 57-58
NST#2 output to output measures 38ma output to core measures 40ma and about 37ma
NST#3 output to output measures 60ma output to core both measure 60ma

Putting NST#1&2 together wired parrelled gives me both output legs 58-60ma even to ground measures the same for each output shouldn't it at least be -+100ma?
I didn't even add the 3rd one because it got late and I was stumped on this

#1&2 are a both the same age and come from the same source serial numbers are within a couple units of each other now #3 s alot newer looking and still doesn't have any gfi but newer came from a different source

NST#1 the tag is riveted still but #2 is screws obviously not factory is it possible I have a 12kv 30ma unit? and somone placed another tag on it? Or is the output just suffering from a coil going bad?