Secondary former material

[55#sofcopper]

I found a piece of clear pvc. It's 6in diameter and 36in long. It has a wall thickness of 2mm. I think I should make a good secondary former. Is there any reason I shouldn't use it ? And are there any steps I should take before winding. I have a 6 in secondary wound on schedule 80 white PVC and I can't get rid of racing arcs. Thought maybe this thinner walled clear PVC may help. Anyone have any thoughts. I have 5#s of 24awg magnet wire on hand so I plan on using it. Just wanted to know if anyone has any experience with clear pvc ?Thanks in advance.

[Mads Barnkob]

If its PVC, PMMA / Acrylic, is about the same in terms of electrical properties. You can read more details I have collected on this here: https://kaizerpowerelectronics.dk/tesla-coils/drsstc-design-guide/secondary-coil/

Preparations is the same for all secondary coil forms, clean it, make sure its even, maybe even slightly sand down the area where the windings are going and apply a thin layer of varnish under the wire when winding it, to make it bind better and get some more insulation between turns.

Racing sparks are not attributable to the secondary form material in my opinion. It is only too high coupling, bad secondary coil grounding or out-of-tune primary/secondary circuit that gives racing sparks.

[55#sofcopper]

Thanks. The reason I think the former has something to do with the racing arcs is I believe it may have a strip of something embedded in the pipe to help them detect it underground. I should have mentioned that. Thanks again