oneTesla

Completed the kit.
Some pads were difficult to solder. They seemed to be covered with something that keeps the solder from flowing freely. I gave them a good clean and then it worked.
Coil started up at once. Nice sparks, music also worked at first start. I guess during shipping the secondary must have rubbed on something as I get secondary arcs.
Is there anything I can use to re-seal the srcondary? On my old SGTC a thin layer of transparent spray paint did the job. I will have to take it apart once more anyway as the hot glue here in Germany does not seem to be as reliable as on your side of the big waters. It holds the stuff in place but comes off quite easily.

it is recommended to put several coats of polyurethane on the secondary. You really cant have too much as far as i know. Im almost positive it says that in the manual somewhere

yeah, just use more polyurethane. the secondaries come with pretty much none on it. I usually keep adding layers of polyurethane until it feels smooth when I run my nail down it.

Don't use clear nail polish. ;(

I put clear nail polish on one of my coils years ago and it caused a chemical reaction of sorts.
Destroyed all the poly around the nail polish.

I heard about some folks putting transparent heat-shrink tube over the secondary. Has anyone of you ever done so?

Also thought about using a much longer plexy tube for the primary. One that runs about halfway up the secondary. Before I do, I would like your thoughts on that idea.

clear heat shrink would be interesting, i have never seen it that big, but then again there is lots i haven't seen.

As far as extending the primary up the secondary. That would dramatically alter the tuning of the coil and will almost certainly lead to destruction, leave the primary where it is

Ooops! I guess I was not precise enough. I plan to leave the primary exactly where it is and just extend the plexy tube it is wound around. So instead of heat-shrink tube I would have the plexy tube extend almost all the way to the top. This should provide more protection against arcs from the primary to the secondary.