Russ and others, keep in mind the Stan Meyer VIC is accomplishing two tasks in one device. You need to keep things straight in your head which task you are hoping to adjust/optimize and do it in a way that least impacts the task you already have working (hopefully).
Task 1. You must create enough amp leakage to start basic electrolysis.
Task 2. You must create a condition on the plates where there is a two to one charge ratio.
Because you are building one device that accomplishes two tasks, things become a minefield if you don't understand the relationships. One component can contribute to both tasks, so if you adjust it and you already had one task working, you probably just screwed it up.
So there is some complexity here and to overcome it, you must do things in the correct sequence which Ronnie has been walking us through. Once you get your hands dirty, it will become apparent this is an iterative process--a little adjustment here; a little adjustment there, then on to the next step.
I posted earlier the PDF about electrostatic measuring techniques. What I want you all to glean from this is in the first page or two. You will notice there is no mention of amperage, unlike what you will find elsewhere on the Internet when you search the word charge or Coulomb. It says quite plainly:
"When we move one coulomb of charge from one point to another in an electric field, we are doing work on that charge. The term we use for this is electric potential or voltage."
"Again, a volt is the amount of work it takes to move one coulomb of charge a certain distance through an electrical field E."
Voltage does do work, just like Stan said and the people that know how to measure electrostatics know this. Now you do too.
You must think about charge and the VIC as a creator and distributor of charge, charge which you will separate in the proper proportions and put it where it needs to go.
What I found very confusing to me until it finally clicked is this unbalanced (two to one) charge ratio. The reason for it being so confusing is because you have no reference point. I think you actually could though by center tapping the secondary, but suppose you don't. So what do I mean...
If you measure voltage across the two plates, you get a voltage differential. Let's say for example the value is 200 volts. Now look at this algebraically:
200 = A - B
A and B have limitless possibilities to satisfy that equation. If we add another equation:
A = 2 * B
Only then can we find values for both A and B that actually work--that actually "switch-off the covalent bonds".
We can do this because we can adjust the gap between the two cores and more fundamentally, we have complete control over what charges the VIC produces and where they go. Let's look at this closer by referring back to the image Ronnie posted.
As you can see, the primary and L2 (negative choke) are fixed on the same core. So we know immediately the negative plate will collect the maximum negative charge possible coming from the input signal. It has to because it is directly coupled. Now let's look at the positive plate...
As we can see here, the only way to get positive charge to the positive plate is to get the secondary to produce more voltage. So let's place the two C-cores tightly together so that maximum coupling is achieved. What do we get charge-wise?
Well, with 100% flux flowing through both C-cores, we can see the charge ratio between the two plates is pretty nearly one to one. You'll get a voltage differential, but the ratio is no good. This won't help us with water. We need two to one charge ratio.
Okay, I glossed over this pretty quick didn't I? I said one to one with the cores tightly pressed together. Let's look closer...
L2 is outputting full negative charge; L1 is outputting full positive charge and the secondary is outputting half-and-half, equal positive and negative going each direction. Let's forget about the diode for a moment and just think of it as a valve making sure charge is only moving in one direction on the rising impulse of magnetic flux. On the decaying side of the magnetic flux, everything just sits still because the valve opens and stops any charge movement. Hopefully now you can see one to one charge distribution when the cores are together.
When the cores are apart, again only negative charge is pushed out of the L2 choke; the L1 and secondary are no longer participating in the conversion of magnetic flux to electrical charge.
So we want a two to one charge ratio. I'm hoping you guys are already ahead of me now that I have set the two possible limits, cores far apart and cores tightly together. Now let's look at when the cores are separated apart by just the right distance...
As stated above, the L2 choke will always produce the maximum negative charge since it is stuck on the same core with the primary where the input signal is coming from. Now go slow here, another minefield awaits. What is it?
You're thinking turns ratio right? Yes, you should because the turns ratio between the primary and L2 is slightly different than the turns ratio between the primary and the secondary. Or I should say, it could be. But don't get too tripped up here and fall off the wagon. Here's another reason why Ronnie mentioned the secondary coils should all be similar turns count of similar wire. If you took heed of this, you're still okay.
Now when you bring the cores together with a small gap, the L1 and Secondary begin to kick-in their contribution to the positive charge on the positive plate. As stated above, there must be a spot where the negative charge produced at the negative plate is exactly twice in absolute value or strength as the positive charge produced at the positive plate. This is your goal--task number two. What's going on here with the gap is the manipulation of the coupling factor to achieve the desired charge ratio. I can't tell you how touchy this adjustment might be, because I haven't done it yet, but I'm sure you will want to fill the gap with some kind of a sturdy material that will not compress, so once you have things dialed-in, they will stay that way.