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Re: Spark Gaps

In a message dated 5/20/99 5:23:03 AM Eastern Daylight Time, tesla-at-pupman-dot-com 
writes:

<< In a message dated 5/15/99 3:25:07 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com 
 writes:
 
 > 
 >  I am going to have some extra time in the summer which means that its time
 >  to increase performance of my existing coil powered off of a 15kv 30ma
 >  NST. Currently the spark gap is a cheap 2 series gap built quickly just to
 >  see if the rest of it works. Now, I wan't to improve the coil and that's
 >  where most of the work will go. I have looked at the different versions of
 >  spark gaps and I would like some advice...
 >  
 >  Multiple Series Gap:
 >  For one of these, I would probably need around 8 gaps spaced around .01"
 >  The hard part building these would be that the space between is very
 >  small. For this gap I am thinking of using bolts. What other materials can
 >  I use and where can I find them (for a low price)? 
 
 snip
 
 Marius, >>

I put togeather a multiple spark gap based on Terry Fritz's design. It's 
basically two parallel rows of short lenghts of 1/2" copper pipe, spacing set 
to your favorite flavor. (I used 0.005" ) I used 10 pieces per row, each 
piece cut  1.5". Spacing between the two rows is about 2". Use a 5" piece of 
pipe to bridge the two rows to set your total number of gaps. A second 5" 
pipe tied to ground and placed a few gaps behind the first bridge will act as 
a safety gap. I used super glue to glue down the copper pipes onto a 12" 
length of 1 by 6 wood. 

Notes: I had to tear down version 1.0 because i couldn't clean between the 
small gaps,and oxide/carbon build up caused it to short out. Version 1.1 will 
have 0.010" gaps (The thickness of very fine carbide sand paper) . I also 
mounted a small muffin fan at the tail end of the assembly to increase 
quenching and reduce ozone buildup.

I do have a picture of terry's design, which has descriptions.

              | | | | | | | | | | (+) connection
                   |       |
  (ground) --|       |  <-(selector bar)
      bar        |       |
              | | | | | | | | | |  (-) connection

Rich Sebzda
Your friendly neighborhood catscan repairman.