Of Resistors, First Light, and SparkGaps

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Simon Yorkston by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <quantumx-at-ozemail-dot-com.au>


Hi all.

Well, the days has finally arrived, I'm ready for first light.
Before I do, I have just a few questions.

1] The 100W Resistors in the NST Protection unit. For RE. to the question,
you might want to look at:

http://au.rs-c.dk/servlet/dk.stibo.module.ShowModuleServlet?moduleId=5124333

Although they are heatsinked, they get pretty darn hot quite quickly [~1
min] to the point where they are almost too hot to touch.. Is this ok? If
you look at the picture, you can see that there is not much space between
the connecter and the heatsink. This is causing some problems; if I tap my
sparkgap at too many gaps, it just arcs from connector to heatsink on the
resistor. [This is despite insulating taps [which I didn't expect to do
much] and HDPE [which I though would] Any Ideas? I have got some silicon,
do you think that would do the trick?

2] I have seen a list of things to do when preparing / running first light.
I was wondering if someone could foward me a copy or something similar?

Thanks a lot
Simon

PS> I'd like to take the time now to thank everyone on the list for all of
their help. It has been really appriciated during the contruction process!