Re: Spark gap construction

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Chip Atkinson" <chip@xxxxxxxxxx>

I've used wood to hold the copper pipe.  As long as you have some cooling
such as a fan, you could probably get away with plastic.  If you are going
to run them until they get hot, you'll end up melting it.

If you use a tubing cutter, then ends will be crimped by the cutting
process, and your worries are over. :-)  As long as your pipes are
relatively parallel, the sparks occur all along the gap.

I don't know for sure about your safety gap question, but here are my
thoughts.  The pipe gap is designed to quench quickly, acting as a fast
snappy switch.  I believe a safety gap should probably quench slowly and
remain conductive for a longer period of time to "drain down" the over
voltages.  Like I said, "my thoughts".  Not backed up by research or
measurements.

Chip

On Sun, 28 Nov 2004, Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Black Moon" <black_moons@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Iv seen alot of spark gaps using common copper pipe, and was wondering if
> PVC pipe would be a suitable support for them, also, do they tend to arc
> near the edge of the pipe? I was wondering if it might be benifical to
> crimp the ends slightly. As for the safty gap, Should i try and find some
> balls? or will 3 pipes do just as well? I assume I set the safty gap by
> running the NST alone with no tesla coil and opening the gap till it just
> barly arcs over the gap?
>
>
>
>