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Re: an interesting mechanical engineering problem



Original poster: Jim Lux <jimlux@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

At 08:44 PM 1/7/2007, Tesla list wrote:
Original poster: "D.C. Cox" <resonance@xxxxxxxxxxxx>


Use thin wall tubing for the quadrants, and some sort of pin/socket joint at the joins. I would look at using something like a lever band clamp that clamps a split copper tube around the pin. The pin doesn't have to be solid copper. It could be copper pipe over a delrin core, for instance. You could even gang all the lever clamps on a joint (3 of them) with a single actuating rod, so it's a slide together, flip the lever, and you're done.


If you want to use flexible cables, you can get a custom wire made pretty inexpensively that is copper braid/foil over a synthetic rope core. 10-15 years ago, the mfr cost was about $.50/ft plus material cost. Skin effect and all that means you don't really need the inside of the wire, right?

Another possible source for large diameter flex cable would be coaxial cable. It's available in sizes well up into the several inches in diameter. There's even connectors available, but they aren't cheap. Check out www.timesmicrowave.com (LMR-1700, for instance is a bit over 1.5" in diameter (1.7" as it happens) and is copper braid over foil)

1) Use 1/4 turn sections of the copper tubing and link each 1/4 turn section together with massive copper blocks, 5 x 5 inches square x 6 inches long. Butt the primary 1/4 turn sections together and use a lot of brass setscrews to firmly capture the 1/4 turn sections in the brass blocks. I'm worried the resistance might become an issue with nearly 12 "copper connectors" joining the pieces together. I would like to use he large 4 inch copper tubing but it seems joining them together might be a problem, and trying to haul it assembled just will not work as the height would be too much for interstate bridges and city streets with cross-wires, etc.

2) It's not possible to use 2-3 inch dia. copper cable as the weight would be too high for assembly handling.

3) Perhaps use 1 inch dia copper cable and then wind 4 of these 1 inch dia. lengths in parallel to form the 3.5 turn primary. Handling 1 inch dia. copper cable should not be too much of a problem for a crew working with a small crane (which we will have onsite to erect the sec coil and attach the large toroids). With this idea, I probably would join the 4 cables together every 1/4 turn with some solid machined copper clamps to insure even current distribution in the primary.

I know there are some great thinkers on this list and a few good machinists, so ideas please!! We are open to consider every idea and try to adopt the one we think will work best.

Best regards,

Dr. Resonance
Resonance Research Corp.