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Re: Rubber toroids
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 07 Oct 1997 19:35:58 -0700
From: Jim Lux <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>
To: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Subject: Re: Rubber toroids
>
> I was thinking about this earlier today.....if they can "bronze" baby
> shoes (copper- plate is my guess)...could you fiberglass an inner tube
> and coat with conductive paint, and copper/chrome plate that? You could
> cut the glass open like a giant bagel, remover the tube, and reinforce
> as desired, then glass it back together, and treat as above...would
> this work?
> Randy
You could do that. I have fiberglassed over one of those large rubber
bouncy toys somewhat overinflated to about a meter in diam. The real
problem is getting a very smooth finish on the outside. As for plating,
it depends on the size of the plating tank (or the vacuum metalizer,
etc.)
If you are going to the trouble of using fiberglass, you would probably
be better off building a hemispherical negative mold with a very smooth
finish on the inside. You can use wood framing and chickenwire and
burlap as a base for plaster of paris which you smooth out with an
appropriate template. Then you could lay up your fiberglass inside the
mold and the outside surface would be quite smooth. There are a number
of places that will shoot a mold with a chopper gun.
The real problem is that a fiberglass sphere or toroid is going to be
quite heavy unless you are very careful with construction.