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Re: Where do I get Titanium electrodes??
Most dealers in aircraft surplus sell titanium bolts in a variety of
configurations for relatively low cost.
For new hardware, a company called "Aircraft Spruce and Specialty" in
Southern California does a huge mail order business for home builders of
aircraft, and sells titanium hardware, although it isn't cheap ($8/bolt
wouldn't surprise me for a 6" long 1/2" bolt).
If what you are looking for is titanium rod stock or other forms, look in
the phone book under "metal dealers". The same guys who deal in brass,
copper, and aluminum also usually stock (or can order), titanium.
Now the question in the back of everyone's mind: Why titanium for a tesla
coil? It doesn't have any particularly good electrical properties, and
nothing in a typical TC needs the high strength/weight ratio or
anticorrosion properties of Ti.
At work, a few months ago we had a real problem with the Mars Microprobes
(to be carried on the Deep Space 2 mission) which had a short "spike"
shaped antenna sticking out of the top. These probes are designed to be
dropped from martian orbit (without parachute) and to embed in the ground,
then transmit information back up to the orbiter (Think of a cell phone in
a brick). The antennas were made of titanium because they needed the
strength to resist the 80,000+ g deceleration on impact. Oddly, though,
titanium forms an oxide layer (just like aluminum). However, unlike
aluminum, Ti oxide is a semiconductor, and incredibly lossy, and the oxide
layer is quite thick. The moral of the story is, I wouldn't use Titanium
in any RF circuitry.
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> From: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject: Where do I get Titanium electrodes??
> Date: Thursday, December 17, 1998 9:38 PM
>
> Original Poster: Nteslamoot-at-aol-dot-com
>
> If anyone knows where you can get titanium electrodes at a good price
please
> let me know. Thanks Patrick
>
>