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Spinning pipes
Hi All,
Just finished a new RSG. I switched from an 1800 rpm
sync (120 breaks) to a direct drive variable DC. I was
thinking about trying something different than the basic
singular disk with electrode points. I designed and
built a squirl-cage RSG using ~6" x 1/2" copper pipe.
There are two disks with 8 pipes. Since the rotational
force would be great at high rpm, I built this with as
tight a tolerance as possible. The fixed electrodes are
5/8" spheres connected to a 5" x 1/2" bolt. Needless to
say, I've built the RSG within a 1.5" thick wooden case
just in case. It spins nice without vibration, so far.
I tried it out tonight. As I was building it, I kept
thinking this thing is never going to quench like I need
it to. But to my surprise, it did quite well. The arcs
were white hot and right into the ceiling of my garage
at ~2kva. I tried getting the coil as low as possible
from the top of the garage ceiling which is 4 feet, but
the arcs just went right up as white and hot as ever
into the ceiling. Unlike my old RSG, this one is
producing 1 to 2 arcs per burst where the old one was
producing many streamers.
Unfortunately, my garage is too small to run it at full
power to see what effects the variable drive and RSG is
capable of. It hasn't snowed yet in my area of
Minnesota, so maybe I'll get a chance this week to run
it outside. I did note that this particular RSG produces
a lot of moving air. The fixed electrodes were still
cold after a few short runs.
I'm sure I'm not the first to build such a gap. Probably
the old timers have either built this type at some point
in the past or know of others who have. I wonder how
some of those performed?
Bart