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RE: Ball bearings

Hi All,

	I ended up grinding a flat in 1/4 inch ball bearings (electric hand
grinder) and soldering them to 1/8 inch brass rod.  The torch made the
bearings turn brown but I don't care at this point :-)  Pictures of the gap
on the new filter board are at:

www.peakpeak-dot-com/~terryf/tesla/misc/sg001.jpg
www.peakpeak-dot-com/~terryf/tesla/misc/sg002.jpg

	The bearings have zero pre-arc problems and totally solved the problem I
was having with sporadic firing!!!  I don't think the solder will melt
since the safety gaps don't run long before I hit the off switch.  I have
MOVs in this design too which would eat the high voltage if a ball did fall
off.  However, the balls do seem solid as rocks on the rod.  I positioned
them in a vice and heated them with a torch to solder them with high temp
solder.

	Pre threaded balls, as many have suggested, would have been better but
this is how I ended up...

	The ball bearing material is far harder than any cobalt drill bit and I
smashed a nice punch trying to make a dent in them for a drill bit.
Apparently, heating the bearings to red hot will de-temper them to where
they can be drilled.  Any drilling or filing was useless against this very
hard material.  However, a hand grinder ground flats in them like butter...

	For my 15kV neon, I set the gap at 0.188 inches but I live at 5300 feet so
that won't apply to most who live near sea level...

	I got the bearings from cheap "Lazy Susan" turn table bearing from the
hardware store.  A little prying with a screw driver allows all the ball
bearings to fall out.

This was obviously more complicated than had I originally intentioned.  But
I think I "won" in the end :-)

Many many thanks for all the suggestions that help me through this ordeal!

Cheers,

	Terry