Re: AMRAD Spark Gaps

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "bob golding by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <yubba-at-clara-dot-net>

> Hi All,

>    I have been putting some thought into how to make an accurate amrad
type gap and have come to the
> conclusion that the best way would be to stamp out the pieces on a fly
press. This would involve
> making a die. I have been talking to a friend with a lathe milling
machine and a fly press. He looked
> at my drawings and said if I go round and instruct him on what we want
,and provide the materials he
> is quite happy to turn up a die for us. The materials are no problem, the
time is my own and I can
> always get copper from the scrap yard. So if we are going to do this I
need to know what dimensions
> we should go for. I thought 2" copper pipe spit down one side would be a
good start. There is always
> lots of this ,and it is new so no cleaning to worry about. It is also
easy to cut into short lengths
> with a pipe cutter. This will give us a 5" x 5" square and  about 1 mm
thick. Of course I will grab
> any sheet I find. as my friend has a small guillotine.  What diameter
indent should we go for?. If
> anyone has any ideas let me know. Still have to work out the gaskets but
if we start with something
> pretty flat is should help. I like terry's design, as this makes it
simple  to make the blanks, and
> if it is enclosed in a sealed box one could put a fan on the end for
cooling. If anyone else wants to
> experiment let me know and I will send  them some blanks at copper scrap
prices plus postage.
> (Currently around £1.25 (about one dollar) a kilo) to experiment with. If
it all ends in tears you
> could always use them for coasters.

cheers
bob golding

>

>
> > > So they did.  And so did I when I built mine.  A real pain.
> > > A right royal major pain.  Mine started out as two inch
> > > diameter disks 1/16 inch thick.  With an 80 tooth-per-inch
> > > piercing saw I converted them to washers.  With a sheet of
> > > sandpaper stapled to a piece of wood I sanded them down to
> > > around 1 - 1,1mm thin.  Lost some fingerprints and blood in
> > > the process.  With my Unimat 3 and a grindstone I got them
> > > very nearly flat and parallel.  I started with 40 disks.  I
> > > got 15 or so washers.  I smeared silicone high vacuum grease
> > > (stable to over 200C) on them to seal them against the gaps.
> > >
> > > They *still* leak ;-)
> > >
> > > Webpage coming "real soon now" but probably not this year
> > > :-)
> > >
> > > Dunckx
> >
> >
> >
> >