Re: Tungsten Carbide Spark Gap Tips

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

Original poster: "Malcolm Watts by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <m.j.watts-at-massey.ac.nz>

Hi Terry, all,
               One of the less obvious problems sulphuric acid 
presents is its effect on organic materials. It literally sucks the 
"water" out of anything it comes into contact with. That means it 
will destroy the structure of fabrics by removing H and O from them.
     I once had a job of monitoring cycling of large open lead-acid 
cells in a telephone exchange. After a day of intermittent exposure 
to the mist in the room, a pair of jeans would mysteriously develop 
holes in the wash a few days later.

Regards,
malcolm

>>> Sulfuric Acid is no toy!  Only people that feel they can handle it
safely should be trying this... - Terry <<<<



On 16 Aug 2001, at 17:03, Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> Check out the cool tungsten carbide disks and bullets Marc found for me.
> 
> http://hot-streamer-dot-com/temp/CarbidTips.jpg
> 
> Perfect for making spark gaps :-))  These large and very nice shapes could
> make a substantial spark gap.  Along with being soldered to copper pipe
> with water in it, they should stay very cool and hopefully last a very long
> time in triggered gap use.  
> 
> "I" am going to try the copper plating and then soft silver soldering to
> copper pipe fittings approach first.  Silver brazing is certainly another
> option for those that have that figured out.
> 
> For copper plating:
> I did finally find the concentrated sulfuric acid (drain cleaner) and the
> copper sulfate (sewer root remover).  The big chain store hardware place
> here (Home Depot) does not carry super nasty chemicals.  They didn't even
> have solder that contained lead...  So I went to the independent place that
> does not worry as much about dangerous stuff and they had about 50 gallons
> of concentrated sulfuric acid drain cleaner and copper sulfate root remover
> by the pallet along with plenty of lead solder :-))  You just have to shop
> around...  The auto parts stores here did not have battery acid in less
> than 5 gallon quantities.  I have fancy splash approved chemical safety
> goggles and rubber gloves for the acid and such.  I looks pretty nasty, but
> not nearly as bad as some of the acids we have at work.  for plating these
> small parts, not much is needed at all...
> 
> I also have a 1000 ohm resistor and variable power supply and milliamp
> meter for current adjustment of the plating thing.
> 
> Brazing might be the best approach by far, but I have gotten into the
> plating thing...  We'll see what happens...
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> 	Terry 
> 
> 
>