Latest WCSTSG

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Original poster: "Terrell W. Fritz by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <terrellf-at-qwest-dot-net>

Hi Marc, Ted and the List,

	Even though the list is down (not sure why but i have a note into Chip
about it), I have been working on the Water Cooled Sync Triggered Spark Gap
(WCSTSG).

I simplified things now that I know what works and added some nice wood,
easy adjustment, and even a nice viewing window ;-)  I went with pure
tungsten electrodes since the tungsten carbide was giving me problems.
There are a bunch or different alloys and I guess you have to have the
right ones.  The 1/8 inch pure tungsten welding rods seem to do great
without wear.  I cut them to about 3/4 inch and pressed them into MIG
electrodes that were drilled to 1/8 inch.  If the hole is loose, a few very
light taps with a hammer will tighten them right up for pressing. I
sharpened the tungsten to give a slight nail tip so it would not gall while
being pressed in.  The MIG tips are some type of alloy that drills very
nicely.  The gap is 6.5 wide, 5.0 deep, and 8.25 tall.  The front window is
a 4.5 x 5.25 inch welders glass for helmets that is a shade value of 9.  It
allows you to see what the gap is doing safely.

I figured that the water filled tubes would run 2 hours without a refill
but that is assuming the air does not help cool them.  Of course, the water
volume can be increased if needed.  I drilled the mounting hole to 3/4 inch
and I have flat washers so they can be positioned as needed.  I just used a
ring of 1 inch copper pipe for the field distorting trigger ring.

I snapped a bunch of pictures below which are pretty self explanatory.  I
need to check to see if 250pF isolation caps, in-line 5 ohm resistors to
the coil, and resistor type ignition wire reduce the noise back to the
dimmer control, reducing the need for the big load resistors.  Other have
mentioned that this works well...

http://hot-streamer-dot-com/temp/TerrysWCSTSG/

This gap could be enclosed too.  I tried covering to top but it seemed just
as loud, but I was running without a secondary so the gap was dissipating
the full cap energy.  I also noticed that the ozone an NOx build up in the
box if it is closed.  After running it, I pulled the top off and the fumes
almost knocked me over :<O

Cheers,

	Terry